Skandapurana 6.3.43

English (machine translation) 6.3.43

Language: English

6.3.43.1

The venerable Mārkaṇḍeya said: / "Then one should go, O king of kings, to the supreme Vimaleśvara; / there is a charming divine rock, fashioned by the gods themselves.

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Whoever bathes there with devotion and honors brahmins, O king, / there is no end to [the fruit of] his gift, even if it be very small."

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Yudhiṣṭhira said: / "Which gifts are commended on the surface of the earth, O foremost of brahmins, / by giving which with devotion a person is freed from all sins?"

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The venerable Mārkaṇḍeya said: / "Gold, silver, copper, as well as gems and pearls, / the gift of land, and the gift of cows liberate a man from bestial existence.

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Whoever causes the end of his life's breaths at that sacred ford / dwells in the realm of Rudra until the dissolution of beings.

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Then one should proceed to the Puṣkariṇī that causes the destruction of all sins; / having bathed there, one should worship the god, the sun, a mass of radiance.

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Reciting a single verse of the Sāman, one gains the fruit of the Sāmaveda, / and likewise from reciting a verse of the Yajurveda and the Ṛgveda."

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Or, meditating upon the sun, he should chant the monosyllable mantra;
reciting the Ādityahṛdaya, he is freed from all sins.

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Whoever bathes in that sacred ford and duly prays for the twice-born,
his merit becomes ten millionfold; there is no doubt in this.

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By fasting, by entering fire, or by casting off the body into water,
he who dies at that sacred ford attains the supreme destination.

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A brahmin, a kṣatriya, a vaiśya, or a śūdra, O best of kings,
performing his ordained duty, shall go to the supreme destination.

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Yudhiṣṭhira said:
Recognising illness, loss of strength, and delusion, O best of the twice-born,
by what means are the castes freed from sins? Tell [me] that.

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The venerable Mārkaṇḍeya said:
Offering sesamum water, bathing with sesamum, free from desire and anger,
a brahmin relinquishing his life breaths through fasting attains a good destination.

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In battle, dear child, a kṣatriya attains a good destination at his death;
in its absence, O wise one, he attains it through devoted service.

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Or if seized by disease or evil planets, or old, or with impaired senses,
he attains a good destination by duly having himself consumed in fire.

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Even a vaiśya, relinquishing his life breaths in this manner, indeed shares in good fortune;
or giving up his life breaths in water with a pure mind, he becomes Śiva.

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Even a śūdra, intent on serving the twice-born, having pleased Maheśvara,
and having freed himself [from sin, attains it]; otherwise, sinful, he falls inevitably into hell.

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Or, unable to recite the praṇava, having asked the best of the twice-born,
he may desiccate his body in the five fires for the twice-born and the guru.

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[Asking] those who are calm, self-restrained, who have conquered anger, learned in scripture, and discerning,
by their instruction he should prepare a fire of dried cow-dung.

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Thus the castes, foolish and deluded by egoism, failing to act properly,
fall into terrible hell, like a blind man into a mountain chasm.

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Those who abandon the scriptural injunction and act according to their own desire,
reach the womb of worms; for them there is neither funeral cake nor rite.

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Abandoning the duty taught in the Śruti and Smṛti, indulging in wilful conduct—
there are twenty-eight crores of hells, O Yudhiṣṭhira.

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One by one these [sinners] fall, submerged in the ocean of hell.
Human birth is hard to attain, acquired through much virtue, O king.

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The man who, having attained it, gives up pride and malice,
always restraining himself, is indeed a man whose eye is knowledge.

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For him who is blinded by the darkness of ignorance, if with the collyrium-probe of knowledge

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the eye is not opened, he should be known as blind from birth.
All this has been told to you as asked, O best of kings.

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So too, for those who are most undesirable, according to Rudra's word:
the Narmadā, the best of rivers, came forth from Rudra's body.

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She carries across all beings, unmoving and moving.
By Īśvara, the great-souled supreme god of all gods,

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for the welfare of the worlds, she was brought down, very holy;
sin born of action—mental and verbal—is destroyed by bathing [in her].

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She came forth from Rudra's body; therefore she is most holy.
Waking at dawn, whoever, stepping on the ground with devotion,

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should chant this mantra, dear child, obtains the fruit of bathing:
'Homage to you with holy water, O goddess! Homage to you who flow to the ocean!

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Homage be to you who release from sin! Homage to you, O fair-faced goddess!

Homage to you served by multitudes of excellent seers! Homage to you who issued from the body of the Three-Eyed One!
Homage to you, always the boon for the meritorious! Homage to you, who eternally purify the pure!'

6.3.43.33_2

Thus ends the forty-third chapter, named the Description of the Greatness of the Sacred Ford Vimaleśvara, in the Revākhaṇḍa of the fifth section, the Āvantyakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, a collection of eighty-one thousand verses.

Linked texts (1)

Skandapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit