Skandapurana 6.3.98

English (machine translation) 6.3.98

Language: English

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Śrī Mārkaṇḍeya said: / Then, O best of kings, one should go to the excellent Prabhāseśvara, / renowned in the three worlds, the supreme stairway to heaven.

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Yudhiṣṭhira said: / Tell me, father, how Prabhāsa became of great fruit, / visible as bestower of a stairway to heaven; tell me in brief.

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Śrī Mārkaṇḍeya said: / The unloved wife of the Sun, renowned by the name Prabhā, / formerly worshipped Śambhu with severe austerity.

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She remained for a year consuming only air, and for a year devoted to meditation. / Thereupon Mahādeva was pleased with Prabhā, O son of Pāṇḍu.

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Īśvara said: / Why do you torment yourself, child? Let that which you wish to say be told. / Indeed, the Sun and I are one; diversity does not exist at all.

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Prabhā said: / For a woman there is no other god anywhere apart from her husband, O Śambhu, O Lord, / whether he has good qualities or lacks them, whether he is rich or destitute,

whether dear or hateful; a husband alone is the deity of women. / I am burnt by being unloved among my companions, O Lord of gods; / from my husband I have obtained little happiness, therefore I suffer intensely.

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Īśvara said: / By my favor you will surely become the beloved of the Sun.

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Pārvatī said: / Even the Sun might treat your word as unauthoritative. / In vain would be the torment of this Prabhā, O Supreme Lord.

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Upon Umā’s word, Maheśāna meditated upon the Dispeller of Darkness. / The Sun came from the sky to the northern bank of the Narmadā.

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The Sun said: / Why have I been summoned, O God, slayer of the demon Agha?

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Īśvara said: / O Sun, protect Prabhā with the utmost pleasure!

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Umā said: / Dwell constantly in the mansion of Prabhā, O Dispeller of Cold; / make her the foremost wife among all your wives, O Sun!

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The Sun said: / So shall I do, O goddess, according to your word, O fair-faced one! / Having heard this, Prabhā was summoned and replied to Maheśvara:

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Prabhā said: / Dwell here by a portion of yourself, O God, enemy of Manmatha, Lord of Umā! / Let one portion be established here for the manifestation of the sacred ford.

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Śrī Mārkaṇḍeya said: / A liṅga composed of all deities was established there, O Pāṇḍava, / famed as Prabhāseśa, difficult to attain in all the worlds.

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Whatever other sacred fords there are bear fruit in due course of time, / but Prabhāseśa, O best of kings, immediately grants the fruit of desires.

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Especially on the seventh day of the bright fortnight in the month of Māgha, / whoever causes a horse to touch a brahmin qualified as prescribed there, O king,

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the status of Indra or the realm of the Sun is attained by him. / Having bathed with supreme devotion, he should give a gift to a twice-born.

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The giver of a cow attains heaven, the Satyaloka, O best of rulers; / [a cow] beautiful in every limb, bright, giving milk, young, auspicious,

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with her calf, furnished with a bell, milked into a bronze vessel; / those who give such, O best of kings, do not go to the abode of Yama.

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Furthermore, whoever causes a bath of the god to be performed with supreme devotion, / he attains the highest realm until the dissolution of all beings.

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Misfortune meets destruction by merely bathing, O Pāṇḍava. / Whoever with devotion gives the gift of a maiden at that sacred ford,

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should give her through marriage to a brahmin, O son of Pāṇḍu; / she should be given to one equal in age, as well as in lineage, character, and wealth.

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Those who give, O great king, even if accompanied by major sins, / their sins dissolve just like salt in water:

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the sin committed by treachery to one's master, in appropriating a deposit, / in killing a friend, and in ingratitude, and that arising from false testimony.

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The [sin] arising from destroying a village or garden, adultery with another's wife, / the sin of a usurer, and the sin born of theft; 98.27

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and that born of destroying a well; of one keeping the cat-vow [of hypocrisy]; / of hypocrisy; arising from cutting down a tree; born of preventing a marriage; 98.28

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cutting down a tree standing in a grove; born of having intercourse with a woman forbidden to be approached; / and that which arises from abandoning one's own wife due to desiring another's wife; 98.29

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and that arising from seizing the property of a brahmin; in a poisoner; in a cow-killer; / that arising from selling sacred knowledge; and that sin born of [evil] association; 98.30

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the terrible sin from killing a dog or cat, likewise that born of killing a snake or Śūdra; / and the sin of one who seizes land, and regarding a robber of land; 98.31

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and the sin of saying “Do not give!” with regard to cows, fire, and brahmins— / that sin dissolves away through the gift of a maiden, O Pāṇḍava. 98.32

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Having gone to the world of the sun, he goes to the auspicious world of Rudra. / Residing in the world of Rudra, he sports as long as fourteen Indras endure. 98.33

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When all sins have been destroyed, devotion to Śiva arises. / Whoever goes to this sacred ford, Prabhāsa, O son of Pāṇḍu, 98.34

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having obtained the fruit of all sacred fords, he obtains the fruit of a horse-sacrifice. / The gift of a cow brings great religious merit, the supreme destruction of all sins, / and is indeed praised at all times, especially on the fourteenth day. 98.35

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Thus ends the ninety-eighth chapter, named 'Description of the Glory of Prabhāsa Ford,' in the Revā Section of the fifth section, the Āvantya Section, in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa containing eighty-one thousand verses.

Linked texts (1)

Skandapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit