Skandapurana 4.33
English (machine translation) 4.33
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4.33.1
Agastya said:
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"O Skanda, declare now the māhātmya of the sacred ford Jñānoda,
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since even the denizens of heaven greatly praise the Jñānavāpī."
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Skanda said:
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"O jar-born one of great wisdom, listen to the origin of Jñānavāpī,
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which dispels sin, as it is now told by me.
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In the beginningless, established saṃsāra, long ago in the age of the gods, O sage,
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Īśāna arrived from somewhere, wandering about at his own will,
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when clouds did not yet rain, when rivers had not begun to flow,
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when there was no desire for water for ritual ablution, drinking, and other acts,
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when the appearance of water existed only as salt or fresh,
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and while the movement of human beings was occurring only here and there on the earth.
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[He reached] the field of the lotus of nirvāṇa, the glorious Ānandakānana,
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the great cremation ground, the supreme sterile ground for all seeds [of karma],
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the awakener of living beings asleep in the great slumber,
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the boat for living beings falling into the whirlpool of the ocean of saṃsāra,
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the resting pavilion for living beings exhausted by coming and going,
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the razor that severs the cord of karma multiplied through many births,
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the abode of existence-consciousness-bliss, the elixir of supreme brahman,
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the producer of a lineage of happiness, bestowing the attainment of the means to liberation.
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Having entered this sacred field, that matted-haired Īśāna,
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pervaded by the pure network of rays of his glittering trident,
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beheld the great liṅga that had manifested in the beginning
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during the great rivalry of Viṣṇu and Brahmā,
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surrounded on all sides by luminous garlands
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and constantly by multitudes of divine seers and gaṇas,
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unceasingly worshipped by throngs of perfected beings and yogins,
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sung of by gandharvas and praised by cāraṇas,
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attended in various ways by apsarases with bodily movements,
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continually waved with lamps of jewels by Nāga women,
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adorned at the three junctures of the day by Vidyādhara and Kinnara women,
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and fanned on all sides with rows of yak-tail whisks by goddess-women.
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Upon seeing that liṅga, a desire then arose in Īśāna:
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'I shall give a ceremonial bath to the great liṅga with jars of cool water.'
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And with his trident, near the southern direction,
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Rudra, bearing a terrible form, dug a pool with vehement speed.
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Then, O sage, the waters enclosing the earth gushed forth."
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which envelop this earth tenfold compared to the measure of the earth.
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With those waters, untouched by other embodied beings, / icy, banishing dullness, removing multitudes of rebirths,
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extremely clear like the minds of the good, unobstructed like the path of the sky,
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radiant in luster like moonlight, purifying like the name of Śambhu,
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sweeter than nectar, delightful to the touch like the limbs of cows,
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profound like a sinless intellect, fluctuating like the happiness of a sinner,
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surpassing the great fragrance of lotuses, delighting with the scent of trumpet flowers,
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captivating the minds and eyes of people who had never seen the like before,
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the sole protectors of the lives of creatures tormented by the heat of ignorance,
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with jars of the five nectars, granting boundless fruit through a ceremonial bath,
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causes of the triad of liṅgas in the heart touched by faith,
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shining like the sun to the darkness of ignorance, bestowers of the gift of knowledge,
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causing the extreme delight of the touch of Umā to the Lord of the Universe,
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performing great purification like the noble ablution of the final sacrificial bath—
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with jars of a thousand streams, that Īśāna, O jar-born [Agastya],
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bathed [him] a thousand times, his heart completely overjoyed.
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Then, pleased, the Blessed Lord, the Soul of All, the Eye of All,
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spoke to that Īśāna, to Rudra who bore the form of Rudra:
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“I am pleased with you, Īśāna, O one of noble vows, by this act,
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weighty, unprecedented, and causing Me extreme delight.
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Therefore, O matted-haired Īśāna, rich in austerity, choose a boon!
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There is nothing that cannot be given to you today, O one dedicated to great effort!”
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Īśāna said:
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“If You are pleased, O Lord of gods, if I am worthy of a boon,
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then let this incomparable sacred ford be named after You, O Śaṃkara!”
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The Lord of the Universe said:
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“Whatever sacred fords there are in the three worlds, situated on earth, sky, and heaven,
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higher than all those sacred fords is this Śivatīrtha.
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Those who contemplate the meaning of the word ‘Śiva’ say it is the knowledge of Śiva;
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and that knowledge has become liquefied here through the rising of My majesty.
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Therefore this sacred ford is celebrated in the three worlds by the name Jñānoda (‘Water of Knowledge’).
