Skandapurana 2.9.29

English (machine translation) 2.9.29

Language: English

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Having worshiped him mentally with diverse kinds of offerings,

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the devotee should invoke him and establish him in the image with the mudrā of establishment. // 1

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Then, having invoked the deities of his limbs severally with their respective mantras,

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or with the mantras of their names, he should firmly establish them. // 2

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He should play instruments such as the bell, or clap hands.

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Then he should have him cleanse his teeth as if he had just awakened from sleep. // 3

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With water mixed with śyāmāka grain, viṣṇukāntā flowers, dūrvā grass, and lotuses,

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he should offer this foot-water to the Lord; then [he should offer] water for the guest-offering and sipping water. // 4

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Sandalwood, unbroken rice, flowers, tips of darbha grass, sesame seeds, mustard seeds,

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barley, and dūrvā grass he should put into the arghya vessel filled with water. // 5

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Scented with nutmeg, cloves, cardamom, kaṅkola, and uśīra root,

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he should offer water for sipping; then he should bathe Hari. // 6

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First he should perform anointing with fragrant floral oil;

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then he should perform unction with a paste of aromatic substances. // 7

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With milk, curd, clarified butter, honey, and likewise sugar,

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undistracted, he should bathe Hari severally with their respective mantras. // 8

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Having caused him to bathe with fragrant, pure, and warm water,

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he should briefly worship him on the bath pedestal with scents and other offerings. // 9

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Then, having cast aside the used flowers and other offerings toward the north, the twice-born

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should perform the ceremonial bath either with the Sāman hymns beginning with Rājana, or with the lore of the Great Puruṣa,

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or with the Śrīsūkta and the Viṣṇusūkta. // 2.9.29.10

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should perform the ceremonial bath with the thousand names or with the one hundred and eight names of Hari. // 11

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Then, having wiped him with a cloth, he should dress him in priceless garments

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with great love, and also Rādhā and the others according to his capacity. // 12

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He should give a fine, white, auspicious sacred thread to the Lord,

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and put ornaments of gems, gold, and other materials on him together with his limbs. // 13

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According to the season, on the proper places, and as appropriate with sandalwood paste,

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he should make forehead marks and body anointing with saffron, camphor, and other substances. // 14

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And having adorned Rādhikā with appropriate ornaments,

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he should apply decorative leafy drawings and a tilaka mark with kumkuma and unbroken rice. // 15

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Then, having shown him a mirror, [and having adorned him] with flower garlands, crest ornaments, and the like,

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he should worship him with a thousand tulasī shoots and leaves; // 16

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or, reciting each Vaiṣṇava name ending in the dative with 'namaḥ',

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he should worship the Lord with a tulasī leaf or a flower. // 17

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Then, having offered fragrant powders of aromatic substances and auspicious articles,

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he should offer ten-ingredient incense or nectar-scented incense and the like. // 18

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He should offer a lamp made with ghee and lit with two wicks.

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He should present a great food offering, pure and prepared according to his capacity: // 19

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saṃyāva cakes, milk rice, apūpa cakes, śaṣkulī pastries, sugar candy, laddu sweets,

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crisp pūrikā cakes, polikā flatbreads, cooked rice with mung beans, and cooked vegetables,

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and curds, milk, ghee, and other items, placed upon a four-legged stand. // 2.9.29.20

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He should then feed him with love, offering drinking water midway.

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When half a muhūrta has elapsed, he should offer water for washing the hands. // 21

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Having assigned the Lord's leftover food to deities such as Viṣvaksena,

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he should set it aside elsewhere for himself and wipe that ground. // 22

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Then he should offer a mouth-perfume, a prepared betel roll

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combined with areca-nut powder, cloves, cardamom, mace, and nutmeg. // 23

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And having offered fruits such as coconuts, and a priestly fee according to his capacity,

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One should perform the great waving of lamps preceded by songs and instrumental music.

