Skandapurana 4.25.74

Vyāsa said: / "Listen, O Sūta, I shall tell the story of the pot-born sage, / hearing which a man becomes free from passion and a vessel of knowledge. / Having circumambulated the mountain named Śrī, the pot-born sage, / accompanied by his wife, then beheld the vast, delightful forest of Skanda, / filled with flowers in all seasons and with trees bearing luscious fruits, / pleasant to dwell in, rich in roots and tubers, with trees possessing fine bark, / frequented by herds of wild beasts, surrounded by rivers and pools, / with clear, deep lakes, the highest essence of the whole earth, / filled with the cries of various birds, inhabited by diverse sages, / like a single designated abode of austerity, an abode of auspicious treasures. / There is a mountain there named Lohita, resembling the Golden Mountain, / with excellent caves and waterfalls, shining with its peaks and slopes, / like a single fragment of Kailāsa that had arrived here in the land of ritual action, / as if to perform austere tapas, endowed with many wonders. / There Agastya, the best among sages, saw the six-faced one face to face; / prostrating like a stick upon the earth together with his wife, the one of great tapas / praised the son of the mountain-born goddess with hymns arising from the Vedic scriptures, / and also with a eulogy composed by himself, folding his hands in reverence. / Agastya said: / 'Homage be to the lotus feet praised by the multitude of immortals, the maker of nectar, / to the six-faced one of boundless valour, the born joy of Gaurī's heart! / Homage to you, the dispeller of distress of those who bow, the accomplisher of all desires, / the giver of chariots, the rescuer of others, the slayer of the fierce asura Tāraka! / To the unmanifest and manifest, to the thousand-formed, to virtue and the possessor of qualities, to the higher than the high, / to the shore of the shoreless, to the superior and inferior, homage to you whose mount is the peacock! / Homage to you, best among knowers of the absolute, clad in the directions, abiding in the firmament, / golden-complexioned, golden-armed, homage to the golden one of golden semen, / who is the nature of tapas, rich in tapas, the bestower of the fruits of tapas!'

"Salutations to the one who is forever a youth, the enemy of Himāramā, the detached one who made sovereignty seem like a blade of grass! 14
Salutations be to you, O all-pervading lord born of the reeds, whose row of teeth is ruddy like the morning sun, / to the youth endowed with prowess beyond a child, to the six-mothered one, the wholly untroubled one! 15
Salutations to the most generous bestower, to the exceedingly bountiful one; salutations, salutations to the lord of the hosts, to the host itself! / Salutations be to you who have transcended birth and old age; salutations to Viśākha, who holds an auspicious spear in his hand! 16
To the boy of the Lord of all, to the foe of Krauñca, to the slayer of Tāraka, / to the son of Svāhā, to the son of Gaṅgā, to Kārtikeya, and to the son of Śiva, let there be perpetual salutations to you!" 17
Having praised Kārtikeya thus, uttering repeatedly "Salutations, salutations!", / he circumambulated him two or three times and took a seat before him, having been told, "O lord among sages, sit down!" 18
Kārtikeya said:
"Is all well, O pot-born sage, the sole helper of the gods? / I know that you have arrived here, as well as the heightening of the Vindhya mountain. 19
In Avimukta, the great sacred field protected by the three-eyed Lord, all is well— / where to those whose lifespan is exhausted, the odd-eyed Lord himself directly bestows liberation. 20
Neither on the surface of earth, heaven, or the atmosphere, nor at the base of Pātāla, nor even above / in the upper world, O sage, have I seen anywhere such a sacred field. 21
Even I, wandering alone here, in order to attain that sacred field, O sage, / perform austerities; yet even today my desires have not borne fruit. 22
Not by merits, nor by gifts, nor by austerities, nor by recitations of mantras, / nor is it obtainable by various sacrifices; it is obtainable only through the grace of the Lord. 23
Only from the grace of Īśvara is dwelling in Kāśī, though very hard to attain, / indeed rendered easy to obtain, O sage; surely it cannot be won even by tens of millions of virtuous deeds. 24
It is a completely different creation of the Creator, one that surpasses [all else], / since even the Lord himself is scarcely able to describe the virtues of that sacred field. 25
Ah, the utter weakness of the intellect! Ah, the poverty of fortune! / Ah, the power of delusion, that Kāśī is not served here! 26
The body is continually worn away, and the sense-faculties also decay;

the deer of life has indeed been made a target by the hunter of death. 27
Knowing wealth to be accompanied by calamity, and the body to be exceedingly fragile, / and knowing this flickering life to be inconstant, one should take refuge in Kāśī. 28
So long as the end of one's life has not arrived, one should not leave Kāśī; / Time does not forget to count even a fraction of a moment. 29
Stationed close to old age, diseases torment [a person] violently; / even so, the body does not long for Kāśī; day after day, it does not seek it! 30
Through ritual bathing at sacred fords, through japa, and through words that assist others, / dharma is attained without wealth; and from dharma, wealth arises on its own. 31
Without any other means of acquiring wealth, wealth surely arises from dharma; / therefore, abandoning anxiety about wealth, one should take refuge in dharma alone. 32
From dharma comes wealth, from wealth comes desire, and from desire arises all happiness; / even heaven is easily attained through dharma; what, then, is difficult [to attain] beyond Kāśī? 33
Here Sthāṇu truly declared three means as the cause of nirvāṇa / in the presence of Śarvāṇī, having thoroughly determined everything everywhere: 34
First is the Pāśupata yoga; next is the black-and-white sacred ford [at Prayāga]; / and then the one effortless giver of liberation, Avimukta. 35
Śrīśaila, the snow-mountain, and various other shrines; / the bearing of the triple staff, and the renunciation of all actions; 36
austerities of various kinds, observances, restraints, and disciplines; / confluences of rivers, and many forests; 37
mental [sacred fords], earthly ones, waterfalls and the like; / saline lands, seats of power, and the uninterrupted recitation of sacred scripture; 38
the repetition of mantras, offerings into the sacred fire, / gifts, various sacrifices, and worship of the deities; 39
the trirātra, the pañcarātra traditions, and likewise Sāṃkhya and Yoga; / the supreme adoration of Viṣṇu is indeed proclaimed for liberation; 40
and cities are also proclaimed as bestowing liberation even on deceitful beings; / these indeed are certainly instruments for attaining kaivalya here. 41
All these that have been declared are also means of attaining Kāśī;

having reached Kāśī, a living being is liberated, and nowhere else. 42
For this very reason, that sacred field is purifying and works wondrous marvels, / ever dear to the Lord of the Universe throughout the entire sphere of the cosmos. 43
This sacred field alone is the cause for inquiring after your welfare. / Come, come, give me the touch of your own body, O you of noble vows! 44
A touch is sought as if it were a touch arriving from Kāśī itself, / by me who stay here continually; but you have come from there. 45
Even those who live in Kāśī for three nights with their senses restrained, / the dust of their feet, when touched, surely purifies. 46
You, however, have made your dwelling there, having accumulated a great heap of merit, / your matted hair made tawny by bathing where [Gaṅgā] flows northward. 47
Moreover, at that pool of yours located in the vicinity of Agastīśvara, / having bathed there, drunk water, and performed all water rites, 48
and having worshipped the ancestors with funeral cakes according to the rules of faithful śrāddha, / a being becomes one who has accomplished what is to be done, and obtains the fruit of Vārāṇasī." 49
Having spoken thus and touched all the limbs of the pot-born sage, / Skanda felt pleasure as if plunging into the waters of a lake of nectar. 50
Closing his eyes and uttering "Victory to the Lord of the Universe!", / Guha then meditated for a moment, motionless as a post. 51
When Skanda relinquished his meditation, his mind and face being exceedingly serene, / the sage, awaiting an opportune moment to speak, then questioned Guha. 52
Agastya said:
"O Lord, just as the majesty of Vārāṇasī was formerly related by the Blessed Lord / with delight to the Goddess, the daughter of the snowy mountain, 53
and as it was heard by you while dwelling in her lap, / narrate it in that manner, O six-faced one; that sacred field pleases me greatly." 54
Skanda said:
"Listen, O son of Mitra and Varuṇa, to how it was recounted formerly by the Blessed Lord / concerning that sacred field of Avimukta, in the presence of my mother, 55
and what was heard with a steady mind by me as I sat in her lap.

Hear that māhātmya, O sinless sage, as it is told by me: / Avimukta is declared here to be the supreme secret of secrets; / perfection is present there, and the all-pervading Lord resides there perpetually. / That sacred field is not connected to the earthly plane, but moves in the atmosphere; / non-yogins do not behold it, while yogins indeed see it. / A person who dwells there, O brahmin, self-controlled and concentrated, / even though eating thrice a day, becomes equal to one who lives on air alone. / One who has great devotion in Avimukta even for the duration of a blink, / has performed great austerity accompanied by celibacy. / A steadfast man who dwells [there] for a month, taking light food and subduing his senses, / has performed the entirety of the divine Pāśupata observance. / Residing there for a year, having conquered anger and controlled the senses, / not nourishing his limbs with others' wealth, avoiding food from others, / free from slandering others, and devoted to giving even a little, / he has performed great austerity equal to a thousand years elsewhere. / A man knowing the māhātmya of the sacred field who dwells there all his life, / abandoning fear of birth and death, attains the supreme destination. / That state which cannot be obtained elsewhere even in hundreds of other births by yogas, / is easily attained here through the grace of the Lord. / Even a slayer of a brahmin who happens by destiny to reach the city of Vārāṇasī, / is freed from the sin of slaying a brahmin by the māhātmya of that sacred field. / As long as one does not abandon Avimukta until the fall of the body, / not only the slaying of a brahmin, but material nature itself ceases [for him]. / He who, single-minded, does not abandon that sacred field, / abandons old age, death, and the unbearable dwelling in a womb. / A wise man should dwell in Avimukta, which is frequented by hosts of gods and seers, / if he desires not to be born again on earth. / One should not abandon Avimukta, which frees from the fear of transmigration; / having reached the god Viśveśvara, he is not born again.

Even after committing thousands of sins, becoming a piśāca here is preferable, / but heaven, attainable through hundreds of sacrifices, is not [desirable] without the city of Kāśī. / At the time of departure, when the vital points of men are pierced, / tormented by wind, memory does not arise at all. / But there, at the time of departure, Viśveśvara himself directly / imparts the liberating Brahman, by which one becomes identified with it. / Knowing this human existence to be impermanent and full of many offenses, / one should reside in Avimukta, which destroys the fear of transmigration.