Skandapurana 4.83.75.2

4.83.75.2

The couple, performing the vow, should gladly pronounce this mantra: / 15
“Obeisance to you who know the regulation of the universe, O Ordainer, who bring about diverse things! / Pleased by this auspicious vow, grant a son who will continue the lineage.” / 16
Then, having fed thousands of brahmins with devotion, / one should indeed break the fast with the remainder of the eaten food. / 17
In this manner, O king, I wish to perform this vow along with you; / grant me this pleasure so that I may obtain the desired fruit.” / 18
Having heard this, the best of kings, his heart delighted, / observed it as a sage would, and indeed she became pregnant. / 19
Then Gaurī, pleased by devotion, was besought by the pregnant queen: / “Grant a son, O Mahāmāyā, who is directly born of a portion of Viṣṇu! / 20
As soon as he is born, let him go to heaven, and indeed come back here again; / exceedingly devoted to Sadāśiva, well-known over the entire surface of the earth; / 21
without drinking breast-milk, instantly having the form of a sixteen-year-old— / O Gaurī, act in such a way that my son will be of such a nature!” / 22
Mṛḍānī, greatly pleased by her devotion, replied to the queen, “So be it!” / Then in due time, she gave birth to a son under the constellation Mūla. / 23
Then she, beset by misfortune, was advised by her well-wishing ministers: / “O queen, if you care for the kingdom, abandon the son born under an evil constellation!” / 24
Hearing the words of the ministers, she, devoted solely to her husband / and skilled in policy, abandoned the son obtained in that manner. / 25
Having summoned a foster-nurse, that royal woman said this: / “In the great seat of the Five Mudrās is the Mother named Vikaṭā. / 26
Placing this child before her, foster-nurse, say: / ‘This infant was given by Gaurī; he is presented before you / 27
by the queen, who desires what is pleasing to her husband, impelled by the advice of the ministers.’” / Having heard what the queen said, she took the infant, radiant as the moon, / 28
and placing him before Vikaṭā, the foster-nurse went home. / Then that goddess Vikaṭā, having summoned the yoginīs, / 29