Skanda Purana — Prabhasa Khanda, Shloka 21
आदेशं पठते यस्तु आदेशं च ददाति यः । द्वावेतौ पापकर्माणौ पातालतलवासिनौ
ādeśaṃ paṭhate yastu ādeśaṃ ca dadāti yaḥ | dvāvetau pāpakarmāṇau pātālatalavāsinau
But he who recites an ‘ādeśa’ and he who gives such an ‘ādeśa’—both are doers of sinful deeds, destined to dwell in Pātāla, the nether regions.
Sūta (deduced)
Tirtha: Prabhāsa-kṣetra
Type: kshetra
Listener: Devī
Scene: At the edge of a sacred coastal kṣetra, two figures—one reciting a proclamation and one commissioning it—are shown shadowed by the yawning descent to Pātāla, while a distant temple spire and sea-horizon witness the moral warning.
FAQs
Dharma rejects manipulative authorizations and transactional religious directives that corrupt sacred practice.
The warning is embedded in Prabhāsa-kṣetra’s Māhātmya, reinforcing ethical purity in a premier pilgrimage landscape.
A prohibition: do not issue or recite such ‘ādeśa’ directives; the verse frames it as a pāpa leading to Pātāla.