Skandapurana 5.204

English (machine translation) 5.204

Language: English

5.204.1

Viṣṇu said:
Knowing this, O thousand-eyed one, carry out my word,
if those who were slain in the forefront of battle are dear to you,

5.204.2

who were fighting before you: satisfy them with the Gayā-śrāddha,
so that all of them may attain liberation from the state of being a preta,

5.204.3

as well as those intent on flight who were struck from behind and died.

5.204.4

Indra said:
Year after year the grandfather [Brahmā] performs the śrāddha,
having gone to Gayā on that day, for the ancestors of divine form.

5.204.5

So how can I go there, O Lord, to accomplish the śrāddha?
Therefore, tell me of something on the earth for their śrāddha
that grants liberation, so that I may go by your word, O Janārdana.

5.204.6

Viśvāmitra said:
Then Janārdana, having meditated for a long time, said to him:
'There is a great and sacred ford, even superior to that,

situated within a small well in the sacred field born of Hāṭakeśvara.
There, on the day of the new moon and of the fourteenth [tithi], O lord of the gods,
Gayā fully converges, accompanied by all the sacred fords.

5.204.8

A man who performs a śrāddha there when the sun is in Virgo,
with the brahmins born of the eight lineages, redeems his own ancestors,

5.204.9

even those who have attained the state of pretas, let alone those residing in heaven.
The brahmins originating from that sacred field, born of the eight lineages,

5.204.10

dwell on the snow-capped mountain having undertaken fierce austerity,
having arrived there terrified of the gift from the ruler of Ānarta.

5.204.11

Go quickly, bring them, having addressed them with respect there;
proceed before them with those diverse conciliatory means.

5.204.12

And [perform] the śrāddha in proper accordance with the rules; then you will attain what is desired.
And all of them, having assembled, will also become happy.

5.204.13

And they are to be worshipped along with you by us for the purpose of the śrāddha.'
Hearing that, Śakra immediately attained the highest contentment.

5.204.14

Setting out toward the Himālaya, he departed in haste.
Vāsudeva too, O king of kings, then went to the Ocean of Milk.

5.204.15

Śakra, reaching the Himālaya, saw the twice-born
born of the eight lineages, who were mentioned by Viṣṇu.

5.204.205

Thus ends the two hundred and fifth chapter, named 'The Description of the Glorification of the Fruit of the Gayā-śrāddha in the Conversation between Śakra and Viṣṇu', in the Glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, in the collection of eighty-one thousand [verses], in the sixth Nāgarakhaṇḍa, in the glorification of the sacred field of Hāṭakeśvara. (205)

Linked texts (1)

Skandapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit