Skandapurana 5.58

English (machine translation) 5.58

Language: English

5.58.1

Sūta said: / Having thus established the holy group of four deities, / Gāṅgeya then installed the Gaṅgā that flows in three worlds

5.58.2

in a small well to the east of the Śivaliṅga, O fortunate one. / Then, delighted, having worshipped those best of brahmins, he spoke:

5.58.3

"The person who, having bathed in this, shall behold me, / freed from all sins, shall go to the world of Śiva.

5.58.4

And whatever human being here takes an oath / that is false, shall quickly go to the house of Yama."

5.58.5

Having spoken thus, the fortunate Bhīṣma, grandfather of the Kurus, / departed thence to his own city, filled with great joy.

5.58.6

Sūta said: / There was a man born of a Śūdra named Pauṇḍraka. / In his childhood he played day and night with his friends.

5.58.7

And in jest a book of his friend was stolen by him. / Questioned by his friends, that Pauṇḍraka said, 'It was not taken by me at all!

5.58.8

You should always look after that book of yours. / Making an effort, you should look for the book somewhere else!'

5.58.9

And having bathed there in the water of the Bhāgīrathī, oaths were taken [by him]. / Without wicked intention, that stolen book was then returned by him,

5.58.10

and again he made much charming laughter together with him. / Then he became a leper, instantly despised.

5.58.11

He was abandoned by all his kinsmen and even by his beloved wives. / Then, having attained dispassion, he threw himself from a cliff.

5.58.12

And by the power of that [tīrtha] he was born free of leprosy; / [yet] due to the sin of stealing a text, that jester took the form of a mute.

5.58.13

Therefore, even in front of it, O brahmins, one desiring happiness for oneself / must not make a frivolous oath, even in jest.

Thus ends the fifty-eighth chapter, named 'The Description of the Māhātmya of Śivagaṅgā', in the Māhātmya of the Sacred Field of Hāṭakeśvara, in the Nāgarakhaṇḍa, the sixth [part] of the eighty-one-thousand-verse collection in the glorious Skanda Purāṇa.

Linked texts (1)

Skandapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit