Skandapurana 3.3.17
English (machine translation) 3.3.17
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The seers said:
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When instruction is given to men by gurus who know the truth of the Vedas and Vedāṅgas,
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who proclaim the ultimate reality, success is indeed achieved instantly.
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Now, when instruction is given to men by gurus who are ordinary people,
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merely skilled in worldly conduct, what kind of success comes to be?
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Sūta said:
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Faith alone is exceedingly beneficial to all religious duty;
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by faith alone do men attain success in both worlds.
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To a person who worships with faith, even a stone yields fruit;
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even a fool, when venerated with devotion as a guru, becomes a granter of success.
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A mantra recited with faith, even if incorrectly composed, yields fruit;
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a deity worshiped with faith yields fruit even to a low-born man.
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Worship, gifting, sacrifice, austerity, and vow performed without faith—
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all goes to fruitlessness, like a flower on a barren tree.
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Filled with doubt on every side, devoid of faith, and excessively fickle,
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fallen away from the supreme goal, he is never freed from worldly existence.
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In a mantra, a sacred ford, a twice-born, a deity, an astrologer, medicine, and a guru,
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whatever disposition [one has] toward it, of such kind is the success that ensues.
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Therefore, the universe consists of disposition; merit and sin proceed from disposition;
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neither of those two can ever exist for one devoid of disposition.
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In this connection, a most wondrous tale is recounted,
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by which the lack of faith of all mortals is instantly dispelled.
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There was a son of the king of Pāñcāla, renowned as Siṃhaketu,
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endowed with every good quality, always devoted to the duty of the warrior class.
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Once, accompanied by a few servants, that mighty prince
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went for a hunt into a forest teeming with wild animals.
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A certain hunter, his servant, roving about in the forest on the hunt,
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saw an ancient, cracked, and ruined temple of a deity.
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There he saw, fallen upon bare ground with its pedestal broken,
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a straight, fine Śiva-liṅga, like his own good fortune personified.
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Swiftly picking it up, impelled by deeds from previous lives,
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he showed it to that wise prince:
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“See this delightful liṅga that I have found here, my lord!
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Therefore, I shall worship it respectfully according to my means.
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Tell me the procedure for its worship, so that the god Maheśvara,
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worshiped both by those ignorant of mantras and those knowing mantras, becomes pleased.”
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Thus questioned by that hunter, the prince,
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expert in mockery, laughed and answered him:
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“One should always perform the bath through mental resolve with fresh water.
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Having seated [it] upon a pure seat, with auspicious, fresh perfumes and unbroken rice grains,
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and with wild leaves, blossoms, incenses, and lamps, one should worship [it].
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And one should first arrange an offering of funeral-pyre ash;
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the wise man should provide a food offering with food that he himself eats.
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And once again one should arrange services such as incense and lamps;
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one should properly arrange dances, instrumental music, songs, and the like.
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Then, having bowed down according to the rules, the wise man should take the prasāda.
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This has been declared to you as the general rule for worshiping Śiva.
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Śaṃkara is instantly pleased by an offering of funeral-pyre ash.”
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Sūta said:
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Having been instructed in this manner in a spirit of jest by his master,
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And that Śabara named Caṇḍaka accepted his instruction upon his head.
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Then, having returned to his dwelling, he worshipped Maheśvara in the form of a liṅga,
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every day offering the ashes of funeral pyres as a present.
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And whatever thing was pleasing to himself—sandalwood paste, flowers, unhusked barley grains, and so forth—
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he daily offered to Śambhu, and only then enjoyed it himself.
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Thus, with devotion, together with his wife, he worshipped Maheśvara;
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having attained happiness, the Śabara spent several years [in this way].
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Once, when that excellent Śabara set about to perform the worship of Śiva,
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he did not see even a particle of pyre-ashes filling the vessel.
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Then, in haste, searching far away and wandering all around,
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he found no pyre-ashes; weary, he returned home once more.
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Then, having called his wife, the Śabara spoke these words:
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“I have found no pyre-ashes. Tell me, beloved, what shall I do?
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Alas, an obstacle to the worship of Śiva has arisen today for me, a sinner!
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Without that worship, I cannot bear to live even for a moment.
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I see no means here, when the implement for worship is ruined;
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nor should the command of the guru, which grants all aims, be violated.”
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Seeing her husband thus distressed, the Śabara woman
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replied: “Do not fear; I will tell you a means.
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Burning this very house, accumulated over a long time,
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I will enter the fire; from that, pyre-ashes will come to be.”
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The Śabara said:
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“The body is the supreme instrument for virtue, wealth, pleasure, and liberation.
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How can you abandon that body, possessing fresh youth, meant for happiness?
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Now you are childless, not having enjoyed the nectar of sense-objects;
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how can you desire here to burn this body, fit for enjoyment?”
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The Śabarī said:
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“Only this is the fruition of life and birth:
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that one should abandon one's life-breaths for the sake of another—how much more for the sake of Śiva himself?
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What terrible austerity did I perform, or what did I give in the past,
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or what worship of Śambhu was performed over a hundred past births,
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or what merit was my father's, and what fulfillment was my mother's,
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that for the sake of Śiva I may abandon this body in the kindled fire?”
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Seeing her mind thus resolute and her devotion to Śaṃkara,
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the Śabara, firm in resolve, honored [her proposal], saying: “So be it.”
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Having approached her husband, bathed, pure and adorned,
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having set fire to the house, she circumambulated that blaze with devotion.
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Bowing to her own guru and meditating upon Sadāśiva in her heart,
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facing to enter the fire, she sang this with folded hands:
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The Śabarī said:
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“O Lord, let my senses be your flowers, this body fragrant aloe-incense, and my heart the lamp;
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let my life-breaths be the oblations, and your organs of action the unhusked grains; let this soul now attain the fruit of worship!
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I do not desire dominion over all wealth, nor the immovable realm of heaven, nor the state of the Creator;
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if I am born again and again, birth after birth, may I be a female bee for the nectar glistening upon your lotus feet!
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Let there be more than a hundred births for me, O Lord, [so long as] delusion, the cause of ignorance, does not enter my mind;
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may my heart not depart even for half a moment from your lotus feet, O Lord! Homage, homage to you!”
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Having thus propitiated the Lord of gods, the Śabarī, firm in resolve,
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entered the blazing fire and in an instant was reduced to ashes.
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The Śabara also, having carefully taken those ashes,
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collected in mind, performed the worship of Śiva beside the burned house.
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Then, at the end of the worship, he remembered his beloved, who was accustomed to receiving the prasāda,
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who always used to come with folded hands, endowed with humility.
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As soon as she was remembered, he then saw her, arrived and standing behind him,
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with her former limbs, bowed in devotion, smiling purely.
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Beholding that wife, the Śabara saw her standing with folded hands as before,
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and the house that had been reduced to ashes standing just as before.
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“Fire burns with radiance; the sun burns with rays;
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a king burns with punishment; a brahmin may burn with the mind.
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Is this a dream, or is it an illusion of a deceptive nature?”
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Thus bewildered with astonishment, he questioned her again.
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"And how did you arrive here, having been reduced to ashes in the fire?
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And how is the house, which was burned, standing again as before?"
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The Śabarī said:
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"When, having set the house ablaze, I entered the fire,
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then I did not feel myself, nor did I see the fire.
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There was not even a speck of heat for me, as if I had entered water.
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As if asleep for half a moment, I woke up again in a moment.
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Then I saw the house standing firmly, as if unburned.
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Now I have come to receive the prasāda at the conclusion of your worship of the god."
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While the husband and wife were thus speaking to each other with love,
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a wonderful celestial vimāna appeared before them.
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On that vimāna, radiant as a hundred moons, four leaders, attendants of Īśa,
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took the Niṣāda husband and wife by the hand and placed them on board without relinquishing their bodies.
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At that very instant, the body of that Niṣāda husband and wife,
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from the touch of the Śivadūtas' hands, attained conformity of form with him.
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Therefore, faith alone should be cultivated in all meritorious deeds.
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Even a low-born Śabara attained the state of yogins through faith.
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What is the use of birth that is highest among all castes? What is the use of learning that analyzes all scriptures?
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He in whose heart there is always devotion to the Supreme Lord—what other man in the three worlds is blessed compared to him?
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Thus ends the seventeenth chapter, named 'The Description of the Greatness of Holy Ashes', in the Brahmottarakhaṇḍa in the third part of the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.
Linked texts (1)
- Skandapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit