Adhyaya 64
Chapter 64 records Īśvara’s account of a shrine in the eastern quarter of the Prabhāsa region, said to lie five dhanu away. The place is called Lakṣmīśvara and is praised as a destroyer of poverty and misfortune (dāridrya-augha-vināśana). An origin story is given: after hostile forces, the daityas, are slain, the goddess Lakṣmī is brought to this spot, and the divine name “Lakṣmīśvara” is said to have been established by the goddess herself through an act of consecration. The chapter then prescribes a devotional observance: worship of Lakṣmīśvara, performed according to proper procedure (vidhānataḥ) on Śrīpañcamī. The phalaśruti declares that Lakṣmī’s favor continues unbroken—the worshipper is not separated from Lakṣmī—for a vast, cosmically measured span, “as long as a manvantara.”
Shlokas
Verse 1
ईश्वर उवाच । तस्यैव पूर्वदिग्भागे धनुषां पंचके स्थितम् । लक्ष्मीश्वरेति विख्यातं दारिद्र्यौघविनाशनम्
Īśvara said: In its eastern quarter, at a distance of five bow-lengths, stands a liṅga famed as Lakṣmīśvara, the destroyer of torrents of poverty.
Verse 2
यत्र देव्या समानीता लक्ष्मीर्देत्यान्निहत्य च । तेन लक्ष्मीश्वरं नाम स्वयं देव्या प्रतिष्ठितम्
There, after the Goddess slew the Dānavas, she brought Lakṣmī back; therefore that liṅga is called Lakṣmīśvara, established by the Goddess herself.
Verse 3
यस्तं पूजयते भक्त्या श्रीपंचम्यां विधानतः । न विमुक्तो भवेल्लक्ष्म्या यावन्मन्वतरं प्रिये
O beloved, whoever worships him with devotion on Śrīpañcamī according to proper ordinance will not be separated from Lakṣmī for as long as a Manvantara endures.
Verse 64
इति श्रीस्कांदे महापुराण एकाशीति साहस्र्यां संहितायां सप्तमे प्रभासखण्डे प्रथमे प्रभासक्षेत्रमाहात्म्ये लक्ष्मीश्वरमाहात्म्यवर्णनंनाम चतुःषष्टितमोऽध्यायः
Thus ends the sixty-fourth chapter, entitled “The Description of the Greatness of Lakṣmīśvara,” in the Prabhāsa Khaṇḍa, within the Prabhāsakṣetra Māhātmya, of the Śrī Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, the compilation of eighty-one thousand ślokas.