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
তিনি অরূপ হয়েও সর্বরূপসমৃদ্ধ। ধাতা তাঁকে অন্তর্দৃষ্টির বিষয় করলেন; কারণ তিনি স্বজপে আসক্ত মনকে ভবসাগর থেকে পার করান। তাই তিনি ‘তার’ নামে খ্যাত—যাঁকে ব্রহ্মা দর্শন করেছিলেন।
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.