Skanda Purana — Kashi Khanda, Shloka 72
अद्भिर्गात्राणि शुध्यंति मनः सत्येन शुद्ध्यति । विद्या तपोभ्यां भूतात्मा बुद्धिर्ज्ञानेन शुद्ध्यति
adbhirgātrāṇi śudhyaṃti manaḥ satyena śuddhyati | vidyā tapobhyāṃ bhūtātmā buddhirjñānena śuddhyati
जलाने देह शुद्ध होतो, सत्याने मन शुद्ध होते. विद्या व तपाने जीवात्मा शुद्ध होते, आणि ज्ञानाने बुद्धी शुद्ध होते.
Skanda
Tirtha: Gaṅgā in Kāśī / Kāśī-kṣetra
Type: ghat
Scene: Fourfold purification allegory: water bathing at a ghāṭa, a figure speaking truth, a student with scriptures and austere posture, and a sage with radiant intellect-light.
FAQs
Outer cleansing must be matched by inner purification—truth, austerity, learning, and knowledge are presented as the deeper means of sanctification.
Kāśī is the implied sacred context; the verse frames purification as both ritual (water) and ethical-spiritual (truth and knowledge), central to Kāśī’s Mahātmya.
It implicitly affirms snāna (water-bathing) for bodily purity, while prescribing satya, tapas, vidyā, and jñāna for inner purity.