Shloka 11
Pulastya’s Tīrtha Enumeration: Sarasvatī, Naimiṣa, Gayā, and Associated Phalaśruti
Chapter 82
अकल्कको निरारम्भो लघ्वाहारो जितेन्द्रिय: । विमुक्त: सर्वपापेभ्य स तीर्थफलमश्षुते,जो दम्भ आदि दोषोंसे दूर, कर्तृत्वके अहंकारसे शून्य, अल्पाहारी और जितेन्द्रिय हो, वह सब पापोंसे विमुक्त हो तीर्थके वास्तविक फलका भागी होता है
akalkako nirārambho laghvāhāro jitendriyaḥ | vimuktaḥ sarvapāpebhyaḥ sa tīrthaphalam aśnute ||
Ghūlastya said: “One who is free from blemish, who undertakes no self-serving enterprises, who eats lightly, and who has mastered the senses—being released from all sins—truly partakes of the real fruit of pilgrimage. The merit of a sacred ford is not secured by display, but by inner purity, restraint, and freedom from egoistic doership.”
घुलस्त्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
The true fruit of pilgrimage belongs to the person who is inwardly pure and disciplined—free from moral stain, moderate in food, master of the senses, and without egoistic, self-promoting activity. External travel or ritual display is secondary to inner transformation.
In the Vana Parva’s discourse on tīrthas and their merits, the speaker Ghūlastya explains the qualifications that make pilgrimage spiritually effective, emphasizing restraint, humility, and freedom from sin as the real basis for receiving tīrtha-phala.