Chapter 24 - The Importance of Prayāga

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

Mahādeva said:

1-8a. I shall tell you, as I have heard, the greatness of Prayāga where live people who are intent upon giving large gifts and practise meritorious acts. That holy place (called Prayāga) where (i.e. by which) Gaṅgā, Yamunā and Sarasvatī are (flowing) is the best and is inaccessible even to gods. Such (a holy place) was never there (in the past) nor will be there (in the future). The excellent, holy place called Prayāga is best among all the holy places as the Sun is among the planets or the Moon among the stars. O learned one, he who would bathe in the morning at Prayāga, is free from great sins, and goes to the highest position. A man desiring absence of poverty should give something (to a brāhmaṇa at Prayāga). There is no doubt that a man who after going would bathe there, becomes rich and lives a long life. A man who sees the undecaying fig-tree there, (his sin due to his having committed) the murder of a brāhmaṇa perishes. That fig-tree is called Akṣaya-vaṭa and is (i.e. will be) seen even at the end of the kalpa.

8b-13. Since Viṣṇu lies on its leaf, it is known to be immutable. Men dear to Viṣṇu, worship (the lord) there. A man should get it worshipped (i.e. should worship it) after having covered it with a thread. The god called Mādhava (i.e. Viṣṇu) always stays there happily. One should see (the image of) him. One then is freed from great sins. Gods, sages, and men having resorted to their own places, always stay there everywhere. A man who has killed a cow, or who is a cāṇḍāla, who is wicked or of a wicked mind, or who has murdered a child, so also who is not learned, dying there becomes one having four hands and lives in Vaikuṇṭha for a long time.

14-19a. O best among the divine sages, listen. A man who bathes at Prayāga during the month of Māgha, has no (limit to the) number of fruits (that he obtains). We hear that āpaḥ (i.e. waters) is said to be nārāḥ (i.e. waters—āpaḥ and nārāḥ are synonyms) in the entire world. Therefore, he is called Nārāyaṇa. He gives pleasures and salvation to those who have bathed there. As the Sun is best among the planets, the Moon among the stars, similarly Māgha is the best in (i.e. for) all acts. When in Māgha the Sun is in the Capricornus sign, a bath in the morning, even in the clear water of a very small puddle, gives heaven even to the sinners. O learned one, such an opportunity is rare in the three worlds with the mobile and the immobile. He too who has made an effort (to bathe) here at Prayāga and would bathe (every day) for three days or five or seven days would grow like the Moon in his family, O best brāhmaṇa.

19b-23. The mobile and immobile living beings, so also human beings and others, go soon to Vaikuṇṭha after having resorted to the holy place of Prayāga. Those sages like Vasiṣṭha and like Sanaka also repeatedly resort to the holy place of Prayāga. There, in the excellent holy place of Prayāga, all (gods like) Viṣṇu, Rudra and Indra live. They recommend giving gifts here, so also observing restraints. After having bathed there and drunk (water) there, there is no rebirth.