Skanda Purana — Nagara Khanda, Shloka 48
व्यास उवाच । ब्रह्मचारी भवेत्पूर्वं गृहस्थश्च ततः परम् । वानप्रस्थो यतिश्चैव ततो मोक्षमवाप्नुयात्
vyāsa uvāca | brahmacārī bhavetpūrvaṃ gṛhasthaśca tataḥ param | vānaprastho yatiścaiva tato mokṣamavāpnuyāt
Vyāsa bersabda: Hendaklah seseorang mula-mula menjadi brahmacārin (pelajar yang memelihara brahmacarya), kemudian menjadi gṛhastha (berumah tangga); selepas itu menjadi vānaprastha (penghuni rimba) dan yati (pertapa yang meninggalkan dunia). Dengan tertib ini, ia mencapai mokṣa, pembebasan.
Vyāsa
Listener: Śuka
Scene: A symbolic four-panel or continuous narrative: student with staff and sacred thread; householder with family and fire-altar; forest-dweller with simple hut; renunciant with ochre cloth—ending in a luminous horizon signifying mokṣa.
FAQs
Mokṣa is supported by a disciplined life structured through the four āśramas, not by impulsive renunciation.
No specific site is named; the verse provides dharma-architecture commonly taught within tīrtha-mahātmya narratives.
The prescription is āśrama-dharma itself: sequential life-stages culminating in renunciation and liberation.