Skanda Purana — Kashi Khanda, Shloka 67
जीवहीनो यथा देहो भूषितोपि न शोभते । तथेश्वरं विना यज्ञः श्मशानमिव लक्ष्यते
jīvahīno yathā deho bhūṣitopi na śobhate | tatheśvaraṃ vinā yajñaḥ śmaśānamiva lakṣyate
Como un cuerpo sin vida no resplandece aunque esté adornado, así el sacrificio sin el Señor se ve como un campo de cremación.
Dadhīci (addressing Dakṣa)
Tirtha: Kāśī
Type: kshetra
Listener: Śaunaka and sages (frame implied)
Scene: A stark visual contrast: on one side a richly decorated but lifeless body; on the other a splendid yajña arena that appears like a cremation-ground because the Lord is absent—smoke, ash, and emptiness despite ornaments.
FAQs
Devotion and divine presence are the ‘life’ of ritual; without Īśvara, ceremonies become spiritually empty and inauspicious.
Indirectly Kāśī’s theological ethos (Īśvara-centered worship) is reinforced; no single tīrtha is named in this verse.
The prescription is doctrinal: a yajña must include proper īśvara-pūjā/invocation; otherwise it is condemned as inauspicious.