Revākhaṇḍa ascribed to the Vāyupurāṇa (RKV) 150
English (machine translation) 150
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Contents
- 150.51 — 2 parts
150.1
Śrī Mārkaṇḍeya said: / Then one should go, O great king, to the supreme Kusumeśvara, / which destroys minor sins, on the southern bank of the Narmadā.
150.2
The god named Kusumeśvara was established by Kāma; / he is renowned in all the worlds as the eternal God of Gods.
150.3
Kāma, the mind-born, all-pervading, bearer of a bow of flower-weapons; / when worshipped, he whose banner is a fish grants all desires.
150.4
His body having been burned away, he worshipped the Supreme Lord, / and thus the bodiless one (Anaṅga) regained a body on the bank of the Narmadā.
150.5
Yudhiṣṭhira said: / Tell me how the embodied one came to destruction and became bodiless; / it was never heard nor seen by me, having occurred before.
150.6
Narrate all of this as it happened, O best of the twice-born; / I wish to hear, O chief of the sages, together with Bhīma, Arjuna, and the twins.
150.7
Śrī Mārkaṇḍeya said: / In the beginning, in the Kṛta age, O dear one, Maheśvara, the God of Gods, / performed extensive asceticism while staying at the confluence of the Gaṅgā and the ocean.
150.8
By his asceticism, the worlds together with the gods and demons were afflicted; / they all went for refuge to Śacī’s husband, the god of the gods.
150.9
“Maheśvara, the God of Gods, who pervades all beings, / torments the three worlds. Ward him off, O lord of the earth!”
150.10
Hearing that speech of those gods, the slayer of Bala and Vṛtra / thought in his mind and gave orders for the disruption of the asceticism.
150.11
To the apsarases Menakā, Rambhā, Ghṛtācī, and Tilottamā, / to Spring, the cuckoo, Kāma, and the excellent southern breeze:
150.12
“Having gone there, agitate Mahādeva, who is intent on the practice of austerities, / dwelling at the confluence of the Gaṅgā and the ocean, in the appropriate manner.”
150.13
Thus addressed by the king of the gods, O Bhārata, / they, accompanied by divine apsarases, went into the presence of Hara.
150.14
In the spring month filled with flower-gardens, crowded with peacocks, gallinules, and sweet cuckoos, / teeming with the singing of dancing divine apsarases, while the wind from the south and southwest blew,
150.15
all the best of birds, along with the kinnaras and great serpents, / were stupefied by that and by contact with the scent of the spring season.
150.16
As far as he looks, so far was that forest agitated; / he beholds people possessed by passion, having reached the ten stages of love.
150.17
Even the God of Gods entered the three states— / the pure, the passionate, and the dark, O king; listen to them from me.
150.18
May Śambhu's three eyes, each with a different sentiment at the time of meditation, protect you: / one closed in the absorption of yoga; a second, heavy with the weight of erotic passion on the slope of Pārvatī’s hips and breasts; / and another blazing with the fire of anger at Kāma, whose bow was cast far away.
150.19
Seen thus by the god, with his arrows and with his bow, / Kāma, the destroyer of all embodied beings, was turned to ash and gone.
150.20
Seeing Kāma come to destruction, the hosts of gods and apsarases there, / terrified, went in all ten directions, just as they had come.
150.21
The worlds, including gods, demons, and humans, being devoid of love, / the gods, led by Indra, went to Brahmā for refuge.
150.22
Seeing the universe languishing, they spoke to the supreme deity: / “You know, O Lord, that the survival of the world arises from copulation.
150.23
All creatures are withering away, bereft of love, O all-pervading lord!”
150.24
Hearing these words of the gods, the Great-grandfather
went together [with them] to where the god Maheśvara was.
150.25
He propitiated the Lord of the universe, the great lord of all beings,
with praises, Taṇḍu's hymns, and eulogies arising from the Vedas and Vedāṅgas.
150.26
Then Mahādeva, the supreme lord of the gods, pleased,
spoke sweet words to the gods led by Brahmā:
150.27
"What is the matter, what is the distress, and what is the reason for the arrival
of the gods and sages? Tell me without delay."
150.28
The gods said:
"Through the destruction of Kāma, the destruction of this universe of moving and unmoving beings will occur.
You ought to bring forth the three worlds once again, O Śambhu."
150.29
Hearing their words and reflecting, the Supreme Lord
contemplated Kāma's bodily form, hard to attain in the world.
150.30
Then the Bodiless One, having assumed a body, quickly arrived,
the giver of life to all beings, as they looked on, O best of kings.
150.31
Then, with the blare of conches and the sound of kettledrums,
the gods, asuras, and great serpents rejoiced at the god.
150.32
"Salutations to you, O Lord of the gods!" Their purpose fulfilled, the best of the gods,
dismissed, returned the way they had come, O subduer of foes.
150.33
When all the gods had departed, Kāmadeva also, O Bhārata,
performed vast austerity, taking refuge on the bank of the Narmadā.
150.34
Emaciated by austerity and recitation for a celestial hundred years,
afflicted on all sides by great spirits creating obstacles,
150.35
Kuṇḍaleśvara was remembered to destroy his own obstacles;
he created protection everywhere within an arrow's flight, O best of kings.
150.36
Then Mahādeva, pleased by his steadfast devotion, granter of boons,
the destroyer of Kāma, invited Kāma to choose a boon.
150.37
Knowing Mahādeva to be pleased, he whose banner is a fish
bowed with joined palms and spoke to the three-eyed god of gods:
150.38
"If you are pleased, O Lord of gods, if a boon is to be granted to me,
always remain present at this pilgrimage place, O Lord of the universe."
150.39
Saying "So be it," the god of gods, Maheśvara,
ascended into the sky and departed, praised by hosts of apsarases.
150.40
And when the god had vanished from sight, Kāmadeva established
the Guru of the universe named Kusumeśvara, O king of kings.
150.41
Whoever, devoted to fasting, bathes at that pilgrimage place
in the month of Caitra on the fourteenth day, or on the day of Madana,
150.42
when clear dawn arrives, having bathed and worshipped the Sun,
should satiate the ancestors and gods with water mixed with sesame seeds.
150.43
Having performed the sacred bath according to rule and worshipped him, O king,
he should offer balls of rice. Hear the fruit of religious merit for that:
150.44
The fruit which one who performs a sacrificial session for twelve years obtains,
that fruit one obtains through the offering of rice balls; of this there is no doubt.
150.45
Whoever causes a rice ball to be given at the root of the Aṅkulla tree for his ancestors,
his grandfathers attain satisfaction for twelve years.
150.46
Even worms, insects, and moths that die at that pilgrimage place, O Yudhiṣṭhira,
attain heaven; how much more so men who have died [there]?
150.47
A man who, having conquered anger and subdued his senses, takes up renunciation here
at Kusumeśa with devotion, goes to the abode of Śiva.
150.48
There, served by celestial apsarases and divine Gandharva singers,
he sports for a hundred times ten million kalpas, O king.
150.49
And then, when that time is completed, having returned to human birth here,
he is born a great king, worshipped by kings of kings.
150.50
Handsome, fortunate, eloquent, heroic, wise, and pure,
he lives for a full hundred years, free from all diseases.
150.51
This holy place, remover of sins, greater than a hundred million pilgrimage places,
is renowned as Kusumeśa, bowed to by all the gods.
150.51.p1
|| Thus ends the one hundred and fiftieth chapter, named 'Description of the Glorification of the Kusumeśvara Pilgrimage Place', in the Revākhaṇḍa of the Avantyakhaṇḍa, in the Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.
150.51.p2
Revākhaṇḍa, chapter 151
Linked texts (1)
- Revākhaṇḍa (Vāyupurāṇa) — Sanskrit