Skandapurana 5.52

English (machine translation) 5.52

Language: English

5.52.1

Sūta said: / Umā and Maheśvara were installed there by that king, / who built a supreme temple that brought delight to the eyes of good people.

5.52.2

In front of it, an auspicious pool was also constructed there, / filled with clear water and adorned with clusters of lotuses.

5.52.3

A man who bathes there with devotion and beholds the two with a concentrated mind / on the fourteenth day of the bright fortnight of Māgha is not born here again.

5.52.4

To the east of it, near Agastya's pool, / there is a very sacred step-well that destroys all sins.

5.52.5

The man who takes a ritual ablution in it in the month of Phālguna, / fasting on the eighth day of the bright fortnight, obtains his desired wish.

5.52.6

To its south is the river Kapilā, / where Kapila attained the perfection born of Sāṃkhya.

5.52.7

East of the Kapilā is the celebrated Siddhakṣetra, / where formerly hundreds and thousands of perfected beings attained perfection.

5.52.8

Whatever desire a man contemplates when performing austerity there, / he certainly attains it within six months.

5.52.9

Beneath it, O brahmins, is an auspicious, four-sided Vaiṣṇava slab / that turns, destroying all sins.

5.52.10

Constantly washed by the water of the great river, it bestows liberation on human beings. / Sarasvatī is situated between Gaṅgā and Yamunā.

5.52.11

The Triveṇī flows before it, bestowing enjoyment and liberation. / For the brahmins who are cremated above it, in particular,

5.52.12

liberation is certain. A cow's hoofprint is seen there in the funeral pyre's ashes; / knowing that, deceased brahmins should be given the funeral rites [there].

5.52.13

To its north, O best of brahmins, / is Rudrakoṭi, worshipped by high-souled southern brahmins.

5.52.14

Hearing that the Lord of Umā was personally present in the sacred field of Camatkārapura / in the form of a great yogin, the best of southern brahmins,

5.52.15

filled with wonder and endowed with supreme faith, / went swiftly by the crore, wishing to have his darśana.

5.52.16

'I will see Hara first! I will see him first!' / Having arrived, full of faith, they swore an oath:

5.52.17

'Whoever among us sees that great yogin, the Lord, / the God, last, will become a sinner.'

5.52.18

Then, knowing their intention, the divine Maheśvara, / pleased with their devotion, assumed ten million forms for their welfare.

5.52.19

Effortlessly, he granted darśana to all, O best of brahmins. / From that time on, that place became renowned as Rudrakoṭi.

5.52.20

For that reason, a verse was recited in ancient times by Nārada, O brahmins; / gazing upon Rudrāvarta, delighted, O best of brahmins:

5.52.21

'Blessed on earth are those who will obtain the fourteenth day [of the fortnight] / in Āṣāḍha, Kārttika, Māgha, and also that arising in Caitra, at Rudrāvarta.

5.52.22

Having committed sins through hundreds of thousands of lifetimes on earth, / a person becomes free from sin upon seeing Rudrāvarta.

5.52.23

Going to Rudrāvarta and seeing Hara, the Lord of Yoga, / on the fourteenth day of the bright fortnight, a man certainly becomes free from sin.

5.52.24

Whoever performs a śrāddha there at Mahāyogipura, O brahmins, / at Rudrāvarta, attains the fruit of performing a hundred horse-sacrifices.

5.52.25

A man who devotes himself to fasting and keeps a vigil through the night / goes to heaven in an aerial chariot that travels at will.

5.52.26

Whoever gives a tawny cow there to a brahmin who maintains the sacred fire / becomes a gaṇa and a beloved [attendant] of Hara—of this there is no doubt.

5.52.27

Whoever stands before the Great Yogin and recites the six-syllable mantra / obtains six times the merit of a Rājasūya sacrifice.

5.52.28

Or whoever recites the Śatarudriya before him with devotion / enjoys the fruit of having studied all four Vedas.

5.52.29

If a man performs singing or dancing before him, / he enjoys the merit of all sacrifices; there is no doubt of this.'

5.52.30

Having spoken thus, O best of brahmins, that sage born of Brahmā / fell silent; then, overjoyed, he quickly departed on his pilgrimage to sacred fords.

Thus ends the fifty-second chapter, entitled 'Description of the Māhātmya of Rudrakoṭi,' in the Māhātmya of the Hāṭakeśvara Sacred Field, in the Nāgarakhaṇḍa, the sixth [part] of the Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, a collection of eighty-one thousand [verses].

Linked texts (1)

Skandapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit