Skandapurana 5.271

English (machine translation) 5.271

Language: English

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The seers said: / This which has been spoken by you—that to King Īśāna / a lifespan lasting as long as his own day was given of old by Īśvara— 1.

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tell us, what is the measure of that day? / Sūta said: / I shall declare to you the measure of that day 2.

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of the Great Lord, O best of brahmins; listen clearly as it is spoken: / A truṭi is the fourth part of a nimeṣa; two of them make a lava; 3.

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two lavas are called a yava; fifteen of them make a kāṣṭhā; / thirty kāṣṭhās they call a kalā; a kṣaṇa is considered to be thirty kalās; 4.

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by sixty kṣaṇas a pala is declared; and by sixty of those, a nāḍikā; / by two nāḍikās, a muhūrta is proclaimed; 5.

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a day and night is designated by the wise as thirty muhūrtas; / a month consists of thirty days and nights; two months each are known as a season; 6.

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three seasons make a solstice; and two solstices make a year. / Indeed, that very [year] is proclaimed for all mortal men. 7.

The knowers of the Purāṇas declare that to be a day and night of the gods: / the northern solstice, which is bright, is the day of the gods; / that which is the southern is the night, censured for auspicious rites. 8.

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Just as a sleeping man does not receive any enjoyments or the like, / so the gods do not receive portions of the sacrifice in any way. 9.

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By this very human reckoning, O best of the twice-born, / seventeen hundred thousand 10.

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and twenty-eight thousand years are proclaimed as the Kṛta Yuga. / In it, the venerable Viṣṇu, who is the teacher of the world, became white. 11.

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People were free from sin, tranquil, self-restrained, mastering their senses, / long-lived, and all constantly established in austerity. 12.

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As a person was born, so he died [in natural order]; / the death of a son was never witnessed by parents. 13.

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Desire, anger, greed, deceit, and envy / did not arise among men in that yuga, O best of the twice-born. 14.

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After that comes the Tretā Yuga, the second, O best of sages; / then terrible sin entered into dharma by a single quarter. 15.

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Then the venerable Madhusūdana attains red coloration; / and when a fraction of sin arrived, people became competitive. 16.

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For the sake of the path to heaven, all performed sacrifices thereafter— / the Agniṣṭoma and others there, and many burnt offerings and the like. 17.

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Thereupon, by their own sacrificial rites, they go to the fourteen divine worlds, / from the base up to the world of Brahmā. 19.

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There, [people] are born with somewhat shorter lifespans, possessed of rivalry; / even there, however, sons in no way meet with death [before their elders]

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while the father is alive, and they are declared to have slight faults. / Desire, anger, and the like both occur and do not occur [among them].

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The excellent grain sown there in a single season, / the vaiśyas devoted to agriculture harvest seven times.

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All the cows yield a whole jar of milk, the female buffaloes four times that much, / and likewise female camels yield four times the milk of those buffaloes;

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likewise female goats and sheep [yield] a quarter, and all the women [are] similarly [virtuous]. / [The brahmins] are endowed with Vedic study, free from receiving gifts, / and capable in the acts of cursing and blessing.

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The kṣatriyas protect the earth in accordance with the duty of the warrior; / neither thief nor adulterer is seen there in any way; / and all the social classes are established, devoted to their own duties.

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That second, excellent yuga is declared / to consist of one million two hundred and ninety-six thousand years.

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After that will come the Dvāpara, the third [yuga], O best of brahmins. / There two quarters of sin and two of righteousness are established; / the blessed Vāsudeva is born there as Kapila.

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And that is declared to have a measure of eight hundred / and sixty-four thousand years, O best of brahmins.

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Desire, anger, greed, deceit, and malice— / these six are born there, and jealousy as the seventh.

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Then men, attended by these [faults], / act in opposition to one another and do not attain heaven as before.

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Some are born even there peaceful, self-controlled, and with conquered senses, / but not all, O best of brahmins, because half consists of sin.

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After that is proclaimed the Kaliyuga, the fourth and exceedingly dreadful [age], / wherein the bull [of Dharma] has a single foot, and sin stands upon three feet.

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There even the four-armed God assumes blackness. / So long as that single foot of righteousness endures,

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it gradually moves toward destruction thereafter. / Its duration is indicated as four hundred

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and thirty-two thousand [years] of that final yuga. / Touched there by Kali, all mortals toward one another,

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acting alongside scholars, become devoted to passion and malice. / In whosever house there is wealth and charming women,

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with that very person men form friendships in the Kali [age]. / For widows, ascetics, and all practitioners of austerity,

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there is ruin of both worlds, because their minds are not purified. / Even when the rainy season arrives, afflicted by famine,

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people in the Kali wander with their eyes fixed upon the sky. / And a son thinks, “If my father were to die,

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then I would become the master of the house”; a relative [thinks so] of a relative; / even a daughter-in-law thinks in her heart, “If my mother-in-law were to perish,

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all the lordship in the house would be mine, and it would not go otherwise.” / The Vedas are struck down by poetic compositions, sons by sons-in-law,

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kinsmen by brothers-in-law, and noble wives by unchaste women. / Śūdras become ascetics, and śūdras proclaim righteousness;

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then śūdras utter instruction to brahmins. / The clouds have little water, and the earth little grain;

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cows yield little milk, and in the milk is little ghee. / Brahmins eat all foods, kings are merciless, / vaiśyas are ashamed of agriculture, and śūdras dispatch brahmins [on errands].

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Those who are devoted to specious reasoning and those intent on the arts of buffoons / are always dear to the king in the Kaliyuga.

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Day after day becomes more sinful; the earth's youth is gone; / auspicious times are past, and dreadful ones have drawn near.

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As the yuga advances, women and men grow in number, / but just as they advance, they decline in stature along with [other] creatures.

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And in the twelfth year a girl is joined with a husband;

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then in the sixteenth year men have grey hair in their youth, / devoid of purity and conduct, and devoted only to their selfish ends.

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At the end of the yuga, men will be only thumb-sized, / and they will make their dwellings in holes dug by rats.

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Likewise, their garment will be made of worm-cloth. / After that, all the classes will become one class, / turned into barbarians, evil in conduct, and despisers of righteous duties.

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When the world has become thus, a brahmin with tawny-yellow hair, / born in the lineage of Kalki, will then destroy them all.

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Afterward, the Kṛtayuga will occur once more, O best of brahmins.

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When a thousand yugas have elapsed in this way, / a day of Brahmā occurs thereafter, and after that his night.

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Then, by this measure of three hundred and sixty [such days and nights], / a year of Brahmā occurs; and that is a day of Keśava.

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So long as Brahmā lives his hundred years of his own lifespan, / Keśava too lives for a hundred years by his own reckoning.

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A year of Vāsudeva becomes a day of the Great Lord (Maheśvara); / by his own reckoning he too remains here for a hundred years.

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Then he takes the nature of Śakti, for he is declared to be imperishable. / An out-breath of Sadāśiva is a hundred years of Śiva, / and his in-breath again abides as Śakti.

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Sūta said: / All this originating from Śiva and Śakti has been related to you: / the measure of life, and what pertains to human beings.

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Formerly, O brahmins, I was asked by you about the day of Śaṃkara, / and in turn I have declared to you the [spans of] mortals and the rest.

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Thus ends the two hundred seventy-second chapter, entitled "Description of the Nature of the Yugas," in the Māhātmya of Hāṭakeśvara Sacred Field, in the Nāgarakhaṇḍa, the sixth [section], in the eighty-one-thousand-verse collection of the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa.

Linked texts (1)

Skandapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit