Revākhaṇḍa ascribed to the Vāyupurāṇa (RKV) 4
English (machine translation) 4
- Language
- English
Contents
- 4.54 — 2 parts
4.1
Śrī Mārkaṇḍeya said: / Then, having crossed from the ocean, [we saw him] stationed on the peak of Trikūṭa, / which shone with the luster of fine gold and was piled with stones of various colors,
4.2
seated on that great peak, surrounded by ten million Rudras— / the great-souled Mahādeva, Īśāna, unborn and imperishable,
4.3
consisting of all beings, dear one, O you of noble vows. Together with Manu, / I again bowed down to his feet, which are worshipped by all the gods.
4.4
At that time, O giver of honor, I remained for a thousand yugas / with Rudra on that terrifying single ocean, O joy of the Kurus!
4.5
Yudhiṣṭhira said: / Hearing this, my father, great curiosity has arisen / in my heart; tell it, then, to me who am listening together with my kinsmen.
4.6
Who was she with eyes like lotus petals on that ocean turned to darkness, / who wanders continually like a yogin, and who called herself the daughter of Rudra?
4.7
Śrī Mārkaṇḍeya said: / This very question was asked by me of Manu himself long ago. / That origin of the woman I will explain to you today.
4.8
When the night of Brahmā Parameṣṭhin had passed, / and in the clear dawn beings were being created,
4.9
bowing my head to Manu, I asked this, O Yudhiṣṭhira: / “Who is this dark woman with eyes like lotus petals and a face like the moon,
4.10
who wanders alone on the single ocean, declaring, ‘I am born of Rudra’? / Is she Sāvitrī, the mother of the Vedas, or is she Sarasvatī?
4.11
Is she Mandākinī, the best of rivers, or Lakṣmī, or Umā? / Could she be Kālarātri herself, or Prakṛti accustomed to delight?
4.12
Tell me this, O blessed one: who is she that was born from nectar, / wandering in the dreadful single ocean where serpents and rākṣasas have perished?”
4.13
Manu said: / “Listen, my child; I will explain her origin according to the truth: / how she was born from Rudra, and who this fair-complexioned woman is.
4.14
In ancient times, Śiva of peaceful form performed vast austerities / for the benefit of all the worlds, Śaṃkara along with Umā.
4.15
Ascending the Ṛkṣa mountain, he practiced terrible austerities, / invisible to all beings, the self of all beings, master of his senses.
4.16
As that god was practicing austerities, sweat indeed arose [from him]; / that sweat born of Rudra flooded the mountain.
4.17
From that arose the most holy, best of rivers / whom you saw on the ocean, with eyes long as lotus petals.
4.18
Assuming the form of a woman, she worshipped Rudra of old / in that first Kṛtayuga for ten thousand years, O king.
4.19
Then Mahādeva, Śaṃkara, together with Umā, was pleased [and said]: / ‘Speak, O highly fortunate one, what is in your heart!’
4.20
The river said: / ‘When the dissolution arrives and the moving and unmoving have perished, / by your grace, O lord of gods, may I be imperishable, O Lord!
4.21
Even while rivers, oceans, and mountains perish, / by your grace, O lord of gods, may I be holy and imperishable, O Lord!
4.22
Those who have committed sins and minor sins, and even those guilty of great sins, / let them be freed from all sins by bathing with devotion, O Śaṃkara!
4.23
Just as the Jāhnavī is in the north, destroying great sins, / let me be so on the southern path, worshipped by the gods!
4.24
Just as she who came from heaven is famous on earth as Gaṅgā, O Lord, / likewise may I be the Southern Gaṅgā, O lord of the thirty [gods]!
4.25
Whatever fruit a mortal attains by bathing at all pilgrimage places on earth, / that fruit may he attain by bathing [in me] with devotion, O Maheśvara!
4.26
Whatever sin, such as the murder of a brahmin, has been accumulated anywhere, / O god, let it be destroyed merely by a month of bathing [in my waters]!
4.27
Whatever fruit is obtained in all the Vedas and in all sacrifices, O Śaṃkara, / let all that be attained by plunging [into my waters]—this is my wish!
4.28
The fruit [found] in all gifts and fasts, and in plunging into all pilgrimage places— / let that fruit be produced by my water, O Śaṃkara!’
4.29
Those men who worship Maheśvara upon my bank
shall go to your world; let this indeed be so, O Śiva.
4.30
On my bank, O Maheśāna, together with Umā and the gods,
dwell always, O Lord of the Universe; this alone is my boon.
4.31
Whether of good deeds or of bad deeds, peaceful, self-controlled, with conquered senses,
may a creature who dies in my water go to Amarāvatī.
4.32
Renowned in the three worlds, destroying great sins,
may I become, O Lord of the gods of gods, if you are pleased to grant it.
4.33
Thus requested for these and other divine boons, O best of kings,
by the Narmadā, the bull-riding [Lord], being pleased, then spoke:
4.34
The glorious Maheśa said:
Let it be so, O auspicious, blameless one, as you have spoken;
no other in the worlds is worthy of boons except you, O lotus-eyed one.
4.35
The very moment you were born from my body, O fair-faced one,
that very moment you became the deliverer from all sins, of this there is no doubt.
4.36
At the time of the destruction of the kalpa, especially in that terrible time,
those men who dwell resorting to the northern bank,
4.37
even worms and moths, trees, shrubs, and creepers,
until the fall of their bodies, O goddess, they too shall go to a good state.
4.38
Those twice-born who love righteousness, who, resorting to the southern bank,
shall dwell until death, they go to the abode of the ancestors.
4.39
Indeed, at your word, on some other occasion,
I shall dwell upon your bank always together with Umā.
4.40
So it is, O goddess, O Mahādevī, just so, of this there is no doubt.
Along with Brahmā, Indra, Candra, Varuṇa, the Sādhyas, and with Viṣṇu,
4.41
they shall dwell upon your northern bank by my command, O goddess,
and on the southern [bank] with the ancestors; likewise, others, O beauty among the gods,
4.42
shall dwell together with me; this is your supreme boon.
Go, go, O highly fortunate one, deliver mortals from sin!
4.43
Accompanied by hosts of sages and likewise by Siddhas, gods, and asuras,
having thus spoken, the all-pervading Mahādeva, accompanied by Umā,
4.44
being praised by Manu and by me, then vanished from sight.
Therefore has this [river], of great religious merit and destroying great sins,
4.45
been told, which was asked by you; let there be no wonder in you.
This is the Gaṅgā, of great religious merit, renowned in the three worlds,
4.46
inundating the ten directions with fifteen streams:
the great river Śoṇa, and the Narmadā, made Surasā,
4.47
the Mandākinī and the Daśārṇā, and likewise the Citrakūṭā,
the Tamasā, the Vidiśā, the Karabhā, and likewise the Yamunā,
4.48
the Citrotpalā, the Vipāśā, the Rañjanā, and the Vāluvāhinī.
Born from the foot of the Ṛkṣa mountain, all of them indeed have their origin in Rudra,
4.49
removing all sins, auspicious, bestowing all auspiciousness, benevolent.
With these divine names she is praised by those who have crossed to the end of the Vedas,
4.50
by those who know the purāṇas, by the highly fortunate, by those who drink clarified butter and soma.
Thus all this greatness has been told, O best of men,
4.51
which was told to me of old by Manu, the origin of the immortal one,
meritorious, purifying, incomparable, sung by Rudra, auspicious.
4.52
Those men who will recite or hear with devotion
the fifteen names, having risen in the morning, O descendant of Bharata,
4.53
those men will obtain all the religious merit born of a sacred bath.
By means of an aerial chariot bright as the sun, resounding with a hundred bells,
4.54
having abandoned human existence, they will go to the supreme state.
4.54.p1
|| Thus ends the fourth chapter, named 'Description of the Fifteen Names of the Narmadā', in the Revākhaṇḍa of the Āvantyakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, a collection of eighty-one thousand [verses].
4.54.p2
RKV Chapter 5
Linked texts (1)
- Revākhaṇḍa (Vāyupurāṇa) — Sanskrit