Skanda Purana — Nagara Khanda, Shloka 120
अपरं च क्षमं वाक्यं यत्त्वां वच्मि विहंगम । अयं दुःखेन संयुक्तः साधयिष्यति पावकम् । अहमेनमनुद्धृत्य कस्माद्गच्छामि चाश्रमम्
aparaṃ ca kṣamaṃ vākyaṃ yattvāṃ vacmi vihaṃgama | ayaṃ duḥkhena saṃyuktaḥ sādhayiṣyati pāvakam | ahamenamanuddhṛtya kasmādgacchāmi cāśramam
« Ô oiseau, supporte encore une parole que je vais dire. Celui-ci, accablé de douleur, s’apprête à entrer dans le feu. Comment pourrais-je retourner à mon ermitage sans l’avoir d’abord sauvé ? »
Mārkaṇḍeya (deduced from immediate narrative context)
Type: kshetra
Listener: vihangama (Baka, the bird)
Scene: A sage addresses a bird-messenger with calm insistence, pointing toward a sorrow-stricken man preparing a fire; the sage refuses to return to the hermitage until rescue is secured.
FAQs
Compassionate dharma requires intervening to save a despairing person, even before returning to one’s own religious duties.
The verse sits within the Tīrthamāhātmya stream of Nāgarakhaṇḍa; this specific line emphasizes dharma-in-action within the pilgrimage narrative rather than naming a single tīrtha.
None directly; it mentions an intended act of entering fire (self-immolation) which the speaker seeks to prevent.