Skandapurana 4.30

English (machine translation) 4.30

Language: English

4.30.2

Listen, O highly fortunate Agastya: that King Bhagīratha,

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having worshipped glorious Mahādeva, wishing to deliver his grandfathers (1)

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who had all been consumed by a brahmin's curse, that best of royal seers,

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brought down to earth by great austerity the river that travels the three paths,

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the king, for the great benefit of all three worlds.

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Then he led the Gaṅgā to where Maṇikarṇikā was,

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the Ānandakānana of Śambhu, the Cakrapuṣkariṇī of Hari,

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the supreme sacred field of the highest Brahman, bestowing liberation effortlessly.

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The son of Dilīpa, walking in front, brought that Gaṅgā

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to where the city named Kāśī is famed, because it illuminates nirvāṇa.

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The great sacred field Avimukta is never abandoned by Śambhu.

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Indeed, O sage, gold of natural origin from the Jambu river is already priceless by nature;

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how much more so if joined with an incomparable diamond?

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The sacred ford Cakrapuṣkariṇī was already an abode of blessings;

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then it became even more superior through the jewel-earring ornament of Śambhu.

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In that Ānandakānana, the Avimukta, the abode of Śiva,

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liberation was already accomplished; by conjunction with the Gaṅgā, it grew even greater.

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From the moment the Gaṅgā arrived at Maṇikarṇī,

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from that moment that sacred field became difficult to attain even for the thirty [gods].

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Having performed manifold actions, whether auspicious or otherwise,

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casting them aside in an instant, one dwelling in Kāśī becomes immortal.

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There, without profound meditation on the one to be known through the Upaniṣads,

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without Sāṃkhya or Yoga, one dwelling in Kāśī becomes immortal.

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Even without the knowledge that uproots past action, O pot-born [sage],

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by the grace of the moon-crested [Śiva], one dwelling in Kāśī becomes immortal.

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Relinquishing the body through the force of time, whether intentionally or unintentionally,

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by the teaching of the saving mantra, one dwelling in Kāśī becomes immortal.

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Even though bound by the primal qualities accumulated across many births,

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by connection with the confluence of the Asi, one dwelling in Kāśī becomes immortal.

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Abandoning the body here is indeed gift-giving; abandoning the body here is indeed austerity;

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abandoning the body here is indeed yoga; in Kāśī it brings the bliss of nirvāṇa.

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Reaching the north-flowing river at Kāśī, even a perpetrator of great misdeeds,

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relinquishing his own [body] with ease, would go to that highest step of Viṣṇu.

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Seeing all those intent upon the path to liberation, the gods led by Yama, Indra, and Agni,

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all beheld them and established protection around the city.

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Having the form of a great sword, cutting off the evil thoughts of sinners,

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repelling the entrance of the wicked, the gods fashioned the river Asi.

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And they established the Varaṇā there, which wards off obstacles from the sacred field,

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the gods making it bring about the turning away of evil conduct and the right course of good conduct.

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Having placed the Asi and the Varaṇā in the southern and northern directions,

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the gods attained peace, having guarded the treasure of liberation in the sacred field.

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In the western direction of the sacred field, that Dehalīvināyaka

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the moon-crested god himself stationed for protection.

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To those whose entrance is permitted by the compassionate Lord of the Universe,

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they grant entrance, but never to others.

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On this matter, I shall recount an ancient legend,

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exceedingly wonderful, increasing devotion to Kāśī.

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On the shore of the southern ocean, near Setubandha,

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there was a merchant named Dhanañjaya, endowed with devotion to his mother.

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His wealth was acquired through righteous ways, and by his wealth he satisfied seekers.

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His fame was spread wide by petitioners, and he was a worshipper of the son of Yaśodā.

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Though exceedingly elevated by fortune, his neck was bowed low in humility.

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A mine of virtues, he concealed his form among the virtuous.

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Though eminent in the beauty of his form, he turned his face away from the wives of others.

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Possessed of all accomplishments, his rising was ever spotless, like a full moon free of blemishes.

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Though having commerce of mixed truth and falsehood, he was mostly fond of truth, O sage.

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Though belonging to a caste other [than the highest], he was praised by all with gold in the world.

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Covering the path of good conduct, travelling in comfortable carriages, he was capable.

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Though not poor, that intelligent man was impoverished in mind with respect to sin.

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While he was living in this manner, once, in the course of time,

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his mother met her end, being afflicted with disease and suffering from extreme old age.

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And she, having reached youth, which is fleeting as the shadow of a cloud,

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like the flood of a rainy-season river, her own husband was deceived.

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A woman who, having attained youth lasting only three or four days,

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deceives her husband out of delusion, goes to imperishable hell.

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By the breach of women's virtue, even a husband dedicated to righteousness

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falls from the heaven earned with difficulty; therefore, virtue must be guarded by a woman.

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And the evil-minded woman falls on her own into a hell that is a pit of feces,

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until the dissolution of all beings; then she becomes a village sow,

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drinking her own feces, and then a bat hanging from a tree,

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or an owl, blind by day, dwelling in a tree hollow.

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With great effort this body, a receptacle for merit,

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must be guarded by a woman from the touch of another, which appears as pleasure but is of the nature of pain.

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Indeed, by this very body committed to her husband,

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did not a faithful wife arrest the rising sun by her command?

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Did not Anasūyā, wife of Atri, devoted to her vow of fidelity to her husband,

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bear the triad [of gods] in her womb by the power of devotion to her husband?

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Vast fame in this world, imperishable residence in heaven,

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and companionship with Śrī are to be obtained by a woman through fidelity to her husband.

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She, having abandoned the eternal duty to her husband through bad conduct,

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and having acted as she pleased, died and went to hell.

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And Dhanañjaya, O sage, [traveling] with a certain Śiva-yogin,

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became devoted to righteousness through austerity, compassion, and the like.

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Then the righteous-minded Dhanañjaya, devoted to the worship of his mother,

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took his mother's bones and set out on the road to the Gaṅgā.

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Having bathed them with the five products of the cow, and then with the five nectars,

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having smeared them with yakṣakardama paste and worshiped them with flowers,

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having wrapped them with silk cloth, and then with woven silk,

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then with fragrant cloth, and then with madder-dyed cloth,

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and then with a Nepalese blanket and pure clay,

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and having placed his mother's limbs in a copper casket, O, the merchant,

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untouched by low castes, pure, sleeping on bare ground,

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though feverish in the middle of the road, Dhanañjaya brought them along.

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A certain porter was hired by him after paying an appropriate wage;

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what is the use of speaking much, O jar-born [Agastya]? Then he reached Kāśī.

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Having kept the porter to guard his provisions, Dhanañjaya

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went to the market to fetch some items such as food.

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Finding an opportunity, the porter took from the middle of the provisions

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the copper casket, thinking it was wealth, and went home.

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Then, having returned to the lodgings and not seeing him, Dhanañjaya,

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hurrying, saw the luggage bereft of the copper casket.

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Beating his chest, crying, 'Alas! Alas!', he wept loudly and repeatedly.

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Looking around here and there, he went in pursuit of him.

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Without taking a bath in the Jāhnavī, without beholding the Lord of the universe,

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Dhanañjaya reached the dwelling of that load-carrier.

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Now, the porter too, in the forest, seeing the bones

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inside the copper casket, sighed, threw them away, and went home.

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And the merchant, having reached his house, his throat, lips, and palate dry,

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then saw a piece of cloth within the grass hut.

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Comforted somewhat by hope, he questioned his wife:

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'Speak the truth, do not fear; I will surely give you other

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wealth. Where has your husband gone? Return my mother's bones to me.

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O good lady, we are pilgrims; we do not cause distress.

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Not knowing, under the influence of greed, he took the casket of bones.

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This is not his fault, O good lady; such was my mother's karma.

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Or rather, it is not my mother's fault; I, her son, am unfortunate.

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The duty that should be done by a son—there is no achievement of that for me, O Bhilla woman!

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I made the effort, [yet] it does not succeed on account of ill fortune.

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Let the forest-dweller come upon my true word; let him not fear.

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Let him show the bones quickly; I will give him more wealth than that.'

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Addressed thus by him, that Bhilla woman called her husband.

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Then he, his head bowed with shame, reported the incident and,

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The hunter led that Dhanañjaya into the dense forest.

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Then, O sage, the forester forgot that spot by destiny;

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having become disoriented, he then wandered about in the forest.

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He goes from this forest to that, and would wander from that forest to this;

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having roamed from forest to forest, even that forester grew exhausted.

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Leaving him in the middle of the woods, he went off to his own hamlet.

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Having wandered about for two or three days, that best of pilgrims,

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emaciated by hunger, his throat and lips dried up, lamenting, 'Alas! Alas!',

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reached the city of Kāśī once more, his face utterly dejected, O merchant.

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Having heard of that misfortune from the people, O sage, the pilgrim

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performed [the rites at] Gayā and Prayāga, and then departed for his own land.

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Even though they had entered Kāśī, O pot-born [Agastya], those bones

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went outside immediately, without the command of Viśveśvara.

