Skanda Purana — Nagara Khanda, Shloka 64
अलक्तको यथा रक्तो नरः कामी तथैव च । हृतसारस्तथा सोऽपि पादमूले निपा त्यते
alaktako yathā rakto naraḥ kāmī tathaiva ca | hṛtasārastathā so'pi pādamūle nipā tyate
Wie ein Mensch rot erscheint, wenn er mit Lackfarbe bestrichen ist, so wird auch der vom Begehren getriebene Mann vom Verlangen „gefärbt“. Ist ihm das innere Wesen geraubt, stürzt er zu den Füßen dieser Leidenschaft, erniedrigt.
Unspecified (Nāgarakhaṇḍa Tīrthamāhātmya narrator voice; likely a Purāṇic teacher addressing a listener)
Scene: A man smeared with red lac appears ‘colored’; beside him, the same figure is shown internally hollowed—his ‘essence’ slipping away—falling at the feet of a personified Passion.
FAQs
Desire ‘colors’ the mind and steals inner strength, leading to humiliation and spiritual fall; detachment is urged.
This verse functions as moral instruction within the Tīrthamāhātmya flow; no single tīrtha is explicitly named in the line itself.
No explicit ritual is prescribed; it is a warning meant to support tīrtha practice with self-control.