Skanda Purana — Kashi Khanda, Shloka 12
सकलभ्रममेष नाशयेत्स्रगहित्वाद्यपदेशजं हरः । इदमद्भुतमस्य यद्भ्रमः स्फुटमाल्येपि महाहिसंभवः
sakalabhramameṣa nāśayetsragahitvādyapadeśajaṃ haraḥ | idamadbhutamasya yadbhramaḥ sphuṭamālyepi mahāhisaṃbhavaḥ
ハラは、花輪を取るなどの口実から生じるあらゆる迷妄を滅するはずである。だが不思議なことに、明らかに見える花輪の前でさえ迷妄が起こる——まるで彼の飾りである大蛇から生まれるかのように。
Skanda (deduced: Kāśīkhaṇḍa commonly Skanda → Agastya)
Tirtha: Kāśī
Type: kshetra
Listener: Audience within Kāśī-māhātmya narration
Scene: Śiva, adorned with a great serpent and garland, is depicted as the destroyer of delusion, yet momentarily ‘bewildered’—a poetic, playful paradox; the garland is clearly visible, but the nāga-ornament becomes the source of the wondrous bhrama.
FAQs
The verse heightens the mahātmya through paradox: the delusion that Śiva normally destroys is here poetically ‘born’ from his own ornaments—signaling the overpowering force of Kāśī’s absence.
Kāśī, as the implied root-cause behind the Lord’s unusual ‘confusion’ or distress.
None.