Skanda Purana — Kashi Khanda, Shloka 27
श्रद्धा धर्मः परः सूक्ष्मः श्रद्धा ज्ञानं परं तपः । श्रद्धा स्वर्गश्च मोक्षश्च श्रद्धया सा प्रसीदति
śraddhā dharmaḥ paraḥ sūkṣmaḥ śraddhā jñānaṃ paraṃ tapaḥ | śraddhā svargaśca mokṣaśca śraddhayā sā prasīdati
ശ്രദ്ധ തന്നെയാണ് പരമവും സൂക്ഷ്മവുമായ ധർമ്മം; ശ്രദ്ധ തന്നെയാണ് പരമജ്ഞാനവും പരമതപസ്സും. ശ്രദ്ധ തന്നെയാണ് സ്വർഗ്ഗവും മോക്ഷവും—ശ്രദ്ധയാൽ ആ ദിവ്യശക്തി പ്രസന്നയായി കൃപ നൽകുന്നു.
Skanda (deduced: Kāśīkhaṇḍa commonly Skanda → Agastya)
Tirtha: Gaṅgā in Kāśī (Jāhnavī)
Type: ghat
Listener: Pilgrim-seekers / interlocutors within Kāśīkhaṇḍa (contextual)
Scene: A serene Kāśī dawn: pilgrims on ghāṭs with folded hands; a sage teaching that faith itself is dharma, knowledge, and austerity; the river glows as a symbol of grace and liberation.
FAQs
Śraddhā is presented as the inner engine of Dharma—without faith, knowledge, austerity, and liberation do not ripen.
The verse sets the doctrinal foundation for the Gaṅgā–Kāśī context of the chapter, where Gaṅgā in Kāśī is praised as a liberating tīrtha.
No specific rite is prescribed here; it emphasizes the required inner qualification—faith—for any tīrtha-practice to bear fruit.