Skanda Purana — Prabhasa Khanda, Shloka 34
जपेच्च त्र्यक्षरं मंत्र षण्मुखं च यदृच्छया । मंत्रराजेति यः पूर्वं तवाख्यातो मया प्रिये
japecca tryakṣaraṃ maṃtra ṣaṇmukhaṃ ca yadṛcchayā | maṃtrarājeti yaḥ pūrvaṃ tavākhyāto mayā priye
അതിനുശേഷം യഥാശക്തി ത്ര്യക്ഷരീ മന്ത്രവും, ഷൺമുഖ (ഷഡാനന) മന്ത്രവും ജപിക്കണം. പ്രിയേ, ഞാൻ മുമ്പ് ‘മന്ത്രരാജം’ എന്നു നിന്നോട് പറഞ്ഞതുതന്നെ—
Unknown (speaker addresses ‘priye’; likely a deity/sage instructing a close interlocutor, but not explicit in snippet)
Tirtha: Prabhāsa-kṣetra
Type: kshetra
Listener: ‘Priye’—a dear interlocutor (often a goddess/consort figure in puranic dialogue styles)
Scene: A pilgrim at Prabhāsa sits facing the sacred precinct, lips softly moving in japa; the sea-breeze and temple banners frame the act of mantra-recitation, suggesting the ‘king of mantras’ being recalled as earlier taught.
FAQs
Regular japa—especially of revered seed-mantras and Skanda’s mantra—is upheld as a practical discipline adaptable to one’s capacity.
Prabhāsa Kṣetra, where mantra-japa is integrated into the pilgrimage rite sequence.
Japa of a three-syllabled mantra, japa connected with Ṣaṇmukha (Skanda), and remembrance of the previously taught Mantrarāja.