Skanda Purana — Kashi Khanda, Shloka 83
भर्ज्यते कर्मबीजानि यत्र विश्वेशवह्निना । अतो महाश्मशानं तदगतीनां परा गतिः
bharjyate karmabījāni yatra viśveśavahninā | ato mahāśmaśānaṃ tadagatīnāṃ parā gatiḥ
जिथे विश्वेश्वराच्या अग्निने कर्मबीज भर्जून नष्ट होतात; म्हणून ते स्थान ‘महाश्मशान’—अगतीनांची परा गती, परम आश्रय—असे म्हणतात।
Skanda (deduced: Kāśīkhaṇḍa commonly Skanda → Agastya)
Tirtha: Mahāśmaśāna (Kāśī-Avimukta)
Type: ghat
Listener: null
Scene: A night-lit Kāśī cremation ground by the Ganga: funeral pyres glow, yet above them a calm, transcendent radiance of Viśveśa ‘fire’ symbolically burning karmic seeds; seekers surrender with folded hands, fear dissolving into peace.
FAQs
Kāśī is portrayed as a uniquely liberating field where Śiva’s power destroys karmic causality at its root, making mokṣa accessible.
Mahāśmaśāna in Kāśī (the sacred cremation geography of Avimukta-kṣetra, traditionally linked with Kāśī’s cremation-ghāṭas).
No specific ritual is stated; the verse emphasizes the metaphysical effect of the kṣetra—karmic seeds are destroyed by Viśveśa’s ‘fire’.