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Skandapurana 2.7.12

English (machine translation) 2.7.12

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2.7.12.1

Yama said:

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"Hear my words, O lord, O Grandfather: I have been undone!

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I consider the demolition of my office to be worse than death.

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When an appointed servant does not carry out his duty, O Lotus-seated One,

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yet consumes his master's wealth, he will become a wood-boring insect.

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Whoever greedily consumes wealth [entrusted by] a king though endowed with discernment,

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he goes to hell and takes birth in an animal womb for three hundred kalpas.

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And he who, acting listlessly, does not execute his duty, O Lotus-born One,

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having suffered dreadful hells, that man will become a crow.

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He who, intent on his own ends, destroys the work of his master,

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that sinner will become a mouse in a house for three hundred kalpas.

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And he who, having become an official, constantly remains in his own house

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though capable of doing the work, that man is reborn as a cat.

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Such as I am, O god, by your command I have governed the people in accordance with dharma:

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the doer of merit by merit, and the sinner by his sinful deed,

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having judged thoroughly through sages versed in the treatises on dharma, O Lord,

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inflicting punishments on the one who lived at the beginning of the kalpa.

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I, your servant, am simply unable to perform your mandate in this manner;

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for your mandate has been broken on earth by King Kīrtimat.

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Out of fear of him, O Lord of the universe, protecting the earth whose garment is the ocean,

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he stays somewhere, having imbued it with the duties of Vaiśākha.

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Abandoning all dharmas, abandoning the worship of ancestors,

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abandoning worship of the fire, and pious acts such as pilgrimages to sacred fords,

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forsaking both Yoga and Sāṃkhya, forsaking the restraint of breath,

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forsaking oblation and recitation of sacred texts, though having committed sins in abundance,

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men go to the realm of Viṣṇu by performing the pious observances of Vaiśākha,

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along with their fathers, and likewise with their grandfathers!

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Their deceased fathers, and the fathers of those fathers,

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likewise maternal grandfathers and their fathers and ancestors depart;

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even their ancestors and the forebears of the mothers.

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This distress, O god, is once again splitting my head!

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The ancestors of his beloved wife depart, wiping away my writing.

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He who is born from the seed of the fathers, held in the womb by the mother, O Lord—

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the karma performed by one person is normally experienced by that one alone.

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Yet setting that all aside, if but one knowing [soul] in a family

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rescues both lineages beyond twenty-six generations, O Lord,

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and also, dear father, all those who issued from the womb of his beloved wife,

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all of them too, O Lord of the universe, attain the supreme abode of Viṣṇu!

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I have no use, O god, for such an appointment.

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Devoted to the observances of Vaiśākha, bypassing me, a person goes to Hari.

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Delivering three times seven generations, freed from sin and exceedingly splendid,

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abandoning my path, he indeed goes to the abode of Hari.

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A mortal does not attain such a destination through sacrificial rites, O god,

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nor by all the sacred fords, nor by gifts and the like, nor by austerities, nor by vows;

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even if endowed with all righteous practices, he does not attain that goal. / By leaping [into the confluence] at Prayāga, by falling in the midst of battle, by jumping from a cliff, or by death in Kāśī,

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all people do not attain that goal which is reached by one steadfast in the duties of Vaiśākha.

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Having bathed in the morning, having worshipped the gods, and having heard the sacred account known as the glory of the month,

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and having performed proper Vaiṣṇava dharmas, he indeed becomes the sole lord of Viṣṇu's realm.

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I deem boundless the realm of Viṣṇu, the Lord of the world,

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which cannot be filled, O Lotus-seated One, by floods of tens of millions from every direction.

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[…] all with the abode of Mādhava here, O Grandfather.

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Those engaged in improper acts and those abstaining from improper acts, pure and impure alike,

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having performed the rites of Vaiśākha, people go [to heaven] by that king's decree.

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He is indeed a great enemy to us, and especially to you.

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O lord of the worlds, that ruler of the earth must be restrained by you!

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For, abandoning all other religious duties, by a single ritual ablution in Vaiśākha,

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uncultured people go to Vaikuṇṭha, the abode of Hari.

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Disregarded by us, he relies entirely upon the lotus feet of Viṣṇu;

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this king will carry away the whole world—of this there is no doubt.

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Today, indeed, this register of punishment has been offered at your feet;

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unrivaled guardianship of the world has been won by that king.

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What is the use of an offspring born who causes only distress to his mother,

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who does not strike down his enemy as the sun strikes down [shadows] in the month of Jyeṣṭha?

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A young woman has given birth in vain if she becomes the mother of a bad son;

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her glory does not flash forth like lightning from a cloud.

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If a son does not rescue his father from sin by learning or by strength,

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he was born on earth merely as an illness arising in his mother's belly.

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The son who is contrary [to his father] in matters of virtue, wealth, and desire,

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that lowest of men is declared by the virtuous to be a killer of his mother.

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His mother, the king's wife, whose good deeds are celebrated throughout the world,

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is alone on earth a mother of heroes, and he is a hero—of this there is no doubt.

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Just as the renowned [son] was born to wipe away the stain,

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such an endeavor has never been undertaken by any kṣatriya, O lord!

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In the Purāṇas, O Lord of the Universe, no such wiping away of the [death-]roll has been heard.

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Therefore, O sovereign lord of the universe, I know no one besides that ruler of the earth devoted to Hari,

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who sounds the drum with a loud noise, obliterating the path to my abode.

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Thus ends the twelfth chapter, entitled 'Description of Yama's Grief' in the dialogue between Nārada and Ambarīṣa, in the glorification of the month of Vaiśākha, in the Vaiṣṇava Section of the eighty-one-thousand-verse collection of the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa.

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