Revākhaṇḍa ascribed to the Vāyupurāṇa (RKV) 14
English (machine translation) 14
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- English
Contents
- 14.66 — 2 parts
14.1
Yudhiṣṭhira said: / Then all those great and fortunate sages rich in ascetic power / went to the supreme world; after that, what wonderful thing occurred?
14.2
Śrī Mārkaṇḍeya said: / Then, when those dwellers on the banks of the Narmadā had departed, / there occurred the terrible dissolution causing the destruction of all beings.
14.3
Brahmā and the others praised the eternal Mahādeva, / the god Śiva residing on the peak of Kailāsa, with the Ṛg, Yajus, and Sāma verses:
14.4
"Dissolve the universe, O God, along with gods, asuras, and mortals! / The end of a thousand yugas has arrived, the time capable of dissolution.
14.5
Assuming my form, this was created by you; / assuming the Vaiṣṇava form, this was protected by you.
14.6
One form has become threefold: relating to Brahmā, Śiva, and Viṣṇu, / for the sake of creation, dissolution, and protection; it should be thus, O Maheśvara."
14.7
Hearing this true speech of Viṣṇu and Parameṣṭhin, / with his retinue, with his attendants, with both of them, and with Umā,
14.8
having pierced through these equal worlds, the Blessed One, Nīlalohita, / from the earth up to the realm of Brahmā, having pierced the cosmic egg beyond the beyond,
14.9
the omnipresent lord entered together with them that unborn, divine abode of Śiva. / There is no wind there, no space, no fire there, and no surface of the earth,
14.10
where the god Śaṅkara remains together with Umā; / there is no sun there, no planets, no stars, nor directions,
14.11
no world guardians, no pleasure, and no pain, O best of kings.
14.12
That which the wise call the state of Brahman, that which the wise call the state of Śiva, / and others call the Knower of the Field, the Lord, and the Sāṃkhyas sing of as primal liberation,
14.13
which some call the primal Brahman, whom [they call] the unborn, ancient Lord of all, / him who is of one form, who is of manifold forms, formless, primal, the highest, named the imperishable,
14.14
devoid of color, purpose, name, and lineage, which the wise call the fourth state, / consisting of knowledge for the sake of meditation, extremely subtle, situated in the Self, the best Lord, worthy of choice—
14.15
then those three, having reached the blessed Lord and contracting, become the essence; / then, by means of their distinct individual forms, they again protect the entire universe.
14.16
The lord performs the destruction of all beings in the state of Rudra, / he protects the worlds in the state of Viṣṇu, and is the author of creation in the state of Brahmā.
14.17
Conjoined with Prakṛti, Maheśvara became Time; / she, of universal form and greatly fortunate, stood at his side.
14.18
She whom those who know reality, discerning in categories, call Prakṛti; / Parameśvara is the cause both of being Puruṣa and being Prakṛti.
14.19
Therefore, this entire world, moving and unmoving, / goes into dissolution in him alone when the end of the yuga arrives.
14.20
Everything marked by the bhaga and the liṅga is indeed pervaded by Parameṣṭhin; / Viṣṇu is of the form of the bhaga, and Maheśvara is of the form of the liṅga.
14.21
He shines in all the worlds, and is sung of in Bhūr, Bhuvas, and the rest; / he has entered into all beings; therefore Viṣṇu is known as bhaga.
14.22
Because of entering, the great one, consisting of all gods, is called Viṣṇu; / and from shining and moving, the designation bhaga is proclaimed.
14.23
That in which the universe, from Brahmā down to a clump of grass, attains dissolution, / having reached a single state—therefore the wise know it as the liṅga.
14.24
Then Mahādeva spoke to the goddess standing beside him at that time: / "Dissolve the entire universe! Do not delay, O fair one!
14.25
Abandon this gentle form, spotless as the white moonbeams; / adopting a terrible form, dissolve the moving and unmoving!
14.26
Surrounded by terrifying, fierce multitudes of spirits, O goddess, / devour this entire world of living beings, O lotus-eyed one!
14.27
Then I shall crush and likewise submerge the universe; / and having turned it into a single ocean, I will sleep happily with you again."
14.28
The goddess said: / "I will not dissolve this world, O God of great splendor! / Having become a mother, I will not devour that which is helpless and greatly distressed.
14.29
By woman's inherent nature, my heart feels compassion; / how indeed can I burn this world, O Lord of the universe?
14.30
Therefore, you yourself dissolve this world, O Śaṅkara!" / Then, addressed in this manner, the god with matted hair, Nīlalohita,
14.31
Enraged, he rebuked the Great Goddess with the sound "hūṃ". / With eyes possessed by wrath, he said: "Om hūṃ phaṭ, be you [so]!"
14.32
Addressed with the sound "hūṃ", the wide-eyed goddess of plump thighs and hips / instantly became terrifying, like Kālarātrī, O descendant of Bharata.
14.33
Uttering "hūṃ" with great roars, making the ten directions resound, / she expanded, greatly terrifying, like a flashing bolt of lightning.
14.34
Hard to look at like the falling of lightning, flickering like a mass of lightning, / agitated with flames of lightning, fierce, with eyes resembling lightning and fire,
14.35
with dishevelled hair, wide eyes, a thin neck, and a lean belly, / wearing a tiger skin as a garment, having a serpent for a sacred thread,
14.36
adorned with scorpions resembling heaps of fire and with gonasa vipers, / she filled the three worlds with her breadth and height.
14.37
With a radiant body she appeared, having a black snake as a single earring, / raising a strange staff in her hand, dressed in a tiger skin.
14.38
Greatly terrifying, she expanded, bringing about the destruction of the world, / licking the corners of her mouth, uttering cruel hisses.
14.39
With open mouth, producing rattling sounds, shaking the universe, / followed by playing spirits, cruel, drawing breaths in and out,
14.40
bursting into loud laughter, with an ugly nose, with eyes like fire pits, / raising a kilakilā clamour, she burned up the entire world.
14.41
Being burned there, the gods fell to the surface of the earth; / the yakṣas and gandharvas fell, along with kinnaras and great serpents.
14.42
The hosts of spirits fell, crying "Alas, alas! Ah, ah!", / with wailing shouts, with thunderclaps, and with cries of distress raised.
14.43
The entire universe, the three worlds with their moving and unmoving beings, was pervaded then; / the earth [was covered] with flaming hosts of spirits rushing together and falling.
14.44
With cracking noises that arose and falling mountain peaks, / in that fierce festival she became one who increases the joy of Rudra.
14.45
Slaughtering beings and chewing even immovable things, / catching their various scents, howling with the cries of jackals,
14.46
with a face [covered] by flowing streams of blood and an anointed body, / fierce in nature, Caṇḍī engaged in the work of destroying the universe.
14.47
Even those great sages such as Bhṛgu who had attained Maharloka, / they too perished by the hundreds—Brahmins, Kṣatriyas, Vaiśyas, and others.
14.48
Terrified with fear, gods and asuras, along with yakṣas, serpents, and rākṣasas, / some entered Pātāla and concealed themselves in caves and the like.
14.49
And that goddess, pervading all the directions, stood like Death, / appointed by the god at the time that brings about the end of the yuga.
14.50
Though one, she became ninefold, and tenfold, and again tenfold; / having sixty-four forms, and a hundred forms, laughing aloud,
14.51
she was born with a thousand forms, and Śivā had a hundred thousand and ten million bodies, / having various forms and weapons, wielding various instruments.
14.52
Such did the goddess become at Śiva's command, O king. / In all directions and in the sky, [spirits] bearing fearsome weapons,
14.53
the attendants of Maheśvara stood blocking those who were perishing; / they roamed along with her, tridents and sharp spears in hand.
14.54
Then some hosts of Mothers, together with the hosts of Vināyakas, / greatly terrifying, expanded, bringing about the destruction of the world.
14.55
Then her fangs expanded, resembling jasmine and the moon, / [measuring] thousands, tens of thousands, and hundreds of millions of yojanas.
14.56
Her rows of fangs and claws—cruel, sharp, and hard— / indeed scratched the sky, the directions, and the earth with its seven continents.
14.57
Forests and mountains were crushed to powder by the blows of her fangs; / masses of rock heaps shattered by the thousands.
14.58
Himavat, Hemakūṭa, Niṣadha, Gandhamādana, / Mālyavat, Nīla, and the great mountain Śveta,
14.59
the seat of the earth with Meru at its centre, with its seven continents and with the oceans, / together with the Lokāloka mountain, trembled, O best of kings.
14.60
Touched by the lightning bolts of her fangs, great trees shattered, / and the directions were pervaded all around by dreadful portents.
14.61
All the stars and planetary hosts, and the celestial beings in their aerial cars, / were overwhelmed by thousands of jackals and great hosts of Mothers.
14.62
She traversed the entire world when the end of the yuga arrived, / while [spirits] wandered, spoke, and shrieked on all sides.
14.63
The ten directions were filled with fierce beings crushing and blazing; / the vast mass of mountains had its rocks and trees shaken;
14.64
the gateways of city gates were shattered, strewn with hair and dry bones; / villages and towns were burnt, covered in heaps of ashes;
14.65
all the three worlds, with moving and unmoving beings, were choked with funeral smoke, / all filled with cries of "Alas, alas!", resounding with cries of grief.
14.66
All this world became without shelter and without refuge.
14.66.p1
|| Thus ends the fourteenth chapter, entitled 'The Description of the Destruction of the Universe Wrought by Kālarātri' in the recount of the cosmic age, in the glorification of the Narmadā, in the Revākhaṇḍa, in the fifth Avantyakhaṇḍa, in the great purāṇa the Śrī Skandapurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.
14.66.p2
Revākhaṇḍa, Chapter 15
Linked texts (1)
- Revākhaṇḍa (Vāyupurāṇa) — Sanskrit