Skandapurana 3.2.19
English (machine translation) 3.2.19
- Language
- English
3.2.19.1
a man is freed from sin committed in seven lifetimes; there is no doubt about this. (1)
3.2.19.2
Yudhiṣṭhira said:
3.2.19.3
By whom was that sacred ford, the best of all the best, first fashioned?
3.2.19.4
Describe it to me properly, O venerable one, O best of brahmins! (2)
3.2.19.5
Vyāsa said:
3.2.19.6
Austerity very difficult to perform was performed indeed by Indra, O great king,
3.2.19.7
to the northern side of the village, for a hundred years indeed, (3)
3.2.19.8
dedicated to Śiva, exceedingly fierce, on a single toe, O descendant of Bharata.
3.2.19.9
With raised arms, of great brilliance, he faced the sun, (4)
3.2.19.10
for the removal of that sin known to have arisen from the slaying of Vṛtra.
3.2.19.11
Having become one-pointed and restrained, devoted to the adoration of Śiva, (5)
3.2.19.12
Śambhu, who has the crescent moon as his crest, was then pleased by that austerity.
3.2.19.13
He came there, matted-haired, his limbs smeared with ashes, having the bull on his banner, (6)
3.2.19.14
bearing a skull-topped staff, five-faced, ten-armed, and three-eyed,
3.2.19.15
bearing Gaṅgā, mounted on a bull, surrounded by bhūtas, pretas, and others, (7)
3.2.19.16
greatly pleased, best of the gods, compassionate, and bestowing boons.
3.2.19.17
Then, with delighted mind, the god spoke this to the lord of the gods: (8)
3.2.19.18
Hara said:
3.2.19.19
"Whatever you ask for, O god, that I give to you." (9)
3.2.19.20
Indra said:
3.2.19.21
"If you are pleased, O lord of gods, O ocean of compassion, O Maheśvara,
3.2.19.22
the murder of a brahmin indeed torments me constantly, O god! (10)"
3.2.19.23
If you are pleased, O lord of gods, O Maheśvara, ocean of compassion,
3.2.19.24
for the slaying of a brahmin agitates me constantly, O god.
3.2.19.25
the sin born from the killing of the asura Vṛtra, O best of the gods.
3.2.19.26
Destroy that sin, O omnipresent Lord, which constantly causes me suffering.”
3.2.19.27
Hara said:
3.2.19.28
“In Dharmāraṇya, O lord of the gods, the killing of a brahmin cannot torment [anyone],
3.2.19.29
nor the killing of cows, twice-born men, children, or women.
3.2.19.30
By my word, O chief of the gods, and by that of Brahmā and Keśava,
3.2.19.31
and by the word of Yama, O victorious one, [such] murder cannot remain here at all.
3.2.19.32
Having entered, O great king, perform your ritual ablution here.”
3.2.19.33
Indra said:
3.2.19.34
“If you are pleased with me, O ocean of mercy, Maheśvara,
3.2.19.35
then be established in my name, O Mahādeva, Śaṃkara!”
3.2.19.36
Having said, 'So be it,' Mahādeva, well-pleased Hara then
3.2.19.37
displayed right there a sin-destroying liṅga.
3.2.19.38
Causing it to arise from the back of the tortoise through his own yoga, Śambhu,
3.2.19.39
Śrīkaṇṭha remained right there; those who know the three divisions of time know [this].
3.2.19.40
In the presence of the king of gods, who was terrified by the slaying of Vṛtra,
3.2.19.41
Indreśvara stood then in Dharmāraṇya, O king,
3.2.19.42
for the purification from all sins and wishing for the welfare of the worlds.
3.2.19.43
If a man constantly worships Indreśvara, O best of kings, with flowers, incense, and the like
3.2.19.44
with devotion, he is liberated from all sins.
3.2.19.45
Especially on the eighth and fourteenth lunar days in the month of Māgha,
3.2.19.46
for purification from all sins, he is glorified in the world of Śiva.
3.2.19.47
The mortal who performs the release of a dark-blue bull before it
3.2.19.48
delivers seven clans and one hundred and one families.
3.2.19.49
He who performs the recitation of the Rudra hymn along with its limbs on the fourteenth lunar day,
3.2.19.50
purified of all sin, attains the supreme state.
3.2.19.51
Having fashioned a golden eye with a jewel set in its center,
3.2.19.52
he who gives it to twice-born men at that excellent Indratīrtha
3.2.19.53
does not suffer blindness for sixty lifetimes;
3.2.19.54
clarity is always produced in his eyes.
3.2.19.55
Likewise, other great diseases depart having bathed before it;
3.2.19.56
when it is worshipped with a focused mind, one is liberated from all diseases.
3.2.19.57
The man who, having bathed in the pool, propitiates the ancestors,
3.2.19.58
his fathers and grandfathers are forever satisfied, O king.
3.2.19.59
Those embodied souls who are afflicted with severe diseases such as leprosy
3.2.19.60
become completely purified and possess divine bodies merely by the ritual ablution.
3.2.19.61
Men who have fallen into the torment of fever and other ailments, for their own benefit,
3.2.19.62
become completely purified and possess divine bodies merely by the ritual ablution.
3.2.19.63
Having bathed and worshipped the god, one is freed from the bond of fever—
3.2.19.64
a quotidian, tertian, quartan, or irregular fever,
3.2.19.65
and the affliction of a chronic fever lasting for a month or a fortnight.
3.2.19.66
By the grace of Indreśvara it is destroyed, there is no doubt about this;
3.2.19.67
he indeed becomes free of fever—truly, truly, O king.
3.2.19.68
A barren woman, an unfortunate woman, one who bears only a single child, one whose children have died,
3.2.19.69
one whose offspring die in infancy, or a very wicked woman, having bathed in the pool before Śiva,
3.2.19.70
should worship with a focused mind; she is purified merely by the ritual ablution.
3.2.19.71
Having thus granted many such boons, the wielder of the Pināka bow,
3.2.19.72
served by gods and asuras, went to his own city, O Pārtha.
3.2.19.73
Then Śakra of great splendor departed to his own city.
3.2.19.74
An excellent liṅga was also installed right there by Jayanta.
3.2.19.75
Hara, pleased with Jayanta, was praised always in that liṅga.
3.2.19.76
Together with his son, the lord of the gods, for the sake of worship at the three junctures of the day,
3.2.19.77
leaves his own abode and comes [here], O mighty-armed one.
3.2.19.78
All this has been recounted, bestowing all happiness.
3.2.19.79
Whatever merit belongs to Indreśvara, from the worship of Jayanteśa
3.2.19.80
one attains that very same [merit], O best of kings; it is truly, truly so, there is no doubt.
3.2.19.81
Having bathed in the pool, O great king, and having worshipped with a focused mind,
3.2.19.82
purified of all sin, one is glorified in the world of Indra.
3.2.19.83
The man who hears this with devotion is liberated from all sins.
3.2.19.84
He attains all desires through the grace of Jayanteśa.
3.2.19.85
Thus ends the nineteenth chapter, named 'Description of the Greatness of Indreśvara and Jayanteśvara', in the Dharmāraṇyamāhātmya, in the first part of the third Brahmakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.
Linked texts (1)
- Skandapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit