Skanda Purana — Kashi Khanda, Shloka 90
अरूपोपि सरूपाढ्यः स धात्रा नेत्रगीकृतः । तारयेद्यद्भवांभोधेः स्वजपासक्तमानसम् । ततस्तार इति ख्यातो यस्तं ब्रह्मा व्यलोकयत्
arūpopi sarūpāḍhyaḥ sa dhātrā netragīkṛtaḥ | tārayedyadbhavāṃbhodheḥ svajapāsaktamānasam | tatastāra iti khyāto yastaṃ brahmā vyalokayat
যদিও তেওঁ অৰুপ, তথাপি সকলো ৰূপে সমৃদ্ধ। ধাত্ৰাই তেওঁক অন্তৰ্দৰ্শনৰ বিষয় কৰিলে; কিয়নো নিজৰ জপত আসক্ত মনক তেওঁ ভৱ-সমুদ্ৰ পাৰ কৰায়। সেয়ে তেওঁ “তারা” নামে খ্যাত—যাক ব্ৰহ্মাই দৰ্শন কৰিলে।
Skanda (deduced: Kāśīkhaṇḍa commonly Skanda → Agastya)
Tirtha: Kāśī (Avimukta-kṣetra)
Type: kshetra
Listener: Pilgrimage-inquirer audience (ṛṣis/śaunaka-lineage typical frame)
Scene: Brahmā (Dhātṛ), lotus-born, seated in meditation, beholds within the heart a luminous, formless-yet-all-formed presence as a radiant syllable/seed-sound ‘Tāra’, depicted as a subtle boat of light carrying a japa-absorbed seeker across a dark ocean of becoming.
FAQs
Devotion expressed as mantra-japa becomes a ferry across saṃsāra; the liberating principle is the Tāra sound.
The teaching belongs to Kāśī’s Māhātmya framework, where liberation is linked with the Tāra/Pranava tradition of Kāśī.
Japa (repetition/meditation on the saving mantra) with a mind absorbed in it.