Skandapurana 2.4.4.4.3

2.4.4.4.3

Cakrakṣetra is more meritorious than that, and Muktikṣetra is higher than that; / Avantikā is better than that, and Badarikāśrama is beyond that; / Ayodhyā is better than that, and Gaṅgādvāra is higher than that; / Kanakhala tīrtha is beyond that, and superior to that is Madhupurī. / Even for a single month of Kārtika in the waters of the Yamunā at Mathurā, / those who bathe indeed dwell in Vaikuṇṭha for a long time. / Rādhādāmodara himself bathed there in Kārtika; / therefore Madhupurī is supreme, and especially the Yamunā. / Dvārāvatī is even better than that; there Keśava bathes every day, / accompanied by sixteen thousand women together with the Yādavas. / The man who wears on his forehead a tilaka made from the clay of Dvārakā / is to be recognized as liberated while alive; there is no doubt. / The māhātmya of bathing at Dvārakā cannot be fully told by me; / for those whose minds are offered to Govinda, it shines like the sun of merit. / Superior to that is the Bhāgīrathī where she unites with the Vindhya; / ten times the merit of that arises here in the King of Tīrthas. / At the end of ten thousand [years] of the Kali age, Viṣṇu will abandon the earth; / at half that [time], the waters of Jāhnavī, and at half that [time], the hosts of deities. / As long as the Gaṅgā remains here, so long do the tīrthas exist, / and just so long do they take away the sin of men each in its own place. / When the Gaṅgā is lost, who indeed will take away that sin? / Considering thus, the excellent tīrthas will depart from the surface of the earth. / Therefore, O chief sages, as long as the Jāhnavī remains, / so long let dharma be practiced; thereafter let one withdraw into the earth, / having assumed a very firm samādhi, until the Kṛtayuga comes. / Otherwise, the wise man would be brought to ruin by the age of Kali. / Greater than that is Kāśī, of which no destruction takes place; / taking refuge in which, even the Gaṅgā washes away all sin. / There is no destruction of Kāśī even when Brahmā has died.