Skanda Purana — Prabhasa Khanda, Shloka 21
आदेशं पठते यस्तु आदेशं च ददाति यः । द्वावेतौ पापकर्माणौ पातालतलवासिनौ
ādeśaṃ paṭhate yastu ādeśaṃ ca dadāti yaḥ | dvāvetau pāpakarmāṇau pātālatalavāsinau
जो ‘आदेश’ वाचतो आणि जो असा ‘आदेश’ देतो—हे दोघेही पापकर्मी; त्यांचा वास पाताळतळात होतो.
Sūta (deduced)
Tirtha: Prabhāsa-kṣetra
Type: kshetra
Listener: Devī
Scene: At the edge of a sacred coastal kṣetra, two figures—one reciting a proclamation and one commissioning it—are shown shadowed by the yawning descent to Pātāla, while a distant temple spire and sea-horizon witness the moral warning.
FAQs
Dharma rejects manipulative authorizations and transactional religious directives that corrupt sacred practice.
The warning is embedded in Prabhāsa-kṣetra’s Māhātmya, reinforcing ethical purity in a premier pilgrimage landscape.
A prohibition: do not issue or recite such ‘ādeśa’ directives; the verse frames it as a pāpa leading to Pātāla.