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Offering double handfuls of flowers, one should then praise Him with His own hymn;

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singing and dancing before Him, one should perform the chanting of His names.

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Having done this for a muhūrta and having circumambulated [the deity],

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one should make a prostration like a rod on the ground to His right, horizontally.

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A man should perform either an eight-limbed or a five-limbed prostration;

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a woman, however, [should perform] only a five-limbed one, never otherwise, O best of sages!

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With feet, hands, knees, chest, head, eyes,

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speech, and mind—thus the eight-limbed prostration is declared.

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With both arms, mind, head, speech, and eyes—

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this is the five-limbed prostration; these two are preeminent in rituals of worship.

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‘O Lord, protect me, frightened of worldly existence, who have taken refuge in You!’

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Having prayed thus, one should perform daily recitation of sacred texts according to one's capacity.

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Having meditated and respectfully placed upon one’s head the remnant given by Him,

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one should establish Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, invoked as previously, in the lotus of the heart,

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and dismiss the attendant deities to their respective places.

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Having laid Hari's image to rest in a basket, on a bed, or in the shrine,

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and having closed the door, one should perform the Vaiśvadeva sacrifice.

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Distributing the food offered to Hari among those dependent upon him,

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and having eaten himself, he should spend the rest of the day with discourses about Him and the like.

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Whoever worships Viṣṇu every day with devotion according to this prescribed method of great worship

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Ascending a celestial aerial chariot, radiant and desired even by the gods,

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the worshipper, having a celestial body, goes to the abode of Hari known as Goloka.

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Even he who worships Him day after day with an aim for results

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also attains righteousness, desire, wealth, and desired liberation.

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Unable to perform the rite of worship in this manner,

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one should worship Hari alone, together with Rādhā, with devotion by means of whatever articles of worship are obtained.

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A twice-born should worship Śrī Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa with the twelve-syllable mantra, another with a name-mantra;

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devotion alone grants success in this regard.

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Especially on the eleventh day of the fortnight, on the festival of Hari’s birth, and on other occasions,

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the great worship alone must be performed by all Vaiṣṇavas according to their capacity.

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Whoever performs even mere consecration in a temple built by another,

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his sins destroyed, truly attains universal sovereignty.

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And a wealthy man who has a beautiful, sturdy temple made for Hari

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attains undisputed sovereignty even over the three worlds.

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He who perpetuates the continuous flow of worship through the grant of a livelihood—

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that man certainly attains great happiness in the world of Viṣṇu.

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Whoever causes all three to be made here—consecration, a temple, and worship—

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certainly attains lordship equal to that of Vāsudeva.

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Whoever confiscates a livelihood dedicated to Hari, whether granted by himself or by another,

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truly suffers the torments of Yama in hell for an entire kalpa.

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The doer, the one who causes it to be done, the helper, and the one who approves—

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the share in the fruit of a good deed as well as of the other belongs indeed to these four.

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Thus the rule of the yoga of action has been expounded by me, O Nārada,

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by which single-minded duty may be accomplished in this world for those whose minds are intent upon it.

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Contemplating sense-objects in the mind while outwardly performing the worship of Hari,

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even with abundant provisions, one does not obtain the stated fruit.

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Restraining his own mind, which wanders here and there in vulgar pleasures, from that [distraction],

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one who desires liberation should become intent upon the worship of Viṣṇu.

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Even those of great vows, those of immense austerities, those who have thoroughly studied the Vedas, those who are intelligent,

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and those practicing Sāṃkhya and Yoga do not achieve perfection at all without the worship of Hari.

Thus ends the twenty-ninth chapter, entitled 'Determination of the Rite of Worship of Śrī Vāsudeva' in [the section on] the Yoga of Action, in the Glorious Vāsudevamāhātmya of the second [part], the Vaiṣṇavakhaṇḍa, in the Skanda Mahāpurāṇa of eighty-one thousand verses.

Linked texts (1)

Skandapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit