Skandapurana 2.9.31

English (machine translation) 2.9.31

Language: English

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Having heard all these righteous words of the Lord as they were,

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the sage, free of doubt, bowed to him with folded hands and spoke: // 1

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All my doubts have been destroyed by your grace, O Lord.

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The māhātmya of Vāsudeva has been fully understood by me. // 2

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Performing tapas right here together with you for some time,

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and constantly listening to knowledge and the rest, I shall bring my soul to maturity. // 3

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Having spoken thus, Nārada, permitted also by him,

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dwelt there performing tapas for a thousand divine years. // 4

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And every day, at the appropriate time, he heard from Hari's mouth

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dharma, knowledge, and the rest; thus the king of yogins attained maturity there. // 5

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And he attained supreme affection for Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Soul of all;

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intent constantly on singing [his] virtues, he became foremost among devotees of the Lord. // 6

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Then, to that perfected yogin who had attained supreme steadfastness in devotion,

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the Lord, pleased, the creator of welfare for all embodied beings, spoke: // 7

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You have attained perfection today, O great seer; go, work for the benefit of the world.

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You ought to propagate the exclusive dharma everywhere. // 8

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Placing on his head that command of the teacher of the world,

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as he was departing, he then praised him, bowing down and standing with folded hands: // 9

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Salutations, salutations to you, O Lord, teacher of the world, O Nārāyaṇa, of uncreated, divine form!

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You are a mine of boundless auspicious qualities; may you ever be most pleased with me, your servant! // 10

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You are Vāsudeva, the abode of the world; you perform tapas for the welfare of the world.

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O Master of the lords of yoga, established in tranquillity, sovereign of those delighted in the Self, you are the true guru of the paramahaṃsas! // 11

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You are the all-pervading lord, the foremost of seers, the imperishable self, and the regulator of the souls and their rulers.

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The witness, the supreme Person, self-dependent, from whose knit brow great Time arose! // 12

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O Lord, through your self alone, the cosmic Puruṣa with his Māyā, you perform the play of creating and [sustaining] the worlds;

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yet indeed you are the non-agent, devoid of guṇas, the Infinite, the supreme Brahman, and higher than the highest! // 13

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True, self-luminous, of inconceivable power, your form is to be contemplated by those whose self has become Brahman,

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O teacher of the great vow [of celibacy], O sovereign among great sages, O you whose splendour strips away the pride of the god of love! // 14

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Those well-known enemies of ascetics—anger, passion, malice, and greed foremost among them—

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are not able even to encompass this hermitage at any time; such is your power! // 15

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Formed of the Vedic metres, formed of knowledge, the immortal path, the embodiment of dharma, the nourisher of the creation of dharma,

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uprooter of the creation of adharma, great-souled, you are imperishable, undecaying, the kinsman of the unmanifest! // 16

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For you whose form is faultless, all your actions are free from guṇas, for you are devoid of guṇas.

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You, the Lord and Master, are to be worshipped by those seeking dharma, wealth, and pleasure, and by those who desire liberation. // 17

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You alone are capable of protecting from great danger—from time, māyā, Yama, and the cycles of rebirth.

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Overlooking the faults of your devotees, you are greatly compassionate, truly affectionate to your devotees. // 18

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Whoever, at the time of death, remembers merely the name or the form of you who have assumed an avatar—

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even he, O Lord, freed at once from the terrifying mass of sins, goes swiftly to heaven. // 19

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Abandoning such a one as you, that man here who becomes attached to the body made of three humours and to bodily things,

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to wife, children, kin, and wealth—he is a fool, utterly deceived by māyā. // 20

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The human body alone is fit for devotion to you, which even those residing in heaven desire.

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For I consider even the happiness of heaven, devoid of devotion to you, to be equal to hell. // 21

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You perform tapas for the happiness of the three worlds; even so, your grace toward men residing in the land of Bhārata

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is far greater, since having taken an avatar here, you shine forth wandering [among them]. // 22

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Those who do not take refuge in you here are considered in the scriptures to be ungrateful indeed.

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Therefore, may you be pleased with me who constantly and firmly take refuge in you alone. // 23

Thus ends the thirty-first chapter, named “Exposition of the Praise of Śrī Nara and Nārāyaṇa,” in the Vāsudevamāhātmya of the second [part], the Vaiṣṇavakhaṇḍa, in the Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses. // 31

Linked texts (1)

Skandapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit