Skandapurana 2.1.12
English (machine translation) 2.1.12
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2.1.12.1
Now, deliverance from hells such as Tāmisra through ritual ablution in Svāmipuṣkariṇī.
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The seers said:
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O Sūta, knower of the truth of all matters, who have reached the far shore of the Vedas and Vedāṅgas,
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tell us, O lord, the glory of the glorious Svāmipuṣkariṇī,
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by merely remembering which a man on earth may become liberated.
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The glorious Sūta said:
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Those who praise the Svāmitīrtha, bathe in it, or narrate [its glory],
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do not experience the hells in their twenty-eight varieties:
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Tāmisra, Andhatāmisra, Mahāraurava, Raurava,
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Kumbhīpāka, Kālasūtra, and Asipatravana;
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Kṛmibhakṣa, Andhakūpa, Saṃdaṃśa, and Śālmalī;
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Lālābhakṣa, Avīci, and Sārameyādana;
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likewise Vajrakaṇṭaka, falling into Kṣārakardama,
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devouring by hordes of Rakṣases, being impaled on a pike;
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that named Tirodhāna, O brahmins, and the one named Sūcīmukha;
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the consumption of pus and blood, and torment by poison and fire.
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This collection of hells, twenty-eight in number,
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a man does not go to, O brahmins, on account of immersing himself in the Svāmitīrtha.
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A man who plunders the wealth, children, or wives of others,
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bound by the noose of Time by the terrifying messengers of Yama,
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is cast down into the dreadful hell Tāmisra for many years.
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If he bathes in the Svāmitīrtha, he is not cast into that [hell].
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The lowest of men who hates mother, father, or brahmins,
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in the Kālasūtra hell, ten thousand yojanas wide,
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scorched by fire below, and by the sun's rays above,
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upon a copper floor, O brahmins, is cast down, afflicted with hunger.
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If he bathes in the puṣkariṇī, he is not cast into that [hell].
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A man who strays into a bad path, transgressing the way of the Veda,
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is cast into the dreadful Asipatravana by the servants of Yama.
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If he bathes in the Svāmitīrtha, however, he is not cast into that [hell].
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A man who eats cooked food such as soup with partiality in the row,
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or eats through delusion without performing the five sacrifices, O twice-born,
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is cast by Yama's soldiers into the hell of worm-eating;
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being eaten by hundreds of worms while eating hordes of worms,
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and becoming a worm himself, he would remain until the exhaustion of his sins.
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If he bathes in the Svāmitīrtha, he is indeed not cast into that [hell].
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He who steals the wealth of brahmins out of affection or by force,
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or the wealth of others, whether a king or his servant,
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tormented with tongs in fire-pits made of iron,
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is cast into the terrible hell Saṃdaṃśa by Yama's men.
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If he bathes in the Svāmitīrtha, however, he is not cast into that [hell].
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The lowest of men who approaches an inaccessible woman,
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or a woman who approaches an inaccessible man, O twice-born,
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both of them, [forced to] embrace a glowing woman made of iron / and a man made of iron,
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standing as long as the moon and the sun endure,
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are cast into the dreadful hell named Sūcī by the servants of Yama.
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And if he bathes in the Svāmitīrtha, he is not cast into that [hell].
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He who torments all living beings through various means and afflictions,
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is cast down into the dreadful hell Śālmalī, full of many thorns.
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If he bathes in the Svāmitīrtha, however, he is not cast into that [hell].
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A king or a king's servant who has run after heresy,
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a breaker of the barriers of dharma, is cast into Vaitaraṇī.
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If he bathes in the Svāmitīrtha, however, he is not cast into that [hell].
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Or one corrupted by association with an outcaste woman, devoid of purity and proper conduct,
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abandoning shame, abandoning the Veda, always delighting in the behavior of beasts—
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he, in [a hell] filled with pus, feces, urine, blood, phlegm, bile, and the like,
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is cast down by the servants of Yama into an exceedingly disgusting hell.
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Yet if he bathes in Svāmitīrtha, he is not cast down into it.
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A hunter who torments wild deer with dogs or with arrows,
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pierced with volleys of arrows in the other world by the servants of Yama,
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is cast down by the servants of Yama into the hell named Prāṇarodha.
