Skanda Purana — Kashi Khanda, Shloka 73
निर्वाणलक्ष्मीर्वृणुते तं निर्वाणपदाप्तये । यत्र कुत्रापि निधनं प्राप्नुयादपि स ध्रुवम्
nirvāṇalakṣmīrvṛṇute taṃ nirvāṇapadāptaye | yatra kutrāpi nidhanaṃ prāpnuyādapi sa dhruvam
निर्वाण-लक्ष्मी मोक्षपदप्राप्तीसाठी त्या भक्तास वरण करते. तो कुठेही देहत्याग पावला तरी त्याच्यासाठी मुक्तिदायी गती निश्चयाने ध्रुव असते.
Śiva
Tirtha: Kāśī / Avimukta-kṣetra (implied)
Type: kshetra
Listener: Bhavānī/Devī (explicit in nearby verse 29.76; this verse continues the same descriptive discourse)
Scene: An allegorical vision: Nirvāṇa-Lakṣmī (a serene, luminous goddess) placing a garland or lotus in the hands of a devotee, while the background shows Kāśī’s ghāṭas fading into a cosmic horizon, indicating liberation assured even beyond place and time.
FAQs
Devotion and merit connected with Kāśī are framed as liberation-oriented, culminating in assured spiritual attainment.
Kāśī’s sacred economy of merit in general (as established in this adhyāya), promising nirvāṇa as the highest fruit.
No new rite is introduced here; it states the phala (result): attainment of nirvāṇa and certainty of the liberating outcome.