Skandapurana 2.8.5
English (machine translation) 2.8.5
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Vyāsa said:
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O venerable one, tell [me] in truth: why did the sage Viśvāmitra
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angrily, out of persistence, toward his disciple Kautsa,
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then earnestly demand such a great, difficult-to-obtain sum of wealth?
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Tell all of this, if you have compassion for me.
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Agastya said:
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Listen to this story yourself, O brahmin, with your senses attentive.
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Viśvāmitra, the best of sages, whose eye was divine knowledge,
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performed arduous austerity in his hermitage, self-controlled and keeping his vows.
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Once, the sage Durvāsas arrived there to see him.
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Having arrived and being overcome with hunger, that brahmin loudly said:
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"Give food to me, whose mind is distressed by hunger;
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pure and hot rice pudding, quickly, for one afflicted by hunger, O brahmin!"
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Hearing these words, Viśvāmitra promptly, with great effort,
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took the rice pudding in a pot and offered it to him in person.
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Seeing him standing ready with it in hand, Durvāsas, looking at him,
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spoke sweet words to the sage, intent on testing him:
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"Endure for a moment, O best of brahmins, while I go to bathe.
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Wait, wait! Wait for a moment; I am coming right away."
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Having said this, Durvāsas went to his own hermitage at that time.
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Viśvāmitra, intent on his austerity, then [stood] like a mountain peak, unmoving;
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he stood then for a thousand divine years with a steady mind.
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The sage Kautsa, dedicated to serving him, firm in his vows,
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was exceedingly noble in mind and free from envy.
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That sage Durvāsas, free from fault, returned once again,
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and having immediately consumed the rice pudding, he departed for his own hermitage.
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When that best of sages had gone, Viśvāmitra, a treasury of austerities,
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dismissed Kautsa, the best of the learned, to return home.
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He, having been dismissed, said to the guru: "Please ask for a fee (dakṣiṇā)."
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Viśvāmitra said to him: "What dakṣiṇā will you give?
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Your service was the dakṣiṇā. Go home, O you of restrained vows!"
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When the disciple persisted, addressing his guru again and again,
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then the guru, exceedingly angry, spoke harshly to his disciple:
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"Bring fourteen—bring fourteen
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crores of gold as my dakṣiṇā, O brahmin; then go home!"
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Having been spoken to thus by the guru, Kautsa reflected and approached
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the descendant of Kakutstha, the conqueror of the directions, and begged for the guru's fee.
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This has been told to you, O best of sages, since it was indeed asked by you.
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Hear another from me; I shall tell you the excellent origin of the sacred ford.
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To the southern quarter from there lies the confluence frequented by the perfected,
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renowned on earth from the joining of the Tilodakī and the Sarayū.
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Having bathed there, O fortunate one, men become free from passion.
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Whatever fruit there may be from the performance of ten horse-sacrifices,
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that the righteous person obtains who bathes there, firm in vows.
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And whoever gives gold and other gifts to a brahmin who has mastered the Vedas,
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attains an auspicious state and shines like fire.
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At the confluence of the Tilodakī and Sarayū, famed in the world,
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having given food according to rule, he is not born again.
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And the man who, having fasted, satisfies the brahmins,
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that mortal obtains the fruit of the Sautrāmaṇī sacrifice.
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Moreover, he who remains there taking one meal a day for a month, restrained in vows,
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his sin committed throughout life is destroyed at once.
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On the new-moon day of the dark fortnight of Bhādrapada, there is the annual pilgrimage.
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In ancient times, a river like a second ocean was created by Rāma
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for the horses born in the Sindh region to drink water, O one of good vows.
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Because its water always shone dark like sesame seeds,
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the river of sacred water is always renowned as the Tilodakī.
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Even apart from the confluence, in whichever Tilodakī one of pure vows
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has bathed, he is released even from sins accumulated across seven births.
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Therefore, O sage, bathing in the Tilodakī takes away all sin,
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and must be performed with great exertion by living beings desiring righteousness.
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Bathing, giving, vows, offering into fire—all attain imperishability.
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Thus, having duly undertaken the pilgrimage to sacred fords by various rules in proper order, his manifest virtues blossoming, having acquired merit,
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with his devotion offered up to Hari, worshipping every sacred ford, having cast off sin, he somehow reaches the supreme abode.
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Thus in the Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, in the collection of eighty-one thousand verses, in the second Vaiṣṇava section, in the Ayodhyāmāhātmya, the fifth chapter, titled "Description of the Power of the Tilodakī".
Linked texts (1)
- Skandapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit