Skanda Purana — Kashi Khanda, Shloka 18
अयि काशि विनाशिताघसंघे तवविश्लेषजआशुशुक्षणिः । अमृतांशुकलामृदुद्रवैरतिचित्रंहविषेव वर्धते
ayi kāśi vināśitāghasaṃghe tavaviśleṣajaāśuśukṣaṇiḥ | amṛtāṃśukalāmṛdudravairaticitraṃhaviṣeva vardhate
ಪಾಪಗಳ ರಾಶಿಯನ್ನು ನಾಶಮಾಡುವ ಓ ಕಾಶಿ! ನಿನ್ನ ವಿರಹದಿಂದ ಉಂಟಾದ ಬೆಂಕಿಯು, ಚಂದ್ರನ ಕಿರಣಗಳಂತೆ ಮೃದುವಾದ ತುಪ್ಪದ ಆಹುತಿಯಿಂದ ಯಜ್ಞಾಗ್ನಿಯು ಬೆಳೆಯುವಂತೆ ಆಶ್ಚರ್ಯಕರವಾಗಿ ಬೆಳೆಯುತ್ತಿದೆ.
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.