Revākhaṇḍa ascribed to the Vāyupurāṇa (RKV) 38
English (machine translation) 38
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- English
Contents
- 38.77 — 2 parts
38.1
The venerable Mārkaṇḍeya said: / “Then one should go, O king of kings, to the supreme [place] called Guhāvāsī, / where the great god Guhāvāsī attained perfection for a hundred million years.”
38.2
Yudhiṣṭhira said: / “For what purpose, O venerable sir, did the great god, teacher of the world, / spend such a very long time in a cave, O best of the twice-born?
38.3
Tell me all this in detail, O sinless one; / I wish to hear everything, for great is my curiosity.”
38.4
Mārkaṇḍeya said: / “An excellent question has been asked by you, O great king, a noble one indeed! / Its full elaboration in the purāṇa cannot be told by me now,
38.5
because of my advanced age, having transpired a long time ago. / Therefore, my dear [king], I shall tell it to you in brief; listen to me:
38.6
Long ago, in the Kṛta age, O king, there was a great forest, Dāruvana, / filled with various trees and creepers, adorned with diverse climbing plants,
38.7
inhabited by lions, tigers, boars, elephants, and rhinoceroses, / filled with many birds, divine, like the Caitraratha forest.
38.8
There dwelt some very wise sages of strict vows; / they lived there with supreme devotion, devoted to the four stages of life:
38.9
the student, the householder, the forest-dweller, and the ascetic— / all devoted to their own duties, aspiring to the highest state.
38.10
Then, during spring-time, for some particular reason, / the great god, travelling in his aerial chariot together with Umā,
38.11
beheld a settlement near the water, resonating with the Ṛg, Sāman, and Yajur [Vedas], / having unperceived entrances and exits, destroying all sins.
38.12
Seeing it, the delighted goddess, with a voice choked with joy, / asked the god of the gods, who is adorned with the crescent moon.
38.13
The goddess said: / ‘Whose hermitage is this, O god, echoing with the sound of the Vedas, / seeing which fatigue caused by hunger, thirst, and the like is dispelled?’
38.14
Maheśvara said: / ‘Have you not heard, O goddess, of the great Dāruvana, / where many brāhmaṇa folk abide according to the duty of householders?
38.15
Here, whatever women there are, they are devoted to serving their husbands; / no other god and no other duty is known to them, O daughter of the mountain.’
38.16
Hearing this supreme statement spoken by the god of gods, / seized with curiosity, she spoke again to Śaṅkara:
38.17
‘As to what you have said, O great god, that the women are devoted to the duty of a wife, / assume the form of the god of love and shake their virtuous conduct, O lord!’
38.18
Īśvara said: / ‘The words you have spoken do not please me, my beloved. / Brāhmaṇas are indeed formidable beings; one should never do what is displeasing to them.
38.19
Brāhmaṇas have anger as their weapon; Hari has the discus as his weapon. / Anger is more cruel than the discus; therefore one should not enrage a brāhmaṇa.
38.20
There are no gods, no worlds, no mountains, nor asuras / seen in the three worlds that have not been destroyed by their mere glance.
38.21
Liberation, heaven, and earthly fruits among mortals belong to those / with whom the illustrious brāhmaṇas, gods on earth, are pleased.
38.22
Knowing this, O fortunate one, abandon this obstinate folly / that is contrary to the world, on account of which the twice-born would become angry.’
38.23
The goddess said: / ‘I am not your beloved, O god, nor do I hold sway over you, / unless you bring down their pride, which is revered by the gods!
38.24
In all the worlds, O Mahādeva, there is nothing impossible for you, O lord. / Just do this one thing for me, O best of the gods!’
38.25
Thus addressed, the great god, devoted to what pleased the goddess, / assumed the form of a Kāpālika and went toward Dāruvana.
38.26
Fastening his massive matted hair, adorned with the moon, / wearing an excellent throat-guard, wearing earrings in his ears,
38.27
clad in a tiger's skin, adorned with a girdle and garlands, / making the earth tremble with the sounds of his jingling anklets,
38.28
wearing a garland of great upright matted locks, smeared with ashes and an animal hide, / and taking in his hand the skull of the great-souled Brahmā.
38.29
shaking the earth indeed with the loud sound of a great drum, / he reached the great Pine Forest at daybreak.
38.30
Meanwhile, the virtuous people, seeking flowers, leaves, and fruits, / went out everywhere together with many others, purifying [the area].
38.31
Seeing that greatly wondrous form of the god, O descendant of Bharata, / their young women's minds were agitated by desire.
38.32
Having seen that handsome man, all the excellent women, / the women of the Pine Forest, were then overcome with moistening passion out of delight.
38.33
Many agitations arose among them, the wives of the brahmins, / upon seeing the greatly marvelous god, O best of men.
38.34
Some excellent women did not know [what happened to] their garments upon seeing him, / and others their upper garments, filled with immense bewilderment.
38.35
One, with her mass of hair fallen loose, rising up from her seat, / wishing to give alms, was unable even to move.
38.36
Another, proud of her beauty and youth, having seen Mahādeva, / forgot to nurse the child resting on her lap at her breast.
38.37
Another, struck by the arrows of desire, clasping her beautiful breasts with her arms, / sighing hot breaths, said nothing in response.
38.38
Having thus agitated all the womenfolk, the Supreme Lord / went away, having caused immense agitation among them.
38.39
Meanwhile all those brahmins, having wandered through the great forest, / returned to their homes and saw their wives drained of vigor.
38.40
They whose devotion to their husbands had formerly been superior in fidelity— / knowing them to be perturbed, the best of the twice-born quickly set out.
