Skandapurana 4.25.74.2

4.25.74.2

"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;