Skandapurana 6.2.9.32

6.2.9.32

The venerable Rudra said: / Know the ninth liṅga to be Svargadvāreśvara, O Pārvatī, / which removes all sins, O goddess, and bestows heaven and liberation as its fruit. / When those sisters, beginning with Aśvinī, came / to the supreme mountain Kailāsa, O goddess, they were filled with wonder upon seeing you: / 'We have been invited to the sacrifice together with our husbands and retinues / out of affection by our father, O goddess, with great honour. / Were you remembered, O large-eyed one, or did father forget you? / For what reason were you not invited by our father?' / Hearing those words of theirs, you, out of dishonour, / then gave up your life-breaths through yoga before them, O Pārvatī. / Then, burning with grief, they went to where the lord of creatures was / and reported the whole incident before Dakṣa just as it had happened. / Hearing those terrible words, Dakṣa said nothing at all. / When I saw you fallen on the ground having succumbed to death, O goddess, / the gaṇas were then dispatched to destroy the sacrifice. / Having gone there, those fierce gaṇas, by the hundreds and thousands, / misshapen, terrifying, frightful, bearing various weapons and of great strength, / released showers of arrows while making ferocious roars. / Then all the hosts of gods, the Vasus together with the suns, / the Viśvedevas and the Sādhyas, bows in hand, possessing great might, / marched forth to battle and unleashed sharp shafts. / Meeting there, the Pramathas fought with the gods; / they released showers of arrows like clouds discharging streams of water. / In their midst, a gaṇa of great might named Vīrabhadra / struck Śakra in the heart with a trident. / Rendered unconscious by that blow, he sank down. / Then the elephant Airāvata was struck on the frontal globes with a fist; / struck suddenly by him, that king of elephants, roaring with ferocious cries / and seized with fear, rushed towards the sacrificial enclosure. / In the meantime, the gods were routed by him; / then they sought refuge with Viṣṇu, the sole leader of the universe. / Then, filled with rage upon seeing the gods / all put to flight by the gaṇas, Viṣṇu quickly released the Sudarśana. / As that Sudarśana discus of Viṣṇu came hurtling with speed, / [Vīrabhadra] opened his mouth and suddenly swallowed it into his stomach. / When that unfailing discus, destroyer of the Daityas, was thus swallowed, / Nārāyaṇa, enraged, O goddess, rushed at Vīrabhadra. / Seizing him by both feet, he hurled him down to the ground from far away; / and as he was being struck on the ground with a mace, the Sudarśana, / accompanied by gouts of blood, issued forth from his mouth. / Having received a boon from me, O goddess, that best of gaṇas, Vīrabhadra, / did not succumb to death even though struck with the mace. / Then all the Pramathas, distressed by the power and might of Viṣṇu, / arrived with difficulty, suddenly, where I was staying, O goddess. / Seeing me with trident in hand, Viṣṇu vanished. / Indra too, together with the thirty [gods], with the ancestors and the brahmins, / his heart seized with terror of me, vanished from sight. / When the sacrifice had thus been destroyed and the host of gods was lost, / a gaṇa was then stationed by me at the gate of heaven, O goddess: / 'Entrance must never be granted to the thirty [gods], O lord of gaṇas! / A blockage of the gate must be vigilantly maintained by my command. / Whichever god is seen must undoubtedly be slain.' / And then heaven became deserted, and the gods were utterly defeated. / But when the gate of heaven was blocked, Śakra and the others, bewildered by fear, / consulted again and again and went to the world of Brahmā. / Before him, the entire blockage of heaven's gate was reported: / 'The gate of heaven is occupied by the gaṇas of the Great Lord, O grandfather! / Entrance has become difficult to obtain now that the gate is blocked. / By what means shall we go to the world of heaven as before? / We have no joy without heaven, O grandfather!' / Hearing these words of theirs, it was then spoken by Brahmā: / 'Lord Śaṃkara, the Great God, the master of the world, must be propitiated; / he, the maker of creation and destruction, is to be praised, revered, and saluted. / Difficult to attain is heaven, O gods, without his favor.