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Merely by the darśana of it, one is freed from all sins.
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From the touch of the Jñānoda sacred ford, one obtains the fruit of an horse sacrifice;
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and by touching and sipping [it], [the fruits] of both the royal consecration and horse sacrifice.
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Whatever fruit a man obtains having bathed in the Phalgu sacred ford and satisfied his ancestors,
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he obtains that here through the performance of a śrāddha.
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When a Vyatīpāta yoga occurs on a Thursday during Puṣya on the dark eighth day,
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then by performing a śrāddha here, [the fruit] becomes ten million times that of Gayā.
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Whatever fruit one obtains by satisfying the ancestors at Puṣkara,
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that fruit is multiplied ten million times at the Jñānatīrtha with water and sesame seeds.
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Whatever fruit [is gained] by offering rice balls at the Sannihitī in Kurukṣetra when the sun is seized by darkness [in an eclipse],
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that [is gained] day by day at Jñānoda.
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Those ancestors for whom the offering of rice balls is made by their sons at the Jñānatīrtha,
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rejoice in the world of Śiva until the universal dissolution of creatures.
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A best of men who fasts on the eighth and fourteenth days,
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having bathed in the morning and then drunk the water, becomes filled with the inner liṅga.
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Having fasted here on the eleventh day, if one drinks three mouthfuls of water,
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three liṅgas undoubtedly arise in his heart.
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Whoever bathes in the Īśānatīrtha, especially on a Monday,
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satisfies the gods, seers, and ancestors, and gives gifts according to his means,
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and then worships the glorious liṅga with extensive offerings and provisions,
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giving various riches here as well, that man has fulfilled his purpose.
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Having performed the twilight devotion at Jñānoda, whatever sin arose from missing the proper time,
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wiping it away in an instant, a twice-born becomes endowed with knowledge.
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This is declared to be Śivatīrtha; this is the auspicious Jñānatīrtha;
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this is the sacred ford called Tāraka; this is certainly the sacred ford of liberation.
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Even from the mere remembrance of Jñānoda, the mass of sins is surely destroyed;
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from darśana, touching, bathing, and drinking, the arising of righteousness and the rest occurs.
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Ḍākinīs, Śākinīs, spirits, ghosts, vetālas, rākṣasas,
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seizers, kūṣmāṇḍas, jhoṭiṅgas, Kālakarṇī, child-seizers,
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all come to complete pacification from beholding the water of the sacred ford of Śiva.
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The wise person who bathes a liṅga with the waters of the sacred ford Jñānoda,
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has certainly bathed it with the waters of all sacred fords.
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I myself, whose nature is knowledge, having assumed a liquid form here,
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shall destroy dullness and impart instruction in wisdom."
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Having thus granted these boons, Śambhu disappeared right there;
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and he too, the wielder of the trident, considered himself to have achieved his purpose.
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The matted-haired Rudra, Īśāna, having tasted that supreme water,
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attained supreme knowledge, through which he obtained absolute bliss.
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Skanda said:
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O pitcher-born [Agastya], hear the ancient account of wondrous import,
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what indeed occurred at the Jñānavāpī; that I will tell you; listen!
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Formerly in Kāśī there was a twice-born known as Harisvāmin.
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To him a single daughter was born, matchless in beauty on earth.
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None on the earth's surface equaled her in the wealth of good conduct.
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She was skilled in all arts and surpassed the cuckoo in voice.
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There was no mortal woman like her here, nor celestial woman, nor kinnarī,
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nor vidyādharī, nor nāgī, nor gandharvī, nor asurī.
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She was the abode of all beauty, a true mine of all auspicious marks.
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Surely, out of dread of the sun, darkness lay settled upon her crest.
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I think the moon, having sought shelter in her face from fear of the new moon day,
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would not leave her even by day, terrified of the fierce-rayed [sun].
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Her brow, like a row of black bees amid the leaf-creeper designs on her cheeks,
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practiced the movements of rising, dipping, and darting in flight.
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And roaming within the field of her lovely eyes, two wagtails
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ever enjoyed autumnal delight at their own will.
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In the divisions between the row of teeth of that fair-toothed maiden, the five-arrowed god [Kāma]
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fashioned a golden line; where is there such a digit in the moon?
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Her two lips, excelling the lovely hue of coral,
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were perhaps [two gems] in the auspicious palace of gems of King Madana.
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"Such beauty belongs to no woman anywhere in heaven, on earth, or in Pātāla!"—
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Under the guise of the three lines on her neck, Smara swears an oath.
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I think her two breasts, rich with a treasury of priceless jewels,
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were a pair of shining cloth-tents of the king born of the mind.
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Because the waist of the slender-browed maiden was naturally invisible, as if unmanifest,
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the creator made her line of fine hair as a straight rod to mark it.
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Having entered the cave of her navel, Kandarpa became bodiless;
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as if to regain his limbs, he performs supreme austerity.
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By the weight of her hips, as if by an initiation into great passion,
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which young men on earth were not brought under the control of their eyes?
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And by the pillar of her thigh, like a pillar, whose mind was not made rigid?
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O sage, or whose well-conducted mind was not held in check by that well-rounded pillar?
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By the radiance of the luster of the big toenails of that deer-eyed maiden, O sage,
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whose clarity of mind born of discernment was not destroyed?
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Bathing daily in the Jñānavāpī, she performed sweeping and other duties
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in the temple of Śiva, her mind focused on nothing else.
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Grazing on the shoots of grass that were the lines in the reflections of her feet,
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the deer of the young men's minds in Kāśī went to no other forest.
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Leaving the lotus of her face, the swarm of bee-like eyes of the young men
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frequented no other creeper, even one laden with fragrant blossoms.
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Though fair-eyed, the maiden would look at no one's face;
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though fair-hearing, the young girl would heed no one's words.
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Good-natured and endowed with virtue, though courted in secret
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by handsome youths tormented by separation from her, she conceived no desire.
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Though her father was repeatedly besought with riches by young men,
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he could not give away that graceful girl whose beauty was exalted by good conduct.
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From devoted worship at the sacred ford Jñānoda, that virtuous maiden
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then beheld the entire universe, outside and inside, as composed of liṅgas.
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Once upon a time, while she was sleeping in the courtyard of the house,
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a certain vidyādhara, infatuated by the abundance of her beauty, carried her away.
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As he wished to carry her along the sky-path / that night as far as the Malaya mountain,
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just then Vidyunmālin arrived.
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A rākṣasa of terrifying form, wearing skull-earrings,
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his limbs smeared with fat and blood, bearded, with reddish-brown eyes,
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the rākṣasa said:
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“You have come within range of my sight, young Vidyādhara!
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Today I will send you, together with her, to Yama’s abode!”
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Hearing this speech, then, she, like a doe that has scented a tiger,
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trembled exceedingly, terrified again and again like a plantain leaf.
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The rākṣasa struck at that Vidyādhara with a trident.
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Even the young Vidyādhara, though exceedingly charming of form,
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pierced in the shoulder by that terrifying trident, possessed of great strength,
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struck him with a fist-blow resembling a thunderbolt stroke.
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In battle, [he struck] Vidyunmālin, intoxicated with human flesh and fat;
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crushed by the blow of the fist, he fell onto the surface of the earth,
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the rākṣasa yielding to death like a mountain [felled] by a thunderbolt.
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The Vidyādhara too, incapacitated by the strike of that spear,
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spoke stammering words, his eyes rolling:
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“My beloved, brought in vain…,” uttering half a word, “O fair-smiling one—”
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the hero gave up his life-breaths in battle, remembering all around that beloved.
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Having experienced the joy of being touched, never experienced before,
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and considering him alone her husband, she consigned her body to the fire of grief.
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Because of the presence of her who was embodied as the three liṅgas,
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that rākṣasa attained a divine body and went to heaven.
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The son of the Vidyādhara, who had wagered his life in battle,
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remembering his beloved at the end, obtained birth from Malayaketu.
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And that young woman, meditating on him, the young Vidyādhara,
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having cast away her life in the fire of separation, obtained birth in Karṇāṭa.
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In time, the son of Malayaketu married her,
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Mālyaketu, possessing the splendour of the bodiless god, [married] Kalāvatī given by her father.
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She too, devoted to worship of the liṅga by virtue of previous impressions, being virtuous,
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set aside sandalwood powder and prized holy ash greatly.
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Far more than pearls, lapis lazuli, rubies, and topazes,
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she, beautiful from the womb, considered adornment with rudrākṣa beads priceless.
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Kalāvatī, a devoted wife, having gained Mālyaketu as her husband,
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enjoying the abundance of divine pleasures, bore three children.
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Once, a certain northern painter / showed the king Mālyaketu
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a wonderful picture-scroll.
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The king presented that picture-scroll to Kalāvatī.
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Then she, looking again and again in secret at that delightful picture-scroll,
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with the hairs of her body standing on end, [gazing at] the deity of her life,
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forgot even herself, like a yoginī in absorption.
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Opening her eyes for a moment, making the cloth the guest of her sight,
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Linked texts (1)
- Skandapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit