Skanda Purana — Kashi Khanda, Shloka 89
विद्या धनानि सदनानि गजाश्वभृत्याः स्रक्चंदनानि वनिताश्च नितांत रम्याः । स्वर्गोप्यगम्य इह नोद्यमभाजिपुंसि वाराणसीत्वसुलभा शलभादिमुक्तिः । धात्रा धृतानि तुलया तुलनामवैतुं वैकुंठमुख्यभुवनानि च काशिका च । तान्युद्ययुर्लघुतयान्यगियं गुरुत्वात्तस्थौ पुरीह पुरुषार्थचतुष्टयस्य
vidyā dhanāni sadanāni gajāśvabhṛtyāḥ srakcaṃdanāni vanitāśca nitāṃta ramyāḥ | svargopyagamya iha nodyamabhājipuṃsi vārāṇasītvasulabhā śalabhādimuktiḥ | dhātrā dhṛtāni tulayā tulanāmavaituṃ vaikuṃṭhamukhyabhuvanāni ca kāśikā ca | tānyudyayurlaghutayānyagiyaṃ gurutvāttasthau purīha puruṣārthacatuṣṭayasya
Learning, wealth, mansions, elephants, horses, servants, garlands and sandal, and women of surpassing charm—even heaven itself—are not hard to attain here for a man who strives. But the liberation that is gained in Vārāṇasī as easily as the release of a moth and the like is not so easily won elsewhere. The Creator set Vaikuṇṭha and the other foremost worlds, and Kāśikā too, upon a balance to test their weight: those worlds rose up as light, while this (Kāśī) stood firm by its very heaviness—here is the city that embodies the four aims of human life: dharma, artha, kāma, and mokṣa.
Skanda (as narrator/teacher in Kāśī Khaṇḍa, typically addressing Agastya)
Tirtha: Kāśī / Vārāṇasī (Avimukta-kṣetra)
Type: kshetra
Listener: Ṛṣis in Naimiṣāraṇya (frame) / internal interlocutors of Kāśī-māhātmya (contextual)
Scene: Brahmā (Dhātṛ) sets Vaikuṇṭha and other lokas on a great balance against Kāśī; the lokas rise as light while Kāśī remains heavy and steady, radiating with Śiva’s presence; pilgrims and ghāṭs hinted in the background.
FAQs
Worldly attainments—even heaven—are secondary; Kāśī is praised as uniquely potent for mokṣa, embodying and surpassing all four puruṣārthas.
Vārāṇasī/Kāśī (Kāśikā), presented as the supreme sacred city whose spiritual “weight” exceeds even Vaikuṇṭha and other worlds.
No specific rite (snāna, dāna, japa, vrata) is prescribed in this verse; it emphasizes the inherent salvific power of residing in or attaining Kāśī.