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Yet if he bathes in Svāmitīrtha, he is not cast down into it.
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A hypocrite devoid of the performance of Vedic rites who slaughters animals in sacrifice,
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O twice-born, in the other worlds, into the hell Vaiśasa,
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being hacked to pieces by Yama's soldiers, is cast down by the servants of Yama.
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Yet if he bathes in the holy pool, he is not cast down into it.
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If a man makes his own wife of the same class drink semen,
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in the other world he, drinking semen, is cast down into the pit of semen (Retaḥkuṇḍa).
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Yet if he bathes in the holy pool, he is not cast down into it.
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A robber taking to the road, an administrator of poison, an arsonist of villages,
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and a thief of merchants' goods, O best among the twice-born, in the other world,
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is cast down for a long time into the terrible hell named Vajradaṃṣṭra.
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Yet if he bathes in Svāmitīrtha, he is not cast down into it.
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Whatever other hells indeed exist in the other world,
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a mortal does not encounter them, by virtue of immersing in Svāmitīrtha.
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From bathing once in the holy pool, one obtains the fruit of a horse sacrifice (aśvamedha);
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knowledge of the self becomes directly perceptible, as well as the fourfold liberation;
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the intellect does not delight in sin, nor does sorrow at all arise.
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Whatever fruit is obtained by men through the gift of the person weighed against gold (tulāpuruṣa),
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that fruit is attained by people through immersing in Svāmitīrtha.
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Whatever merit indeed accrues to men through the gift of a thousand cows,
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that merit a mortal gains through immersing in Svāmitīrtha.
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Whichever of duty, wealth, desire, and liberation a man desires,
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that very one he attains instantly through immersing in Svāmitīrtha.
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Whether endowed with major sins (mahāpātaka) or endowed with all manner of sins,
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he instantly becomes purified, O brahmins, through immersing in Svāmitīrtha.
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Wisdom, fortune, renown, prosperity, knowledge, righteousness, detachment,
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and purity of mind accrue to men through resorting to Svāmitīrtha.
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Even ten thousand killings of a brahmin, ten thousand drinkings of liquor,
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ten thousand violations of the teacher's wife by sinful doers,
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ten thousand thefts of gold, and crores of associations with those [sinners]—
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swiftly vanish through immersing in Svāmitīrtha.
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Those [sins] equal to killing a brahmin, those equal to drinking liquor,
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and those that are equal to violating the teacher's wife, O believers,
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those equal to the theft of gold, and those equal to associating with them—
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all of them perish through immersing in Svāmitīrtha.
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Now, the attainment of great hell by those who lack faith in the greatness of Svāmitīrtha:
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No doubt should ever be entertained concerning these things that have been spoken;
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and [if one doubts,] the servants [of Yama] thrust a heated axe onto the tip of his tongue.
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One who says, "All this is mere eulogy (arthavāda)," will surely go to hell;
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he is to be regarded as a hog, excluded from all ritual acts.
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Oh, what foolishness! Oh, what foolishness! Oh, what foolishness, O best among the twice-born!
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While the sacred ford called Svāmitīrtha, destroyer of all sins,
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bestower of non-dual knowledge upon men, granter of enjoyment and liberation,
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ever bestowing desired wishes, and likewise destroyer of ignorance,
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is present, yet people, leaving it aside, delight elsewhere!
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Ah, the magnitude of delusion! It is impossible for me to describe it.
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For one who has bathed in Svāmitīrtha, there is truly no fear of Death.
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Those men who behold Svāmitīrtha, bathe in it,
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praise it, laud it, touch it, and bow down to it,
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no longer drink mother's milk, O bulls among the twice-born.
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Thus has the glory of Svāmitīrtha been related to you, O brahmins;
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it grants enjoyment and liberation to men, and destroys all sin.
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Thus ends the twelfth chapter, named "Description of the Greatness of the Sacred Ford Śrī Svāmipuṣkariṇī," in the Glorious Veṅkaṭācala-māhātmya, in the second section, the Vaiṣṇavakhaṇḍa, of the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa in eighty-one thousand verses.
Linked texts (1)
- Skandapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit