Skanda Purana — Kashi Khanda, Shloka 72
अद्भिर्गात्राणि शुध्यंति मनः सत्येन शुद्ध्यति । विद्या तपोभ्यां भूतात्मा बुद्धिर्ज्ञानेन शुद्ध्यति
adbhirgātrāṇi śudhyaṃti manaḥ satyena śuddhyati | vidyā tapobhyāṃ bhūtātmā buddhirjñānena śuddhyati
जल से शरीर शुद्ध होता है, सत्य से मन शुद्ध होता है। विद्या और तप से जीवात्मा शुद्ध होती है, और ज्ञान से बुद्धि शुद्ध होती है।
Skanda
Tirtha: Gaṅgā in Kāśī / Kāśī-kṣetra
Type: ghat
Scene: Fourfold purification allegory: water bathing at a ghāṭa, a figure speaking truth, a student with scriptures and austere posture, and a sage with radiant intellect-light.
FAQs
Outer cleansing must be matched by inner purification—truth, austerity, learning, and knowledge are presented as the deeper means of sanctification.
Kāśī is the implied sacred context; the verse frames purification as both ritual (water) and ethical-spiritual (truth and knowledge), central to Kāśī’s Mahātmya.
It implicitly affirms snāna (water-bathing) for bodily purity, while prescribing satya, tapas, vidyā, and jñāna for inner purity.