History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c74.34.3

v5.c74.34.3

37) remarks that all holy places, sacrifices and various gifts are meant for cleansing the mind (of its sins and sinful proclivities, manaḥ-śuddhi). The Padmapurāṇa (IV. 80. 9) remarks· sacrifices, *vratas*, *tapas* and *dāna* cannot be carried out fully in the Kali age; but bathing in the Ganges and taking the name of Hari are free from all defects. The Viṣṇudharmottarapurāṇa¹²⁶⁶ puts the matter very clearly when it says 'When resort is made to a tīrtha, it removes the sins of the sinful and tends to the increase of merit in the case of the good and that a holy place yields fruit to men of all varṇas and āśramas.' Some of the Purāṇas (such as Skandapurāṇa, Kāśīkhaṇḍa 6, Padma, Uttarakhaṇḍa, 237) say that in addition to the holy places on land (*bhauma*) there are certain virtues that may be called mental tīrthas (in a figurative sense). According to them 'truthfulness, forbearance, restraint of the senses, compassion for all beings, straight-forwardness, charity, self-control, contentment, celibacy (brahmacarya), sweet speech, knowledge, patience, austerity, are tīrthas and the highest tīrtha is purity of mind.' They further state that a man who is avaricious, wicked, cruel, hypocritical and immersed in pleasures of senses is still sinful and impure even if he bathes in all *tīrthas* and that fish are born and die in holy waters but they do not go to heaven because their minds are not purified and that even charity, sacrifices, austerity,