38.41
Coming to an ultimate understanding, they realized he was the god Maheśvara, / who had agitated their minds and then vanished from sight.
38.42
Filled with anger, one twice-born ran brandishing a staff, / others a spotted stick, and others a fistful of darbha grass.
38.43
Having roamed here and there throughout the forest, O king, / those great-souled ones gathered together and uttered these words in fury:
38.44
“If any offering has been poured here, if our teachers have been pleased, / by that truth let the god's supreme liṅga fall!
38.45
If we all do not abandon [our progression] from stage of life to stage of life according to the prescribed order, / by that truth let the god's liṅga fall to the surface of the earth!”
38.46
Thus, by the power of truth uttered thrice by the twice-born, / Śiva's liṅga fell upon the earth's surface before his very eyes.
38.47
A great cry of distress arose even across the visible and invisible worlds, O descendant of Bharata, / when the god's liṅga fell, as if during the great dissolution of the world.
38.48
A terrible noise arose as the liṅga fell; / meteors fell, cries of distress [filled] the directions, and terrible earthquakes occurred.
38.49
Mountain peaks fell, and the oceans dried up; / when the god's liṅga fell, the gods were downcast.
38.50
All assembling together before Brahmā the Supreme Lord, / with their palms joined, they praised him with various hymns.
38.51
Then the lord of the universe, whose face is a lotus of four countenances, being pleased, / said to all the distressed gods: “Do not despair.
38.52
This three-eyed god of gods has been overcome by a curse of the brahmins; / once they are propitiated by his asceticism, he will attain release again.”
38.53
Having heard this, the gods went as they had come, O subduer of enemies. / Then all the sages, having reflected, O descendant of Bharata—
38.54
Viśvāmitra, Vasiṣṭha, and others, as well as Jābāli and Kaśyapa— / assembling together, said to that destroyer of Tripura:
38.55
“The spiritual power of brahmins is indeed mighty, O lord of gods! / Endowed with forbearance, having performed penance, you will be freed from exhaustion.
38.56
Because of the agitation of the sages, this excellent liṅga of yours / has fallen, O Mahādeva, and it would not be worshipped [otherwise].
38.57
That good is not attained by the Agnihotra nor by the Agniṣṭoma / which human beings obtain in worshipping the liṅga.
38.58
By the word of the brahmins, it shall become worthy of worship / by gods, Dānavas, Yakṣas, Gandharvas, serpents, and Rākṣasas.
38.59
It shall be worthy of worship by Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Indra, and the Moon; / whatever fruit belongs to your liṅga shall be [attained] in this world and the next.”
38.60
Thus addressed, the lord of the universe, bowing down to the best of the twice-born, / filled with supreme joy, spoke with joined palms:
38.61
“Brahmins are a moving pilgrimage place, waterless, fulfilling all desires, / by the water of whose words alone defiled people are purified.
38.62
There is no holy field, no pilgrimage place, barren soil, or sacred pools, / going to which one can be purified after having caused anger in a brahmin.
38.63
There is no treatise not composed by a brahmin, no gift not to be given to a brahmin; / there is no happiness not from a brahmin's grace, no sorrow not from a brahmin's fury.
38.64
Whatever pilgrimage places are on earth, as well as the Gaṅgā and other rivers, / are not worth a sixteenth part of a single brahmin's word.”
38.65
Honoring all the twice-born, permitted by the great sages, / the god then went to the excellent bank of the Narmadā.
38.66
Undertaking a supreme vow, dwelling in a cave for an arbuda of years, / the Lord performed penance, constantly devoted to silent recitation and sacred baths.
38.67
When the vow was completed, dear one, having installed Maheśvara, / praised by the gods, the Lord went to Kailāsa.
38.68
The Supreme Lord was installed by him on the bank of the Narmadā; / for that very reason he is called Narmadeśvara.
38.69
An ascetic with subdued senses who bathes and worships Narmadeśāna, / indeed Mahādeva, obtains the fruit of a horse sacrifice.
38.70
He who offers water with sesame, flowers, and kuśa grass to the ancestors, / his ancestors for twenty-one generations rejoice in heaven, O Pāṇḍava.
38.71
He who feeds brahmins at that pilgrimage place, O king, / with rice pudding mixed with ghee, obtains a fruit multiplied ten-millionfold.
38.72
Standing in the midst of the water, he who gives gold or silver / to brahmins, O Yudhiṣṭhira, obtains the fruit of an Agniṣṭoma sacrifice.
38.73
He who, fasting, dwells [there] on the eighth or fourteenth day, / approaching Narmadeśvara, attains the fruit of his life.
38.74
He who enters fire at that pilgrimage place, O king, / will have no fear of disease for seven rebirths, O descendant of Bharata.
38.75
He who undertakes fasting unto death at that pilgrimage place, O king, / will attain a destination from which there is no return in the world of Rudra.
38.76
This procedure has been described to you, best of men, and its origin / has been prescribed in the purāṇa, dear one, and its designation in detail.
38.77
Whoever proclaims this origin of Narmadeśvara, / and the man who listens with devotion, he too would obtain the fruit of a sacred bath.
38.77.p1
|| Thus ends the thirty-eighth chapter, named 'Description of the Glorification of the Pilgrimage Place of Narmadeśvara', in the glorification of the Narmadā, in the Revākhaṇḍa, in the fifth Avantīkhaṇḍa, in the compendium of eighty-one thousand [verses], in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa.
38.77.p2
RKV Chapter 39
Linked texts (1)
- Revākhaṇḍa (Vāyupurāṇa) — Sanskrit