Skandapurana 4.9
English (machine translation) 4.9
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4.9.1
Śivaśarman said:
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Who are these women, treasures of beauty, grace, and good fortune,
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wearing divine ornaments, endowed with divine delights?
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The two attendants said:
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These are the courtesans who give pleasure to those who partake in sacrifices.
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They understand singing, are skilled in dancing, and are proficient in the art of instrumental music.
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They know the arts of love-play and are experts in the science of gambling.
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They appreciate aesthetic sentiments, perceive emotional states, and are clever with appropriate remarks.
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They know the particularities of various regions and are very proficient in various languages.
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They are skilled in the details of lovers' signals and many wander about freely with joy.
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They are very well-versed in playful dalliance and jesting, and expert in witty conversation.
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With their seductive gestures, they constantly delight the minds of youth.
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Long ago, while the Ocean of Milk was being churned, these apsarases emerged,
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as the bewitching weapon of the mind-born [Kāma] who conquers the three worlds.
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Urvaśī, Menakā, Rambhā, Candralekhā, Tilottamā,
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Vapuṣmatī, Kāntimatī, Līlāvatī, Utpalāvatī,
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Alambuṣā, Guṇavatī, Sthūlakeśī, Kalāvatī,
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Kalānidhi, Guṇanidhi, Karpūratilakā, Urvarā,
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Anaṅgalatikā, and likewise Madanamohinī,
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Cakorākṣī, Candrakalā, and Munimanoharā,
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Grāvadrāvā, Tapodveṣṭrī, Cārunāsā, Sukarṇikā,
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Dārusañjīvinī, Suśrī, Kratuśulkā, Śubhānanā,
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Tapaḥśulkā, Tīrthaśulkā, Dānaśulkā, Himāvatī,
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Pañcāśvamedhikā, and also Rājasūyārthinī,
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Aṣṭāgnihomikā, and likewise Vājapeyaśatodbhavā—
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such is the foremost group of sixty thousand apsarases.
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Other women also dwell in this realm of the apsarases,
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whose beauty never wanes and whose youth never fades.
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Wearing celestial garments and celestial garlands, anointed with celestial fragrant ointments,
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fully endowed with celestial pleasures, they take on bodies according to their own desire.
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Having undertaken month-long fasts, if they slip from celibacy
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just once, or twice, or thrice by the power of fate,
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they become enjoyers of celestial pleasures, possessing the wealth of form and beauty,
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and dwell in the realm of the apsarases, endowed with every desire.
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Women who perform according to rule optional vows with all their components,
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having arrived here, wander freely and become enjoyable to the gods.
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Women committed to devotion to their husbands who were seized by a powerful man by force,
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and enjoyed him at some time mistaking him for their husband, O brahmin—these are they.
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And those women who, when their husband was away, observed a vow of perpetual celibacy,
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yet slipped once by fate—these are those fair-eyed women.
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Fragrant flowers, sweet-scented sandalwood,
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very pale camphor, and very fine garments;
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betel leaves that are straight and tender, or cured and firm,
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intact with their tips, golden in color, and with prominent dark veins,
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abundant with fragrant spices of the betel vine, O best of brahmins;
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beds, varied ornaments, and things suitable for the bedchamber,
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as well as many curiosities—having honored a brahmin couple,
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this gift of pleasures, given out of desire at every transit of the sun,
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or at every Vyatīpāta, for the duration of one year,
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whichever fair-complexioned woman should give it with the mantra beginning with 'Who gave...?',
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saying, 'May the god who assumes forms at will be pleased'—
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that woman shall dwell here for a kalpa as the foremost among the apsarases.
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A woman who, while in the form of a maiden, was enjoyed somewhere by someone
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in the form of a god, and from that time on remained celibate,
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meditating upon that very encounter until she meets her end in due time,
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is born here assuming a celestial form, partaking of celestial pleasures.
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Hearing this origin of the realm of the apsarases, the foremost of brahmins,
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riding in the aerial chariot, then reached the realm of the sun in an instant.
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Just as a kadamba flower is covered on all sides with filaments,
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so was it shining brightly on all sides with the rays of the sun.
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From afar he recognized the Sun holding two lotuses,
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[seated upon a chariot] measuring nine thousand yojanas,
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wonderful, having a single wheel, and harnessed with seven horses.
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[The chariot] mounted by Anūru holding the reins in front,
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accompanied by apsarases, munis, gandharvas, serpents, grāmaṇīs, and nairṛtas,
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by that very swift chariot he bowed down with palms joined in reverence.
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Acknowledging his bow with a movement of the eyebrow, that god too,
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traversed the far path of the sky in a mere moment.
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When the sun had advanced far, Śivaśarman, filled with immense joy,
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spoke to the two devotees of the Lord: 'How is the realm of the sun to be obtained?
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This I wish to hear; please tell it before me.
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Friendship with the good is formed in seven steps; therefore, urged by friendship toward me,'
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The two gaṇas said:
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'Listen, O brahmin of great wisdom! There is nothing that cannot be told to you.
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Only from the company of the good does sacred discourse among virtuous people proceed.
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The controller of all beings, who is the one supreme cause,
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nameless, devoid of lineage, and free from form and the like,
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in the dancing of whose brow manifestation and dissolution abide,
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He indeed speaks constantly, the Self of all, the Person of the Vedas:
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"That person who is in the sun, that [person] am I"—thus clearly.
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"And they enter into blinding darkness who worship another."
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Ascertaining the meaning of this Vedic revelation, O best of brahmins,
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brahmins worship that One repeatedly, having thus resolved.
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And he who, having received the supreme Sāvitrī, does not worship [with it]
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at the proper time, three times a day, would fall within seven days; there is no doubt in this.
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In the morning, one should remain standing and reciting [it] until half of the sun rises;
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seated in the evening, keeping silence, one should recite [it] until the stars appear.
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Facing the sun, one should recite the midday twilight [prayer] while the sun is present.
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One must not let the proper time slip away; therefore one should await the time.
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In due time medicinal herbs bear fruit; in due time trees blossom;
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in due time rainclouds rain; therefore one should not transgress the proper time.
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For the destruction of the bodies of the Mandehas, at sunrise and sunset the sun
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desires the three palmfuls of water accompanied by mantra offered by brahmins.
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By him who has offered the three palmfuls full of water with the Gāyatrī mantra
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at the proper time to Savitṛ, has not the threefold world been offered?
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What does Savitṛ not produce when worshipped properly in due time?
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Long life, health, sovereignty, riches along with cattle,
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friends, sons, wives, and various fields,
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the eight kinds of worldly enjoyments, heaven, and even final liberation.
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Among the eighteen noble sciences, Mīmāṃsā is exceedingly weighty;
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the treatises on logic are weightier than that, and the Purāṇa weightier than them;
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the Dharmaśāstras are weightier even than that, and Śruti is weightier than them, O brahmin;
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the Upaniṣad is superior even to that, and Gāyatrī is higher than that.
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Hard to attain among all mantras is Gāyatrī united with the praṇava;
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nothing superior to Gāyatrī is sung in the threefold Veda.
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There is no mantra equal to Gāyatrī; there is no city like Kāśī;
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there is no liṅga equal to Viśveśa: this is true, true again and again.
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Gāyatrī is the mother of the Vedas; Gāyatrī is the begetter of the brahmin;
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because she protects the singer, she is therefore called Gāyatrī.
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The relation between the expressed and the expresser exists between the two, Gāyatrī and Savitṛ:
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Savitṛ is the directly expressed, and supreme Gāyatrī is the expresser.
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By the power of Gāyatrī alone, the self-controlled kṣatriya Kauśika,
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abandoning the status of a royal sage, attained the rank of a brahmin sage,
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and gained supreme power in creating another world.
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What would Gāyatrī not give when thus worshipped properly?
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One is not a brahmin by recitation of the Veda, nor by reading the śāstras;
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only by the practice of the goddess three times a day does one become a brahmin, never otherwise.
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Gāyatrī alone is supreme Viṣṇu; Gāyatrī alone is supreme Śiva;
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Gāyatrī alone is supreme Brahmā; Gāyatrī alone is therefore the threefold Veda.
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He is the triad of gods, the Lord adorned with rays, the sun,
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the mass of all splendors, the impeller of time and Death.
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With reference to the sun, constantly those who dwell in this world of ours,
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discerning the essential from the unessential, cite this Vedic text:
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"This is indeed the god who encompasses all directions; he was born first, and he is within the womb.
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He alone was born, and he is yet to be born; he stands facing the inner self of creatures, turned in every direction." // 61
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They should always worship thus without laziness through the hymns to the Sun.
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Those brahmins who bow here become brahmins resembling the Sun. // 62
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Whether on a Sunday with Puṣya, or on a Sunday with Hasta, or on a Sunday with Mūla, O twice-born,
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or whatever rite is performed on a Sunday with Uttarā, it certainly bears fruit and not otherwise. // 63
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He who bathes at the rising of the Sun on a Sunday in the month of Pauṣa,
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and performs gift-giving, oblation, silent recitation, and the worship of the Sun, O you of good vows, // 64
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having faith, taking only one meal, and free from desire and anger,
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he shall dwell here full of splendor, enjoying delights in the company of apsarases. // 65
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And during a solstice, or an equinox, or on the days of the four zodiacal transits,
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or during a Viṣṇupadī transit, those of good vows who bestow great gifts, // 66
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and offer sesamum seeds along with ghee into the fire, and feed brahmins,
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and those wise men who perform a śrāddha dedicated to the ancestors, // 67
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and who perform a great worship and chant great mantras,
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they [dwell] here in the world of the Sun, possessing a radiance equal to the Sun. // 68
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They are never poor, never stricken by sorrow, never afflicted by diseases,
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and those devoted to the Sun on transit days are neither deformed nor unfortunate. // 69
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Those by whom nothing was given during transits, no bathing done in sacred ford waters,
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and no special oblation made with sesamum seeds soaked in brown cow's ghee, // 70
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are seen at every door, deprived of eyes and faces,
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embodied beings dressed in rags, babbling, "Give! Give!" // 71
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The accomplished person who gives gold even equal to the weight of a kṛṣṇala seed
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during a solar eclipse at Kurukṣetra, shall dwell here partaking of merit. // 72
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All water is equal to the Gaṅgā, all brahmins are equal to Brahmā,
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and everything given is equal to gold when the Sun is swallowed by Rāhu. // 73
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Whatever is given, muttered, offered into the fire, bathed [for], whatever good deed is performed
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such as a śrāddha during an eclipse of the Sun, brings about that [fruit] in the presence of the Sun. // 74
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If a planetary transit or an eclipse occurs on a Sunday,
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then whatever merit is acquired becomes imperishable here. // 75
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When a Sunday falls on the sixth or seventh lunar day,
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then whatever righteous deed is performed is enjoyed here. // 76
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[He is] the Swan, the Radiant, the Thousand-rayed, the Scorcher, the Heater, the Sun,
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the Cleaver, the Shining, the All-maker, the Fire, // 77
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the Omniform, the Maker of the Universe, Mārtaṇḍa, Mihira, the Ray-garlanded,
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Āditya, the Warm-rayed, Sūrya, Aryaman, Bradhna, the Day-maker, // 78
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the Twelvefold Soul, the Seven-horsed, the Light-maker, the Laugh-maker, the Sky-goer,
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the God, the Radiance-maker, the Glorious, the Eye of the World, the Lord of Planets, // 79
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the Lord of the Three Worlds, the Witness of the World, the Enemy of Darkness, the Eternal, the Pure,
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Ray-handed, Fierce-rayed, the Transporter, the Great Battle, // 80
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the Jewel of the Sky, the Bay-horsed, Arka, the Possessor of Light, the Destroyer of Fear,
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Metre-horsed, to be Known through the Vedas, the Luminous, Pūṣan, Vṛṣākapi, // 81
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One-wheeled-charioted, Mitra, the Enemy of the Mandehas, the Destroyer of Gloom,
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the Slayer of Daityas, the Remover of Sin, Dharma, the Illuminator of Dharma, // 82
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Helika, the Multi-rayed, the Destroyer of the Kali Age, having Garuḍa as His Vehicle,
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the Guardian of the Quarters, the Lord of Lotuses, having Lotus-hands, Hari, // 83
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the Hot-rayed, Difficult to Behold, the Impetuous-rayed, the Son of Kaśyapa.
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With these holy names of the Sun, seventy in number, // 84
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prefixed by the syllable Om, ending in the dative case, and accompanied by the word 'namas',
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uttering each name while looking repeatedly at the Sun, // 85
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holding a very clean copper vessel with both hands,
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touching the ground with both knees, having filled [it] with water, // 86
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with oleander and other flowers mixed with red sandalwood,
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and dūrvā grass blades and unhusked barley grains placed inside the vessel, // 87
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he should offer an arghya offering to Savitṛ, who is beyond price, preceded by meditation,
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bringing that vessel near the crown of his head, with his mind and gaze directed to nothing else. // 88
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With each mantra he should bow to the Sun at dawn and sunset,
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with this seventy-name hymn, the secret of great mantras. // 89
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A person who acts thus is never poor nor sorrowful;
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he is freed from dreadful diseases, even those acquired in other births. // 90
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without medicines, without physicians, and without recourse to special diets;
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having met death in due course of time, he is honored in the world of the sun. / 91
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Thus a mere fraction of the realm of the sun has been told, O best of good men;
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ah, who can comprehend the specific nature of this great treasury of splendour? / 92
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Making this holy story the object of his ears,
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in an instant he caught sight of Mahendra's great city. / 93
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Agasti said:
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Having heard this tale pertaining to Sūrya, accompanied by the world of the apsarases,
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one will nowhere become destitute, nor does one engage in unrighteous deeds. / 94
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This supreme narrative should constantly be recited by brahmins;
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it yields the same fruit of religious merit as that gained by reciting the Veda. / 95
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Brahmins, kṣatriyas, and vaiśyas who listen to this supreme chapter,
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having cast off their sins here, will attain an unsurpassable destination. / 96
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Thus ends the ninth chapter, titled 'Description of the World of Apsarases and the Sun', in the first half of the Kāśīkhaṇḍa in the glorious Skandamahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.
Linked texts (1)
- Skandapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit