Revākhaṇḍa ascribed to the Vāyupurāṇa (RKV) 13
English (machine translation) 13
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Contents
- 13.47 — 2 parts
13.1
Glorious Mārkaṇḍeya said: / Thus praised by the eminent sages, the holy goddess / thought: 'I shall grant an excellent boon to all.'
13.2
Then, knowing they had fallen asleep at night, the goddess went, / sweet-smiling, and appeared in the dream of each individual sage.
13.3
Then, when midnight arrived, she rose from the midst of the water, / clad in spotless garments, adorned with divine garlands,
13.4
holding a parasol, fair-hipped, embellished with rubies; / she said to them, to each one individually: 'Do not fear!
13.5
Dwell by my side, having cast off fear born of hunger and the like.'
13.6
Having spoken thus to those great sages at the end of their dreams, the goddess then / disappeared, entering her own waters.
13.7
Then in the morning, the sages, filled with joy, said to one another: / 'She was seen just so, the fair-looking goddess was seen by me in a dream!
13.8
Freedom from fear has been granted to us, and accomplishment soon; / auspicious is the vision of that Narmadā, without a doubt.'
13.9
Then on another day, O king, with their families they saw / the excellent form of fishes near their own hermitage.
13.10
Having seen those fishes there, filled with wonder, the great sages, / remaining composed, worshipped the deities with sacrificial offerings to gods and ancestors.
13.11
Having obtained those shoals of fish by the grace of the great goddess, / they, along with their sons, wives, and servants, sustained themselves individually.
13.12
Then day by day, seeing such a collection of fishes in their hermitages, / the twice-born were astonished.
13.13
Seeing those well-nourished, dead [fishes], especially the carp, / at door after door of the hermitages of the ascetics, O Yudhiṣṭhira,
13.14
all those sages residing on the bank of the Narmadā / then became glad and robust, and they all abandoned fear born of hunger and thirst.
13.15
They remained, chanting and practicing austerities, O bull among the Bharatas, / worshipping ancestors and deities, taking refuge on the bank of the Narmadā.
13.16
Because of those best of twice-born constantly chanting and performing austerities, / that best of rivers shone like the sky with stars and planets.
13.17
There, by those numerous, radiant brāhmaṇas who had mastered the Vedas, / the Narmadā, giver of righteousness, was formerly divided in proper order.
13.18
By ten crores of sages residing on the bank of the Narmadā, / this Narmadā, with divided streams, was apportioned, granting bliss to men.
13.19
With auspicious sacred threads and rosaries, O Bhārata, / on both banks, the exceedingly holy Narmadā flowed to the ocean.
13.20
With separate, bright sanctuaries and liṅgas of sand and clay, / that best of rivers shone like the night with constellations.
13.21
In this way, all those sages, offering oblations to gods and ancestors, / dwelt on the bank of the Narmadā until the flood of the universe.
13.22
When somewhat more than a terrible hundred years had then elapsed, / at midnight a maiden emerged from the water, O Bhārata,
13.23
shining like a mass of lightning, having a serpent as her sacred thread, / holding a trident in her hand, gentle; she then spoke to the sages:
13.24
'Come, O hosts of sages, enter into me who am not born of a womb, / accompanied by your sons and wives; then you will attain perfection.
13.25
Whatever desire anyone has, I grant that very desire to him: / Viṣṇu, Brahmā, Īśāna, or another supreme god;
13.26
I, being pleased and granting boons, shall lead all there. / Devoting yourselves to breath-control, enter into me with concentrated minds,
13.27
along with your sons and wives, abandoning the hermitages. / No delay should be made: this dissolution has arrived,
13.28
the destruction of all living beings, the terrible burning of the eon. / Formerly, I alone remained during the immensely terrible destruction of creatures.
13.29
The remaining rivers and oceans all went to destruction; / by the granting of a boon by Maheśa, because of that I did not go to destruction.
13.30
The Lord is immortal, eternal, motionless, the primordial ruler; / when worshipped or petitioned, what would he not grant, O best of twice-born?'
13.31
Having spoken thus to the sages, the Revā then entered the water, / that goddess holding a trident in her hand, with a serpent as her sacred thread.
13.32
Then, having heard her words, their minds filled with wonder, / and having bowed to me, all of them begging forgiveness again and again:
13.33
"May whatever was said by us while dwelling under your protection be forgiven, / having abandoned their homes, the fortunate ones together with their pupils and kin,
13.34
and having recited the single-syllabled Brahman, meditating in their hearts on Maheśvara, / and having bathed in waters purified by mantras, strict in their vows,
13.35
they entered the waters of the Narmadā like mountains with wings, / illuminating all the quarters, kuśa grass in hand, accompanied by sacred fires."
13.36
When they had departed, O best of kings, I alone remained then, / having approached Amareśa, worshipping the river Narmadā.
13.37
Seven kalpas, beginning with the Māyūra, have been experienced by me, O king, / all by the grace of the Creator, together with the Revā, O Bhārata.
13.38
From my birth until this day, I do not know her prior existence.
13.39
For she is the power of Śaṅkara, a portion of Śambhu named Ilā, / the Narmadā, destroying misfortune and carrying [beings] across existence.
13.40
When I did not even exist in former kalpas, O Pāṇḍava, / in those fourteen kalpas, she was comfortably established.
13.41
There were fourteen kalpas in the past in which the Narmadā did not perish; / I shall speak of them fully, just as the goddess told me.
13.42
Know the Kāpila to be the first, the Prājāpatya the second, / the Brāhma, Saumya, Sāvitra, Bārhaspatya, and Prabhāsaka;
13.43
the Māhendra, Agnikalpa, Jayanta, and likewise the Māruta, / the Vaiṣṇava, Bahurūpa, and the fourteenth, Jyautiṣa.
13.44
These are the kalpas proclaimed by me, in which the Narmadā did not perish; / the fifteenth is the Māyūra, and the sixteenth here is the Kaurma,
13.45
the Baka, the Mātsya, the Pādma, and the Vaṭakalpa, O Bhārata, / and this twenty-first, the current Vārāha.
13.46
These seven have been witnessed by me along with the Revā; / but the twenty-one kalpas of the Narmadā born from Śiva's body,
13.47
O best of kings, have indeed been seen by me many times; / they have been told to you, O best of monarchs; what more shall I tell you?
13.47.p1
|| Thus ends the thirteenth chapter, named 'Description of the Account of the Twenty-One Kalpas', in the Narmadāmāhātmya of the Revākhaṇḍa, in the fifth Avantīkhaṇḍa, in the Skanda Mahāpurāṇa of eighty-one thousand verses.
13.47.p2
RKV Chapter 14
Linked texts (1)
- Revākhaṇḍa (Vāyupurāṇa) — Sanskrit