Skandapurana 5.227

English (machine translation) 5.227

Language: English

5.227.1

Sūta said: / Likewise, having seen the god lying upon the waters, situated for sleeping at the mouth of the cavern, / another sinner is completely freed [from sin].

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Having bathed at that mouth of the cavern, holy and a refuge for the worlds, / he who worships with devotion him who lies on the couch of Śeṣa, / attains liberation from the sins of a lifetime.

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He who with devotion fully worships the lord of the gods soundly asleep / during the four months of the rainy season is not born here again.

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There in ancient times, highly fortunate sages served that lord, / and having taken soil in his auspicious shrine,

they attained the highest state, that supreme abode of Viṣṇu. / Whatever fruit is in all sacred fords, whatever fruit in all sacrifices, / that fruit arises from worshipping him during the four months [of the rainy season].

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Whatever fruit men obtain who meet death during the seizure of cows, / that fruit is obtained by four months of worship of the one who lies upon the water.

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Even a person of sinful conduct, one devoted to another's wife, / a slayer of a brahmin, a drinker of liquor, and a despised slayer of women, / is freed by worshipping that god for four months.

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The seers said: / Regarding what was spoken by you of him who lies upon the water staying there: / how is he at the mouth of the cavern, O Sūta? In that matter our doubt is great.

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Indeed, that god, Madhusūdana, is heard to be in the Ocean of Milk; / the Lord lies ever resorting to yogic sleep.

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How does that Lord lie stationed at the mouth of the cavern? / Recount this completely, for our curiosity is supreme.

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Sūta said: / This is true, O highly fortunate ones: in the Ocean of Milk, Madhusūdana, / resting on the couch of Śeṣa, lies gone into yogic sleep.

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Hear with concentrated minds how the Lord himself resorted to that sacred field / in the form of the one who lies upon the water,

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and how, staying there, worshipped for four months, / he grants liberation to men; thus I shall narrate.

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And how the four months on the surface of the earth are censured / in all principal undertakings, such as sacrifices and marriages, O twice-born,

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that I shall recount to you, O best of the twice-born, having bowed / to that god over the gods, devoid of qualities yet the soul of all qualities,

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unmanifest, immeasurable, consisting of all gods, / all-knowing, the lord of poets, and the soul of all beings.

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Formerly there was a terrible and great Dānava, Hiraṇyakaśipu, / who was struck down by Viṣṇu having assumed a man-lion form.

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Two sons were born to him, endowed with all auspicious marks: / Prahlāda and Andhaka, peerless in prowess in battle.

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When the great Asura Hiraṇyakaśipu had gone to the other world, / that Prahlāda was appointed by the ministers for consecration.

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The wise one then did not desire that great ancestral kingdom, / even when it had come to him; I shall tell you why.

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The Dānavas' hostility is always with the discus-bearing god; / he, on the other hand, never harbored hostility toward him.

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For this reason, all the sons of Diti were abandoned by him; / having renounced even his own kingdom, he took refuge in Viṣṇu.

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Then by those vile Dānavas devoted to hostility toward Viṣṇu, / Andhaka was installed at that time in the ancestral kingdom.

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Andhaka, too, having propitiated the four-faced god of gods, / obtained immortality from him as long as the moon, sun, and stars endure.

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Strengthened by that boon, he then waged war with Śakra.

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Having conquered Śakra in great battle, he personally seized the sacrificial portions; / having gone to Amarāvatī and driven out Śatakratu, / the Daitya, accompanied by his host, then seized heaven.

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Śakra too, having propitiated Śaṃkara, who brings peace to the world, / lived like a servant, accompanied by all the gods.

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Then after a long time, the wielder of the Pināka, pleased with him, / said to him: 'I grant a boon; say, Śakra, what shall I do?'

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Indra said: / 'My kingdom, together with the sacrificial portions, has been taken by Andhaka / through his might, O Lord of gods; having quickly slain him, give it to me.'

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Hearing that from him, distressed, the crescent-crested Lord / said: 'I shall give you the sovereignty over the three worlds.'

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Then he sent his discerning messenger, / the leader of the Gaṇas named Vīrabhadra, [saying]: 'Go and say to that Andhaka:

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'By my command, having abandoned heaven, go to the surface of the earth; / conduct your rule there, the ancestral abode;

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relinquish the sacrificial portions; if not, I shall quickly slay you.' / Having gone, he spoke clearly to Andhaka just as was said by Śambhu,

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endowed with extraordinary great intellect, to achieve his master's task. / Then the mighty Andhaka laughed and said to him:

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'Since an envoy is not to be slain, I do not kill you. / Who might this Śaṃkara be, who speaks to me thus?

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Does that fool not know me, or does he desire death?

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Or is this truly so: he is weary of life, / perpetually afflicted by poverty, bereft of all pleasures,

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whose playground is the cremation ground, whose body ointment is ashes, / whose ornaments are serpents, whose garment is the directions, and whose matted locks are his curls?'

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"What purpose has he in living, that he says this to me? / Therefore, go swiftly, messenger, and speak my words clearly: 39

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‘Leaving this Kailāsa, do austerity in Vārāṇasī. / I have granted this place, Kailāsa, to my son, 40

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and to Vṛka, endued with glory—of this there is no doubt. / Otherwise, Śaṃkara, I will take your life along with Indra’s!’" 41

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Hearing that, Vīrabhadra, repeatedly rebuking [him] / and seized by intense rage, entered Kailāsa. 42

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Then he reported those words to Pinākin, / [which were] exceedingly harsh; thereupon the wielder of the Pināka became enraged. 43

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Thus ends the two hundred and twenty-eighth chapter, entitled "The Description of the Disrespect to Śaṃkara's Command Committed by the Demon Andhaka, Who Was Arrogant Because of the Boon Granted by Brahmā," in the narration of Jalaśāyin, in the Māhātmya of the Hāṭakeśvara Sacred Field, in the sixth [section], the Nāgarakhaṇḍa, in the Skanda Mahāpurāṇa of eighty-one thousand verses. 228

Linked texts (1)

Skandapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit