Skanda Purana — Nagara Khanda, Shloka 9
यः स्त्रीं भजति पापात्मा वृथा पाशुपतव्रती । सोऽतीतान्दश चाधाय पुरुषान्नरके पचेत्
yaḥ strīṃ bhajati pāpātmā vṛthā pāśupatavratī | so'tītāndaśa cādhāya puruṣānnarake pacet
जो पापी पुरुष व्यर्थ का पाशुपत-व्रती बनकर स्त्री-संग करता है, वह दस जनों को भी गिराकर नरक में पकाया जाता है।
Tāpasa (ascetic)
Type: kshetra
Listener: (Contextual) Śaunaka and the Naimiṣāraṇya sages
Scene: A severe ascetic branded as Pāśupata is shown as hypocritical; shadowy figures (the ‘ten others’) are dragged toward a blazing naraka cauldron—an allegory of moral contagion and karmic consequence.
FAQs
Hypocrisy in religious vows is treated as especially destructive: it harms both the practitioner and others, bringing severe karmic consequences.
No specific tīrtha is named in this verse; the teaching appears within the broader Tīrthamāhātmya narrative frame.
The implied prescription is strict: a Pāśupata vratī must not violate brahmacarya; otherwise the act becomes ‘vṛthā’ (vain) and incurs grave karmaphala.
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