Mudgalapurana 4.29: kārtikakṛṣṇacaturthīmāhātmyavarṇanaṃ nāma ekonatriṃśo'dhyāyaḥ

Homage to the glorious Gaṇeśa.

Daśaratha said: / The fourth [tithi] in the dark fortnight of Kārtika is considered Saṅkaṭī; / tell me its supreme greatness which removes all sins.

Vasiṣṭha said: / In this regard I will tell you an ancient history. / In Mahārāṣṭra there was a king of great splendor named Kardama.

He knew the truth of the Vedas and the meaning of the Vedas, and was devoted to his own dharma, / collecting a sixth share from the people and protecting them like children.

Possessed of a boundless army delighting in the four divisions, / with a full treasury, resembling Kubera, and skilled in weapons and missiles, he shone.

Having subdued all kings by his own strength, the very powerful one / brought the earth under his control, especially as far as the oceans.

Section 4, Chapter 29, Page 81) All the other kings paid tribute like servants, / and the feudatories, O great king, were obedient to his command.

Meritorious and virtuous in conduct, intent on various gifts, / eager [to honor] gods, Brahmins, and guests, he was devoted to his own wife.

A sacrificer, modest, a maker of sacred bathing places, a slayer of enemy heroes, / endowed with many virtues, even he cannot be fully described by me.

That very king was severely afflicted by consumption in the form of sin; / he became agitated with grief, and was reduced to mere bones.

Various remedies were undertaken for his relief, but he did not find relief; / then the great king became intent on pilgrimage to sacred places.

That king visited various sacred places, yet, alas, / he was not freed from the affliction; hence his mind was sorrowful.

Brahmins devoted to the worship of the gods were engaged by that great-souled one; / nonetheless, the king became even more beset with disease.

Then the king, maintaining composure, set his mind on dispassion; / leaving the kingdom to his ministers, he went to the forest with his wife.

Having gone to the forest, the lord of the earth wandered here and there; / then he saw the Brahmin Maṅkaṇaka, the best of yogins.

Seeing him, he fell to the ground and wept bitterly. / Then the foremost of sages, filled with compassion, addressed him:

Maṅkaṇaka said: / 'Listen, fortunate king, to that on account of which you are afflicted with disease; / I shall recount all that sin, O lowest of kings.

The principal observance, known as Caturthī, was ruined in your kingdom; / because of that, bound by sin, you will surely go to hell.

Before all else, that observance must be performed like a daily duty, O best of kings; / it brings about all perfections, is complete, and grants the fourfold fruits [of life].

Devoid of that observance, though devoted to various duties, / being bereft of the four ends of life, you are fruitless, O lowest of kings.'

Having spoken thus, the sage caused him to hear / the greatness connected with Caturthī; having heard it, he too spoke to him:

Kardama said: / 'Blessed is my birth, action, and everything else from seeing your two feet; / by hearing of the observance I am blessed, having accomplished my purpose, there is no doubt.

O ocean of compassion, describe in detail the true nature of Gaṇeśa; / I will constantly worship him, the supreme deity above all gods.'

Maṅkaṇaka said: / 'That essential nature of Gaṇeśa cannot be spoken of; / nevertheless, I shall describe it as endowed with limiting conditions; listen, O Kardama.

Formerly, subsisting on leaves, I remained engaged in ascetic penance; / when much time had passed, my hand was pierced by a thorn.

Then, lo, sap of leaves flowed from it, even a little! / Seeing that, my heart was amazed, and I began to dance.

"Ah, where has my natural blood gone from the body? / Due to the consumption of leaves, plant sap flows from the hand!"

Then, shaken by the force of the dance, the moving and unmoving creation, / joined with my ascetic power, trembled; the gods approached Śaṅkara.

Śaṅkara, arriving with all the gods, said to me: / "Why do you dance, O fortunate one? Behold my great marvel!"

Having said this, a snapping of fingers was performed by him there on my sap; / it was turned into ash, O king, and by that I was exceedingly amazed.

Abandoning the dance, bowing to Maheśāna, I praised him at once; / making himself invisible, Śaṅkara departed.

[Section 4, chapter 29, page 82] It was firmly held in my mind, O king of kings: "Higher than Śaṅkara / there is no Lord capable of doing, undoing, or altering.

Having displayed the nature of asceticism, great ash was made from the sap; / he too, all-pervading, is seen having the form of Brahman."

Abandoning Viṣṇu, I became devoted to the worship of Maheśa; / gradually endowed with yoga, abandoning severe penance, I became devoted to tranquil restraint.

Then the planes of yoga, beginning with the insentient, were traversed by me; / gradually I came to abide in the innate, free indeed from delusion.

Wandering here and there across the earth, holding fast to yoga, / the innate Brahman, devoid of delusion, was then perceived by me.

The independent, innate Brahman was not suitable for the peace-giving Supreme; / therefore, bewildered concerning Brahman, I went to Sūrya for refuge.

Having bowed, he was praised by me with a hymn in the solar tradition; / pleased, he said to me there: "Choose your desired boon!"

Then I said to Sūrya: "Lord, declare what bestows peace; / since the innate is free from delusion, it is independent and does not bestow peace."

Then, pleased and bound by devotion, Sūrya said to me: / "Worship Gaṇeśa with feeling; then you shall attain peace.

The non-existent is Śakti, the existent is Sūrya, Viṣṇu is the balanced, O great sage; / the innate is said to be Śaṅkara; in their conjunction is the Lord of Gaṇas.

And in the union of the four, Svānanda is proclaimed; / the non-connection devoid of the five shone forth there as free from illusion.

In conjunction, he is endowed with illusion; in union, he is devoid of illusion; / in the conjunction of the two, Gaṇeśa, the lord of Brahman, bestows peace.

Great intellect, consisting of mind, is proclaimed to be fivefold; / perfection brings about the delusion of mind; with these two the Lord of Obstacles sports.

Leaving behind the mind filled with delusion through yoga, O brahmin, / worship Cintāmaṇi, the bestower of peace, and you will become worthy of reverence by yogins."

Having spoken thus, the Lord gave me the six-syllabled mantra / together with the rite; having bowed to him, I returned to my hermitage.

There I worshipped Vighneśvara with devotion, constantly with reverence; / then in a short time I came to rest in peace through the practice of yoga.

Even so, worshipping the ruler of Gaṇas, intent on the mantra, / I adored him; pleased by that, he himself became visibly present.

Worshipped by me with devotion and praised with various hymns of praise, / having granted me steadfast devotion, he disappeared.

From that time forth, O king, I, a Gāṇapatya, with reverence / worship that lord Gaṇeśa freely, O great-minded one.'

Having spoken thus, the brahmin, endowed with the grace of Gaṇeśa, / gave that six-syllabled mantra with the rite to Kardama.

The great sage Maṅkaṇaka also disappeared; / filled with joy, the king returned to his own home.

There, first, the dark fourth lunar day arrived in the month of Kārttika; / joyful, the king observed it together with the people of the city.

Then that unexcelled observance was made famous by the king; / the people on earth performed the observance born of the bright and dark fourth lunar days.

Free from disease, that royal sage worshipped the leader of Gaṇas; / and the people, freed from barrenness, worshipped him filled with devotion.

Having abandoned the kingdom to his son, he went to the forest with his wife; / there he worshipped Vighneśvara with devotion and with single-pointed mind.

In the end, having attained Svānanda, he became one with Brahman. / (

[Section 4, chapter 30, page 83] In due course, those dwelling on earth became one with Brahman.

Thus the greatness of the observance has been told to you, O best of kings; / listen with devotion to another supreme one relating to Kārttika.

A certain outcaste, evil-minded, was devoted to violence; / he killed brahmins and other creatures dwelling in the forest.

Seeing another man's wife in the forest, he violated her by force; / thus that wicked-minded one constantly committed sins of various kinds.

Once, on the dark fourth lunar day in the month of Kārttika, having gone into the forest, / he who was intent on sin was bitten there by a snake.

Then, seized by intense fear, he went back to his own home. / There various remedies that counteract poison were administered by his relatives.

Even so, the affliction of the poison did not leave that exceedingly wicked man. / Then, at moonrise, he became somewhat conscious.

Eating food there, he became agitated again by that venom; / falling down there, the outcaste became devoid of motion.

On the fifth lunar day the sinner died and became one with Brahman. / By the power of the religious observance's merit, it was as if a wonder occurred.

In this way, O king, by the power of the religious observance's merit, / various people became one with Brahman; I am unable to describe it [all].

This entire greatness [of the observance] in the month of Kārtika has been told to you, O king. / Whoever reads or listens to [the greatness of] the Saṅkaṣṭī will attain what is desired.

Oṃ tat sat. Thus ends the twenty-ninth chapter, entitled "Description of the Greatness of the Dark Fourth of Kārtika," in the fourth section on the deeds of Gajānana, in the glorious, ultimate Purāṇopaniṣad, the glorious Maudgala Mahāpurāṇa.