Revākhaṇḍa ascribed to the Vāyupurāṇa (RKV) 125
English (machine translation) 125
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Contents
- 125.44 — 2 parts
125.1
The glorious Mārkaṇḍeya said: / Next one should go, O protector of the earth, to the unsurpassed Ravitīrtha, / where the thousand-rayed god, having performed austerity, went to heaven.
125.2
Yudhiṣṭhira said: / How did the god, the creator of the universe, worshipped by all the gods, / the lord of the gods, Bhāskara, Ravi, perform austerity as an ascetic?
125.3
He who is to be worshipped by all beings and is praised by all the gods, / is visibly seen in the world, the cause of creation and destruction.
125.4
How did he attain the state of Āditya, and why is he called Bhāskara? / Tell me all this in brief, O sinless one.
125.5
Mārkaṇḍeya said: / A great question has been asked by you, O great king; / having bowed to the Self-born, I shall explain all that.
125.6
This [universe] was in the form of darkness—unknown, without distinctive marks, / inconceivable, unknowable, as if completely asleep everywhere.
125.7
Then [emerged] divine light, an incomparable heated mass, / descending from the sky like a meteor for the purpose of creation.
125.8
Within that light, a Puruṣa was born, adorned with everything; / he is Śiva, without hands or feet, by whom all this is pervaded.
125.9
When that being, whose form is light, was born, O descendant of Bharata, / afterwards, in the course of time, he became Prajāpati, and again Kāla.
125.10
He became the fire of all beings—humans, asuras, and rākṣasas— / and the supreme deity of all the gods; therefore he is called Āditya.
125.11
Salutation is made to him first, and afterwards to the others / by all the deities, and by all the great sages.
125.12
The three junctures of the day and the three gods are present in the orb of the sun; / when the sun is saluted, all the gods are saluted.
125.13
There would be neither day nor night, nor the six months of the southern course, / nor the northern course, without Bhāskara, O king.
125.14
Bathing, giving gifts, recitation of mantras, oblations, Vedic study, and worship of deities / do not take place without the sun; therefore Ravi is the most venerable.
125.15
Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Maheśvara are conveyed through words and prominent in revelation; / [but this] blessed god is visibly seen, the purifier of the worlds.
125.16
The source, the place of dissolution, the receptacle, the imperishable seed, / the sole cause, the lord of the universe—there is none other than Bhāskara.
125.17
Having thus manifested from himself the universe of moving and unmoving beings, / he established the path of dharma for the welfare of the worlds.
125.18
Resorting to the bank of the Narmadā and establishing his body there, / the thousand-rayed one, the repository of splendours, went to the imperishable sky.
125.19
Whoever bathes at that pilgrimage place and worships the Supreme Lord, / the thousand-rayed god, according to the rule of the name-mantras,
125.20
by him austerity has been performed, by him sacrifice offered, by him all has been observed; / by him, according to proper rule, the supreme state has been attained.
125.21
Fortunate are they, great-souled are they, and fruitful is their life, / who, having bathed in the water of the Narmadā, behold the god Bhāskara.
125.22
Likewise, O best of kings, those who circumambulate the god, / constantly with undivided devotion, endowed with the three syllables,
125.23
their bodies purified by that mantra, their sins removed— / listen with focused mind to what religious merit they attain:
125.24
By him, together with the ocean caves, with mountains, forests, and groves, / the entire earth has been circumambulated; of this there is no doubt.
125.25
All these three worlds, with moving and unmoving beings, are rooted in mantras; / therefore an act devoid of mantra does not succeed in the world.
125.26
Just as a wooden elephant or a leather deer / cannot accomplish the desired purpose, so too an act without mantra [is futile].
125.27
Just as an oblation poured on ashes, O son of Pṛthā, or [a field] devoid of water, / or a gift given without mantra becomes fruitless,
125.28
especially in the case of [images of] wood, stone, clods of earth, or clay, / people perform worship in the world with a mantra, never without a mantra.
125.29
The fruit one gains from bowing down with devotion for twelve years, / one gains at once from a single bow accompanied by mantra.
125.30
And at a solstice transition, an astronomical conjunction, a solstice, or an equinox, / he who, having bathed in the water of the Narmadā, worships Ravi,
125.31
Whatever sin has been accumulated through ignorance or knowledge over twelve years
is destroyed that very instant, just like chaff by fire.
125.32
Bathing during an eclipse of the moon or the sun, fasting and with senses conquered,
beholding the face of the sun there, one is freed from all sins.
125.33
When the month of Māgha has arrived, on the seventh lunar day, O best of kings,
fasting and with anger subdued, dwelling in the temple of the sun,
125.34
having bathed at dawn according to the rules, he offers water to the sun.
Accompanied by mantras according to rule, he obtains supreme religious merit.
125.35
Indeed, having performed the water-offering for ancestors, gods, and mortals,
he should then perform worship in the temple of the god of gods.
125.36
Having worshipped the Lord of the World with fragrances, flowers, incenses,
and auspicious lamps and food offerings, he should then utter the mantra:
125.37
"Viṣṇu, Śakra, Yama, Dhātṛ, Mitra, and Varuṇa,
Vivasvat, Savitṛ, Pūṣan, Caṇḍāṃśu, and Bharga."
125.38
Reciting these twelve names while circumambulating,
listen with single-minded focus to the fruit one obtains, O Pārtha:
125.39
Poor, diseased, mute, deaf, or dull
he will not become for seven births—thus indeed spoke Śaṅkara.
125.40
Knowing this, reciting the mantra according to rule, the wise man
who desires supreme religious merit should worship Ravi with devotion.
125.41
Whoever, however, shows devotion to the god without mantras, O Bhārata,
makes a fool of himself, like a beast, a worm, or a moth.
125.42
Whoever abandons his excellent body at that pilgrimage place,
he goes there, worshipped by the gods and great sages.
125.43
At will, for a very long time, he becomes a king in this world.
125.44
Blessed with sons and grandsons, accompanied by elephants, horses, and chariots,
endowed with hundreds of maidservants and manservants, he is born into a vast lineage.
125.44.p1
|| Thus ends the one hundred and twenty-fifth chapter, entitled "Description of the Glorification of Ravitīrtha," in the Revākhaṇḍa of the Avantyakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skandapurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.
125.44.p2
RKV Chapter 126
Linked texts (1)
- Revākhaṇḍa (Vāyupurāṇa) — Sanskrit