Adhyaya 42
This chapter is a concise instruction in which Pulastya addresses an excellent king (nṛpaśreṣṭha). He directs him to go to a supremely sin-destroying liṅga (liṅgaṃ pāpaharaṃ param), renowned in the world, established by the sage Uddālaka and known as Uddālakeśvara. The teaching is closely tied to ritual efficacy: touching (spṛṣṭa), seeing (dṛṣṭa), and especially worshipping (pūjita) that liṅga are declared fruitful. The results are promised in three ascending modes—freedom from all diseases (sarvaroga-vinirmukta), fitness to attain or sustain the householder state (gārhasthyaṃ prāpnuyāt), and complete release from sins with honor in Śiva’s realm (śivaloke mahīyate). The closing colophon places the chapter in the Prabhāsa Khaṇḍa, within the Arbuda Khaṇḍa, as Adhyāya 42.
Shlokas
Verse 1
पुलस्त्य उवाच । ततो गच्छेन्नृपश्रेष्ठ लिंगं पापहरं परम् । उद्दालकेन मुनिना स्थापितं लोकविश्रुतम्
Pulastya said: Then, O best of kings, one should go to that supreme liṅga which removes sins—established by the sage Uddālaka and renowned throughout the worlds.
Verse 2
तस्मिन्स्पृष्टेऽथ वा दृष्टे पूजिते च विशेषतः । सर्वरोग विनिर्मुक्तो गार्हस्थ्यं प्राप्नुयान्नरः
By touching that liṅga, or even by seeing it—and especially by worshipping it—a person becomes free from all diseases and attains thriving household life.
Verse 3
सर्वपापविनिर्मुक्तः शिवलोके महीयते
Freed from all sins, one is honored in Śivaloka.
Verse 42
इति श्रीस्कांदे महापुराण एकाशीतिसाहस्र्यां संहितायां सप्तमे प्रभासखंडे तृतीयेऽर्बुदखण्ड उद्दालकेश्वरमाहात्म्यवर्णनंनाम द्विचत्वारिंशोऽध्यायः
Thus ends the forty-second chapter, called “The Description of the Greatness of Uddālakeśvara,” in the Arbuda Khaṇḍa (third division) of the seventh, the Prabhāsa Khaṇḍa, in the Śrī Skanda Mahāpurāṇa of eighty-one thousand verses.