Skanda Purana — Kashi Khanda, Shloka 12
विना सांख्येन योगेन काश्यां संस्थोऽमृतो भवेत् । कर्मनिर्मूलनवता विना ज्ञानेन कुंभज
vinā sāṃkhyena yogena kāśyāṃ saṃstho'mṛto bhavet | karmanirmūlanavatā vinā jñānena kuṃbhaja
सांख्य व योग नसतानाही काशीत राहणारा अमर होतो. हे कुंभज (अगस्त्य), कर्माचे मूळ उपटणारे ते ज्ञान नसले तरीही (हे फळ मिळते).
Skanda
Tirtha: Kāśī (Avimukta-kṣetra)
Type: kshetra
Listener: Agastya (Kumbhaja)
Scene: Two paths—Sāṅkhya and Yoga—are shown as steep mountain trails, while Kāśī appears as a luminous city-gate where Śiva’s compassion grants entry to liberation even to ordinary householders.
FAQs
The kṣetra-mahātmya of Kāśī is so great that liberation is attributed to the place and Śiva’s grace, beyond reliance on formal systems alone.
Kāśī as a whole, as a mokṣa-kṣetra whose power surpasses ordinary soteriological methods.
No ritual is prescribed; the verse contrasts liberation in Kāśī with dependence on sādhana systems (Sāṅkhya, Yoga, jñāna).