preta-āvāseṣu — at the burning places of dead bodies; ghoreṣu — horrible; pretaiḥ — by the Pretas; bhūta-gaṇaiḥ — by the Bhūtas; vṛtaḥ — accompanied by; aṭati — he wanders; unmatta-vat — like a madman; nagnaḥ — naked; vyupta-keśaḥ — having scattered hair; hasan — laughing; rudan — crying; citā — of the funeral pyre; bhasma — with the ashes; kṛta-snānaḥ — taking bath; preta — of the skulls of dead bodies; srak — having a garland; nṛ-asthi-bhūṣaṇaḥ — ornamented with dead men’s bones; śiva-apadeśaḥ — who is śiva, or auspicious, only in name; hi — for; aśivaḥ — inauspicious; mattaḥ — crazy; matta-jana-priyaḥ — very dear to the crazy beings; patiḥ — the leader; pramatha-nāthānām — of the lords of the Pramathas; tamaḥ-mātra-ātmaka-ātmanām — of those grossly in the mode of ignorance.
Translation
He lives in filthy places like crematoriums, and his companions are the ghosts and demons. Naked like a madman, sometimes laughing and sometimes crying, he smears crematorium ashes all over his body. He does not bathe regularly, and he ornaments his body with a garland of skulls and bones. Therefore only in name is he śiva, or auspicious; actually, he is the most mad and inauspicious creature. Thus he is very dear to crazy beings in the gross mode of ignorance, and he is their leader.
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