Skanda Purana — Kashi Khanda, Shloka 12
सकलभ्रममेष नाशयेत्स्रगहित्वाद्यपदेशजं हरः । इदमद्भुतमस्य यद्भ्रमः स्फुटमाल्येपि महाहिसंभवः
sakalabhramameṣa nāśayetsragahitvādyapadeśajaṃ haraḥ | idamadbhutamasya yadbhramaḥ sphuṭamālyepi mahāhisaṃbhavaḥ
മാല കൈക്കൊള്ളൽ മുതലായ നിമിത്തജന്യമായ എല്ലാ ഭ്രമവും ഹരൻ നശിപ്പിക്കും; എന്നാൽ അത്ഭുതം—വ്യക്തമായ മാല ഉണ്ടായിട്ടും അവന്റെ ഭ്രമം മഹാസർപ്പത്തിൽ നിന്നുതന്നെ ഉദ്ഭവിക്കുന്നു।
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.