The Skanda Purana

by G. V. Tagare | 1950 | 2,545,880 words

This page describes The Efficacy of Rudrasaras which is chapter 22 of the English translation of the Skanda Purana, the largest of the eighteen Mahapuranas, preserving the ancient Indian society and Hindu traditions in an encyclopedic format, detailling on topics such as dharma (virtous lifestyle), cosmogony (creation of the universe), mythology (itihasa), genealogy (vamsha) etc. This is the twenty-second chapter of the Avantikshetra-mahatmya of the Avantya-khanda of the Skanda Purana.

Chapter 22 - The Efficacy of Rudrasaras

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

Srī Sanatkumāra said:

1-3. Yameśvara should be bathed with water mixed with gingelly seeds. Then after smearing it with saffron, one should worship it with lilies.

Black agallochum should be burnt as incense, Gingelly seeds and raw rice-grains should be made over as religious gifts. He who visits Yameśvara thus and worships too the Lord armed with a trident will find Yama (as loving) as father, wherever he dies.

Sanatkumāra said:

4. O Vyāsa, I shall describe another Tīrtha, the most excellent of all Tīrthas. It is known by the name Rudrasaras. It is well-known in all the three worlds.

5. A devotee should take bath therein and be pure. He should then visit Koṭeśvara Śiva. He is rid of all sins. He goes to Rudraloka (the region of Rudra).

6-11. Listen to the benefit he attains after performing Śrāddha there. There is no doubt in this, O Vyāsa, that he obtains ten million times the benefit of ten horse-sacrifices and of a hundred Vājapeyas. If anything is given in Koṭi Tīrtha with the Pitṛs in view, everything becomes ten million times more blessed. There is no doubt about this. The man who takes his holy bath in Koṭi Tīrtha and meditates upon the Supreme Absolute is liberated from all sins like a serpent released from its slough.

O Brāhmaṇa, he who gets up early in the morning and takes his holy bath there obtains the benefit of (the gift of) a thousand cows by seeing Lord Mahākāla. The man who takes bath in the Koṭi Tīrtha and stays there for seven nights absolutely pure, obtains the benefit of a thousand Cāndrāyaṇas. He who keeps awake at night enjoys infinite benefit.

12-15. After Mahāsnāna (great bathing) the devotee should perform worship with scented flowers; he should spend the night fasting with the sense-organs controlled. He obtains Sarvakāmitva (‘fulfilment of all desires’) unobtainable even to Suras.

On the full-moon days in the months of Kārttika and Vaiśākha, the devotee should worship the Lord with fragrant flowers of the season, splendid clothes etc. Camphor, saffron, sandal and agallochum should be taken in equal quantities and powdered (pounded) on a rocky slab. Smearing Mahākāla with it, one becomes a servant of Rudra.

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