Skanda Purana — Kashi Khanda, Shloka 18
अयि काशि विनाशिताघसंघे तवविश्लेषजआशुशुक्षणिः । अमृतांशुकलामृदुद्रवैरतिचित्रंहविषेव वर्धते
ayi kāśi vināśitāghasaṃghe tavaviśleṣajaāśuśukṣaṇiḥ | amṛtāṃśukalāmṛdudravairaticitraṃhaviṣeva vardhate
Wahai Kāśī, pemusnah timbunan dosa! Pedih yang cepat mengering, lahir dari perpisahan darimu, justru bertambah dengan cara yang ganjil—laksana api persembahan yang berkobar ketika diberi ghee yang dilembutkan oleh sinar rembulan bak amṛta.
Śiva
Tirtha: Kāśī/Avimukta
Type: kshetra
Listener: Kāśīkhaṇḍa’s audience within the frame narrative
Scene: A sacrificial fire flares as moon-cooled ghee is poured; simultaneously, Śiva’s separation-pain from Kāśī ‘dries quickly’ yet paradoxically grows—an alchemical devotional image.
FAQs
Kāśī is praised as a sin-destroying field; separation from such a liberating place intensifies spiritual thirst, depicted through a yajña-fire metaphor.
Kāśī (Avimukta-kṣetra), explicitly lauded as ‘vināśitāgha-saṅgha’—the destroyer of accumulated sins.
No direct prescription; the imagery draws on yajña (havis/oblation) to communicate how longing for Kāśī powerfully grows.