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Thus, even upon entering Kāśī, a sinner who merely clings to piety [externally]

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does not obtain the fruit of the sacred field, [and] is cast out that very moment.

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Therefore, the command of Viśveśvara alone is the cause for dwelling here in Kāśī.

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Where the Asi and Varaṇā were established to protect the sacred field,

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from that time forth, O great sage, it became known as Vārāṇasī.

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Reaching the confluence of the Asi and the Varaṇā, Kāśī is [so named].

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Vārāṇasī is here an embodiment of compassion and divine form; having cast off the body here with ease,

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a embodied being enters at once into the splendor of the sight of Viśveśa, and by that form assumes that state.

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'O creature, born and dead in many supreme sacred fords, by plunging into them you never found peace;

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dead here, you attain immortality and become by my power the Chastiser of Smara [Śiva]'—thus speaks Vārāṇasī.

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Elsewhere, a twice-born fallen into the waters of a sacred ford attains the state of a god and the like, but not so in Kāśī;

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how marvelous that one who falls here never rises again—even an outcaste, to say nothing of the first-born [brahmin]!

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This is no mere city, [but] the far shore of the ocean of transmigration, [established by] the Destroyer of the Cities, the Enemy of Tripura,

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in which He, desiring the supreme purpose of human existence, leads the lineage of citizens to perfection.

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Bathing all over in other sacred fords, a person, casting off a defiled body, might become a divinity in heaven;

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but shedding the body in the precincts of Vārāṇasī, one becomes free of doubt even concerning the attainment of another bodily state.

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Even without the harmonization [of breath], Vārāṇasī—dispeller of the torment of living beings—

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brings to the hearing of people devoid of yoga that rescuing [formula], and reveals that Brahman whereby there is no rebirth.

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Alas, having cast aside in the precincts of Vārāṇasī the body that grants desires, the abode of dharma, wealth, and desire,

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and exceedingly delighted in longing for some desired station, what void did one attain where even the principal was lost instead of gain!

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Ah, the people dwelling in Kāśī were surely tricked by the One with an eye on his forehead and half a woman's body!

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Taking away the cherished body, the vessel made for the twilights, he gives only release that leaves no rebirth!

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Vārāṇasī is the sole ground of radiant, boundless virtues, where embodied souls, by the power of the Moon-crested,

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all have poison in their throats, an eye on their foreheads, a woman's slender form in their left half, and at last [become] bodiless.

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This Forest of Bliss [Ānandakānana] was already bestower of joy of old, and there too is the disc-pool Maṇikarṇikā,

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and then the union with the celestial river [Gaṅgā], and the supreme abode of the Lord of the Universe—what is there here that is not for liberation?

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Vārāṇasī here has the Varaṇā and the Asi, best of rivers, generating sorrow at their confluence, and the celestial river endowed with radiant beauty;

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she is the steadfast resting ground of the pure fortune of liberation; leaving her, why does the foolish creature suffer?

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Alas, have you forgotten the misery born of the womb, and the binding and beating inflicted by the messengers of Death?

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Leaving Kāśī, which is obtained by receiving the grace of Śambhu, why does the fool abandon liberation held right in his hand?

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Other sacred fords instantly remove sins, bestow much auspiciousness, and lead to heaven;

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but Vārāṇasī, through drinking, immersion, rituals, and the abandonment of the body, destroys [transmigration] at its very root!

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Casting off the body at Maṇikarṇikā in the precincts of the city of Kāśī, embodied souls attain a form

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possessing an eye on the forehead, the blue splendour on the throat, a charming wife in the left half, freed from all confinement.

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Knowing the matchless power of Maṇikarṇikā, whoever casts off the material body smelling of impure pus,

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swiftly uniting with the light of self-realization, does not attain separateness even across different cosmic eons.

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Those whose mind and senses are filled with faults such as passion, and who consider the city of Kāśī—of matchless, divine, great glory—

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to be equal to other sacred fords on every side: those are sinners; one should not converse with them.

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Leaving Vārāṇasī, the beloved capital of the Slayer of Smara, where are you going in different directions, O fool?

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Having obtained the enduring fortune of liberation, hard even for the Unborn [Brahmā] to attain, why would you desire fortune that is fleeting by nature?

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Learning, wealth, mansions, elephants, horses, servants, garlands, sandalwood, and utterly enchanting women,

even heaven is not unapproachable in this world for a person endowed with exertion; but Vārāṇasī—where liberation is [easy] even for moths—is hard to attain. / Balanced on a scale by the Creator to weigh them: the realms headed by Vaikuṇṭha, and Kāśikā,

Linked texts (1)

Skandapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit