Skandapurana 5.149

English (machine translation) 5.149

Language: English

5.149.1

Sūta said: / Having heard his words and taking pity in his heart, / Śukra then went to the success-granting sacred field born of Hāṭakeśvara.

5.149.2

He duly performed an oblation into the sacrificial fire with his own flesh, / using fierce Ātharvaṇa mantras, after preparing a triangular pit.

5.149.3

As he was offering oblations in that manner at that time, / just as goddess Kelīśvarī had been pleased with Rudra then,

5.149.4

she quickly approached and said to Śukra, the priest of the daityas: / “Tiger among the Bhārgavas, do not destroy your own flesh!

5.149.5

I was manifested by the Three-eyed Lord; so tell me, what shall I do for you?”

5.149.6

Śukra said: / “Just as assistance was given by you here to Rudra, O auspicious one, / so too must it be given to Andhaka: this is my boon.

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Whatever dānavas belonging to this army have been devoured and destroyed in battle, / let all of them quickly come back to life!”

5.149.8

The goddess said: / “I shall restore to life all those dānavas slain in battle, / even those newly devoured, O brahmin, who entered the mouths of the Yoginīs.”

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Having spoken thus, that goddess, her face delighted, gave him / the lore named Amṛtavatī, by which the dead revive.

5.149.10

Then Śukra, his soul rejoicing, went and said to Andhaka: / “Goddess Kelīśvarī has been propitiated by me, just as by Śambhu.

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She has granted an auspicious lore; and all those daityas of mine who have died / I shall restore to life by its power.

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Devotion to her must constantly be performed by you, O best of the dānavas, / especially on the eighth and fourteenth days, always.

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She is the supreme power by whom this world is pervaded; / she can be won solely through devotion, never by force.”

5.149.14

Addressed thus by Śukra, the lord of the dānavas then / worshiped that goddess, endowed with feeling and devotion.

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And having praised her with various hymns, he then spoke respectfully, / as well as to all the other Mothers according to seniority and proper order:

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“Whatever anger I showed toward you out of ignorance, O goddess, / should be forgiven today toward one who is miserable and bowed down.”

5.149.17

The holy Goddess said: / “I am well pleased with you, child, and by the power of the Bhārgava; / choose a boon, therefore; darśana of me is never in vain.”

Andhaka said: / “Whatever embodied beings meditate on you in this very form / and worship with true devotion after installing an image of you, / to them you must grant their heart’s desired perfection.”

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The goddess said: / “Whoever shall install me in this form, / to him I shall grant liberation, even if he is a sinner, without a doubt.

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Whoever performs my worship on the eighth and fourteenth days, / to him I shall grant heaven, even if he is a sinner, O best of Danu's lineage.

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And whoever merely has darśana of me or meditates on me, / to him I shall grant sovereignty and pleasures born of human birth.”

5.149.22

Having spoken thus, that goddess then vanished from sight / along with the hosts of Mothers, before his eyes, in an instant.

5.149.23

Then Śukra also, through that [lore] successfully accomplished by her, / revived all those dead dānavas, the daityas newly devoured.

5.149.24

Reunited with them, that lord of daityas, with a delighted inner soul, / reached that city of Śakra and ruled day and night,

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meditating on that goddess and worshiping her day and night, / especially on the eighth and fourteenth days, endowed with great power.

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Then, knowing that power of hers, he who was born of Vyāsa / installed [her] in this place and attained supreme perfection.

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Sūta said: / Thus the Supreme Goddess Kelīśvarī came into being; / therefore she should especially be installed, worshipped, and meditated upon. // 27

5.149.28

Whatever man reads or hears [this] concerning the Goddess, / or has it recited, is delivered from grave distress. // 28

5.149.29

Or if a king deprived of his kingdom listens to it on the eighth day, / he gains his entire realm back, free of all thorns [of opposition]. // 29

5.149.30

And whatever man should hear this when the time of battle arrives, / having slain the host of enemies, he attains victory. // 30
Thus ends the one hundred and fiftieth chapter, named 'Description of the Glory of Kelīśvarī', in the Māhātmya of the Hāṭakeśvara Sacred Field, in the Nāgarakhaṇḍa, the sixth [part] of the auspicious Skandapurāṇa, a compendium of eighty-one thousand [verses]. // 150

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Skandapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit