Skandapurana 6.3.178

English (machine translation) 6.3.178

Language: English

6.3.178.1

The venerable Mārkaṇḍeya said: / Then, O lord of kings, one should go to the excellent Gaṅgāvāhaka, / of great merit, upon the Narmadā, near Bhṛgutīrtha.

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There, the Gaṅgā of great merit performed vast austerity / of old, for a full century of years, undertaking a supreme vow.

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Having meditated upon the taintless god Nārāyaṇa, the womb of the universe, / as her own supreme abode, that river, O lord of the earth,

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then the god Janārdana came and spoke this:

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Viṣṇu said: / I am pleased by your austerity, O you who were born from my lotus feet! / What do you desire from me, O goddess? Speak! What shall I do for you?

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Gaṅgā said: / Fallen from your lotus feet, O pervasive one, I became Gaṅgā, your companion, / at will, O lord of the three worlds, being praised by the gods.

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Then King Bhagīratha, having performed exceedingly difficult austerity / and having propitiated Śaṅkara, the lord of the universe who brings welfare to the world,

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brought me down to the earth, O upholder of the earth. / Indeed, by the word of you two, my descent was made to the earth.

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Thinking me to be Vaiṣṇavī, all people plunge into me: / those in the world who are slayers of brahmins, those who violate the guru's bed,

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those who abandon their father and mother, those men who steal gold, / those mortals in the world who kill cows, and likewise those who harm living beings,

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those who approach women not to be approached, and those who eat what is uneatable, / those who speak falsehoods, and those who betray trust,

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those lowest of men who steal the wealth of gods and brahmins, / those men who revile gods, brahmins, gurus, and women,

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those twice-born scorched by a brahmin's curse, and those who kill themselves, / those fallen from fasting, renunciation, and observed vows,

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likewise drinkers of what must not be drunk, and those who slander their own gurus, / those who prevent gifts, and those who turn away from giving to a worthy recipient.

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Those who violate the fertile periods of their wives, who have no affection for their parents, / and who indeed have no compassion for kinsmen and the wretched;

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and the destroyer of field embankments, the destroyer of an ancient path, / the unbeliever, the one devoid of sacred lore, and the twice-born who neglects the twilight worship;

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he who eats without offering oblations, the discontented, the omnivore, the seller of everything, / the misers, the unbelievers, the cruel, and the ungrateful twice-born;

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the slanderers, the sellers of liquids, those devoid of all auspicious times, / and those lowest of twice-born who enjoy women of their own or another's clan;

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having reached me, they are freed from their thoroughly accumulated masses of sin. / Scorched by the corrosive burn of their sins, I find no peace.

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Act so, Lord of the Universe, that I too may attain peace.' / Thus addressed, the Lord of gods, pleased, said to the daughter of Jahnu:

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Viṣṇu said: / 'I shall dwell here with the bearer of the Gaṅgā as my companion. / Enter always into the Revā here in bodily form.

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Having reached the sole of my foot, flow on, O goddess who moves along the three paths! / When, in the season of abundant waters, filled with the water of the Narmadā,

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and having reached the rainy season, she becomes turbulent with water, / flooding both banks, the goddess, reaching me stationed to the north,

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will submerge with water the conch held in my hand. / Then occurs the Vaiṣṇava festival, named a holy occasion endowed with a hundred festivals.

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There is nothing equal to it among astrological conjunctions such as Vyatīpāta; / nor are the two solstices so meritoriously superior to merit as this.

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On that holy occasion, O goddess of the gods, a person having touched the conch / performs a ritual ablution in the mingled water of Gaṅgā and Narmadā;

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it is the merit of all merits and the auspiciousness of all auspicious things. / Because it was held by Viṣṇu, peace proceeded from it.

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There, a person surely attains the end of a mass of sins. / Having bathed at Śaṅkhoddhāra, a man should offer libations to the ancestors and the gods.

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They remain satisfied for twelve years and grant the attainment of all desires. / Whoever offers an ancestral rite at the flowing of the Gaṅgā at Śaṅkhoddhāra,

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by that offering of the rice-ball, the ancestors dance in joy. / Having bathed at Śaṅkhoddhāra, a man should worship Balarāma and Keśava.

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Having kept a night-vigil, O daughter of Jahnu, he becomes pure. / Whatever deed done by the world you deem unbearable on earth,

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on that holy festival, wash it all away by bathing there.' / Having spoken thus, O best of men, Viṣṇu vanished.

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From that time forward, that sacred ford became the supreme Gaṅgāvāhaka, / [resorted to] by seers beginning with Brahmā through traditional succession, dear child.

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Whoever bathes in that sacred ford with devotion, O descendant of Bharata, / has undoubtedly bathed in all the sacred fords of the Gaṅgā.

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Of the self-controlled men who die at that sacred ford, / there is no return ever from the world of Viṣṇu.

Thus ends the one hundred seventy-eighth chapter, named 'Description of the Glory of Gaṅgāvāhaka Tīrtha', in the Revākhaṇḍa of the fifth section, the Āvantyakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skandapurāṇa, the great Purāṇa in eighty-one thousand verses.

Linked texts (1)

Skandapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit