Shloka 59
Tīrtha-yātrā: Phalaśruti and Sacred Geography from Lohitya to Prayāga
Pulastya’s Instruction
भरतवंशी महाराज! वहीं मातृतीर्थ है, जिसमें स्नान करनेवाले पुरुषकी संतति बढती है और वह कभी क्षीण न होनेवाली सम्पत्तिका उपभोग करता है ।। ततः सीतवनं गच्छेन्नियतो नियताशन: । तीर्थ तत्र महाराज महदन्यत्र दुर्लभम्,तदनन्तर नियमसे रहकर नियमित भोजन करते हुए सीतवनमें जाय। महाराज! वहाँ महान् तीर्थ है, जो अन्यत्र दुर्लभ है
bharatavaṁśī mahārāja! vahīṁ mātṛtīrthaṁ yatrasnānakāriṇaḥ puruṣasya santatiḥ vardhate sa ca kadācid akṣīṇāyāḥ sampadaḥ upabhogaṁ karoti. tataḥ sītāvanaṁ gacchen niyato niyatāśanaḥ. tīrthaṁ tatra mahārāja mahad anyatra durlabham.
O king of Bharata’s line, that very place is the Mātṛtīrtha: a sacred ford where a man who bathes gains increase of progeny, and he comes to enjoy prosperity that does not diminish. Thereafter, living under discipline and taking measured food, one should proceed to Sītāvana. O great king, there is found there a mighty tīrtha—rare to be met with elsewhere.
घुलस्त्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse links pilgrimage to ethical self-restraint: sacred bathing is presented as fruitful when paired with disciplined conduct and regulated diet, yielding social goods like continuity of lineage and stable prosperity.
A speaker addresses a Bharata-line king and recommends a sequence of pilgrimage sites: first the Mātṛtīrtha, praised for benefits of bathing, and then Sītāvana, described as possessing a great and rare tīrtha.