Skandapurana 6.3.13

English (machine translation) 6.3.13

Language: English

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Chapter 13 / The venerable Mārkaṇḍeya said: / Thus praised by the foremost of sages, that holy goddess / thought: "I shall bestow an excellent boon upon all of them."

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Then, knowing they had fallen fast asleep at night, the sweet-smiling goddess went / and appeared individually in the dream of each seer.

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Then, when midnight arrived, she rose from the midst of the waters, / clothed in spotless garments, adorned with divine garlands,

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holding a parasol, of beautiful hips, adorned with rubies. / She said to each one of them separately, "Do not fear!

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Dwell by my side, casting aside fear arising from hunger and the like."

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Having spoken thus to those great sages at the end of their dream, the goddess then / entered into her own waters and vanished from sight.

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Then at dawn, the sages, filled with joy, said to one another: / "The lovely goddess was seen by me in a dream just like that!"

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"Fearlessness was given to us, and accomplishment will come without delay. / The vision of that Narmadā is auspicious; there is no doubt."

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Then on the next day, O king, along with their families they saw / an extraordinary appearance of fishes near their own hermitage.

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Having seen the fishes there, the great seers were seized with amazement; / untroubled, they worshipped the gods with oblations and ancestral offerings.

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Having obtained those swarms of fish through the grace of the Great Goddess, / they, together with their sons, wives, and servants, sustained themselves separately.

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Day after day, likewise, the brahmins in their hermitages, / seeing the accumulation of fishes, were then astonished.

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They [saw] dead fishes with well-nourished bodies, especially pāṭhīna fish, / at every door of the hermitages of the ascetics, O Yudhiṣṭhira.

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Then all those dwellers on the banks of the Narmadā, joyful and well-nourished, / all those seers cast away their fear born of hunger and thirst.

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Engaged in chanting and practicing austerity, they remained, O bull among the Bharatas, / worshipping the ancestors and the gods, sheltered on the bank of the Narmadā.

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With those best of brahmins continually reciting prayers and practicing austerity, / that best of rivers shone as the sky shines with stars and planets.

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There, by those numerous, pure brahmins versed in the Vedas, / the Narmadā, giver of righteousness, was formerly divided in due order.

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By a hundred million seers dwelling on the banks of the Narmadā, / she was partitioned in her parts—the Narmadā who grants happiness to men—

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and with pure sacred threads and rosaries, O descendant of Bharata, / on both banks, the most holy Narmadā flowing to the ocean,

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with separate, bright sanctuaries and liṅgas of sand and clay, / that best of rivers shone like the night with its constellations.

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Thus all those seers, making offerings to the gods and the ancestors, / dwelt on the bank of the Narmadā until the destruction of all beings.

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When a terrible period of more than a hundred years had somewhat passed, / at midnight the maiden, emerging from the water, O descendant of Bharata,

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radiant like a mass of lightning, having a serpent as her sacred thread, / holding the tip of a trident in her hand, gentle, said to those seers then:

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"Come, assemblies of sages! Enter me, who am not born of a womb, / together with your sons and wives; then you shall attain perfection.

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Whatever desire anyone has, that I grant to him: / Viṣṇu, Brahmā, Īśāna, or another supreme god.

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I, pleased and bestowing boons, shall lead all there. / Dedicated to breath control, enter me with focused minds,

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along with your sons and wives, abandoning the hermitages. / No delay must be made: this cosmic dissolution has arrived,

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the destruction of all beings, the exceedingly dread conflagration of the kalpa. / Formerly, I alone remained during the great, terrifying annihilation of creatures.

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The remaining rivers and the oceans all went to destruction; / through the boon granted by Maheśa, because of that I did not go to destruction.

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The immortal, eternal God, the immovable, the ancient Lord— / when worshipped or petitioned, what would he not grant, O best of brahmins?"

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Having spoken thus to the seers, the Revā then entered the water— / that goddess with a trident taken in hand, wearing a serpent as a sacred thread.

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Hearing her words, their minds overcome with astonishment, / they all bowed down to me and begged forgiveness again and again:

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"May that be forgiven us which was said while dwelling under your protection!" / Abandoning their homes, those fortunate ones, with their pupils and kinsmen,

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chanting the monosyllabic Brahman and meditating on Maheśvara in their hearts, / bathing with waters purified by mantras, steadfast in their vows,

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entered the waters of the Narmadā like winged mountains, / illuminating all the quarters, holding kuśa grass in their hands, accompanied by their fires.

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When they had departed, O lord of kings, I alone remained at that time, / approaching Amareśa, worshipping the river Narmadā.

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Seven kalpas, beginning with the Māyūra, were experienced by me, O king, / all together with the Revā, through the grace of the Creator, O descendant of Bharata.

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From my birth up to this day, I do not know her ancient origin.

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For she is Śaṃkara's power, a portion of Śambhu named Ilā, / the Narmadā, destroyer of sins, deliverer from worldly existence.

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When I did not exist in the ancient kalpas, O son of Pāṇḍu, / throughout those fourteen kalpas she remained happily established.

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The fourteen ancient kalpas in which the Narmadā did not perish, / those I shall describe fully, just as the goddess told them to me.

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Know the first to be the Kāpila, the second the Prājāpatya, / the Brāhma, the Saumya, the Sāvitra, the Bārhaspatya, and the Prabhāsaka;

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and the Māhendra, the Agnikalpa, the Jayanta, likewise the Māruta, / the Vaiṣṇava, the Bahurūpa, and the Jyautiṣa as the fourteenth.

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These kalpas have been related by me, during which the Narmadā did not perish. / The Māyūra is the fifteenth, and the Kaurma is the sixteenth here;

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the Baka, the Mātsya, the Pādma, and the Vaṭakalpa, O Bhārata; / and this twenty-first, the Vārāha, is the present one.

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These seven were witnessed by the Revā together with me. / Indeed, through twenty-one kalpas, the Narmadā, born from the body of Śiva,

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has been seen many times by me, O best of kings. / It has been told, O best of rulers; what more shall I tell you?

Thus ends the thirteenth chapter, named 'The Description of the Tale of the Twenty-one Kalpas', in the Narmadāmāhātmya, in the Revākhaṇḍa, in the fifth Avantīkhaṇḍa, in the Skandapurāṇa comprising eighty-one thousand verses.

Linked texts (1)

Skandapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit