Skanda Purana — Avanti Khanda, Shloka 2
नारायणेन शुश्रूषा शूलस्थेन कृता पुरा । तत्र स्नात्वा महाराज मुच्यते पापकञ्चुकात्
nārāyaṇena śuśrūṣā śūlasthena kṛtā purā | tatra snātvā mahārāja mucyate pāpakañcukāt
En tiempos antiguos, allí Nārāyaṇa prestó servicio mientras permanecía sobre una estaca. Al bañarse en ese lugar, oh gran rey, uno queda libre del manto del pecado.
Śrī Mārkaṇḍeya (continuation of narration)
Tirtha: Māṇḍavya-Nārāyaṇa-siddha tīrtha (unnamed here)
Type: tirtha
Listener: Great King (mahārāja)
Scene: A flashback tableau: Nārāyaṇa performing devoted service while impaled/affixed on a stake (śūla), conveying endurance; foreground pilgrims bathe in the river, symbolically shedding a dark cloak of sin.
FAQs
Selfless service and severe endurance are sanctified, and tīrtha-bathing performed at such a charged place is said to dissolve accumulated sin.
The same Revā Khaṇḍa tīrtha linked with Nārāyaṇa’s śuśrūṣā and the tradition of being śūlastha; it is praised for freeing one from sin.
Snāna (bathing) at that tīrtha is prescribed as the act that grants release from pāpa.