Skanda Purana — Kashi Khanda, Shloka 17
अयि काशि मुदा कदा पुनस्तव लप्स्ये सुखमंगसंगजम् । अतिशीतलितानि येन मेऽद्भुतगात्राणि भवंति तत्क्षणात्
ayi kāśi mudā kadā punastava lapsye sukhamaṃgasaṃgajam | atiśītalitāni yena me'dbhutagātrāṇi bhavaṃti tatkṣaṇāt
ഹേ കാശീ! നിന്റെ സ്പർശനത്താൽ ഉണ്ടാകുന്ന സുഖം എനിക്ക് വീണ്ടും എപ്പോൾ സന്തോഷത്തോടെ ലഭിക്കും? അതുകൊണ്ട് എന്റെ ശരീരം തൽക്ഷണം കുളിർமையுள்ளതാകുന്നു.
Śiva
Tirtha: Kāśī/Avimukta
Type: kshetra
Listener: Kāśīkhaṇḍa’s audience within the frame narrative
Scene: Śiva addresses Kāśī as a beloved presence; the moment of imagined reunion cools his wondrous limbs instantly, shifting the palette from heat to cool serenity.
FAQs
Contact with Kāśī—symbolizing divine proximity—cools the fires of suffering, portraying the kṣetra as a direct healer of existential heat (tāpa).
Kāśī (Vārāṇasī), implicitly as Avimukta, whose ‘touch’ signifies immediate spiritual relief.
No explicit rite is stated; the verse emphasizes the salvific power of reaching/attaining Kāśī (kṣetra-prāpti).