Shloka 24
अविमुक्तक्षेत्रमाहात्म्य
The Greatness of Avimukta–Vārāṇasī and Viśveśvara
कामं भुंजन्स्वपन्क्रीडन्कुर्वन्हि विविधाः क्रियाः । अविमुक्ते त्यजन्प्राणाञ्जंतुर्मोक्षाय कल्पते
kāmaṃ bhuṃjansvapankrīḍankurvanhi vividhāḥ kriyāḥ | avimukte tyajanprāṇāñjaṃturmokṣāya kalpate
Even while freely enjoying pleasures—eating, sleeping, playing, and performing various actions—any living being who gives up the vital breath in Avimukta becomes fit for liberation (moksha).
Suta Goswami
Tattva Level: pashu
Shiva Form: Mahadeva
Jyotirlinga: Visvanatha
Sthala Purana: The verse radicalizes Kāśī’s salvific claim: even an ordinary life of pleasures and routine actions does not obstruct mokṣa if death occurs in Avimukta—implying the primacy of Śiva’s kṣetra-anugraha over the dying person’s immediate purity/impurity.
Significance: Assures pilgrims that residence and especially death in Avimukta confers eligibility for liberation; supports Kāśī’s role as ‘tāraka-kṣetra’ in later tradition (Śiva’s saving utterance at death).
Role: liberating
Cosmic Event: antakāla (prāṇa-tyāga)
FAQs
It proclaims the unique grace of Avimukta (Kashi): liberation here depends primarily on Shiva’s sanctifying presence rather than on one’s worldly condition at death, emphasizing divine anugraha (grace) as the decisive factor for moksha.
Avimukta is celebrated as Shiva’s own kshetra where Saguna Shiva is intimately accessible; dying there is portrayed as coming under the direct salvific sphere of the Lord worshipped as Vishvanatha/Linga, making the place itself a channel of Shiva’s liberating power.
The takeaway is to seek Shiva’s grace through Kashi pilgrimage and Shiva-upasana—especially Linga worship and japa of the Panchakshara (Om Namaḥ Śivāya)—so that remembrance of Shiva at life’s end becomes natural and liberation-oriented.