Skanda Purana — Kashi Khanda, Shloka 40
दूरे स्थितोप्यहरहस्तव पादपीठं यः संस्मरेत्सकलसिद्धिद ढुंढिराज । काशीस्थिते रविकलं सफलं लभेत नैवान्यथा न वितथा मम वाक्कदाचित्
dūre sthitopyaharahastava pādapīṭhaṃ yaḥ saṃsmaretsakalasiddhida ḍhuṃḍhirāja | kāśīsthite ravikalaṃ saphalaṃ labheta naivānyathā na vitathā mama vākkadācit
Ô Ḍhuṃḍhirāja, dispensateur de toutes les perfections : quiconque, même au loin, se souvient jour après jour du marchepied de tes pieds, reçoit le fruit entier du séjour à Kāśī, fût-ce pour un seul instant. Il n’en va jamais autrement ; mes paroles ne sont jamais mensongères.
Skanda (deduced from Kāśīkhaṇḍa dialogue convention)
Tirtha: Ḍhuṃḍhirāja (Ḍhuṃḍhivināyaka)
Type: temple
Listener: Pilgrimage-inquirer (not explicit)
Scene: A devotee far from Kāśī sits in a humble dwelling, eyes closed, visualizing the radiant footstool of Ḍhuṃḍhirāja; the vision opens into Kāśī’s ghats as if the city arrives to the mind in a single moment.
FAQs
Steady remembrance (smaraṇa) of the sacred deity—here Ḍhuṃḍhirāja—can confer the same spiritual fruit as physically residing in Kāśī, affirming the power of devotion and mental worship.
Kāśī (Vārāṇasī) is glorified, presented as so meritorious that even a moment’s stay yields great fruit—accessible also through devoted remembrance.
The prescription is daily remembrance/meditative recollection of Ḍhuṃḍhirāja’s pādapīṭha (footstool); no specific dāna, snāna, or japa formula is stated in this verse.