Shloka 19
Umāyāḥ Kriyāyoga-Rahasya
The Esoteric Teaching on Umā’s Kriyāyoga
वाराणस्यां कुरुक्षेत्रे प्रयागे पुष्करे तथा । गंगासमुद्रतीरे च नैमिषेऽमरकण्टके
vārāṇasyāṃ kurukṣetre prayāge puṣkare tathā | gaṃgāsamudratīre ca naimiṣe'marakaṇṭake
ဝါရာဏသီ၊ ကုရုက္ခေတ္တ၊ ပရယာဂ၊ ထို့အတူ ပုရှ္ကရ၌လည်းကောင်း၊ ဂင်္ဂါမြစ်သည် ပင်လယ်နှင့် ဆုံရာကမ်းပါး၌လည်းကောင်း၊ နိုင်မိရှနှင့် အမရကဏ္ဍက၌လည်းကောင်း—ဤတို့သည် အလွန်သန့်စင်စေသော သာသနာ့သန့်မြေများဖြစ်၏။
Suta Goswami
Tattva Level: pashu
Shiva Form: Mahādeva
Jyotirlinga: Viśvanātha
Sthala Purana: Kāśī (Vārāṇasī) is celebrated as Śiva’s own city where liberation is granted; the verse lists major tīrthas as supremely sanctifying, with Kāśī foremost in Śaiva imagination.
Significance: Tīrtha-saṅgraha: visiting/remembering these kṣetras is said to purify and orient the paśu toward Śiva; Kāśī especially is linked with mokṣa-bestowal.
FAQs
The verse enumerates renowned tīrthas, emphasizing that proximity to such sanctified spaces supports purification of karma and steadies the mind toward devotion to Pati (Śiva), which is central to liberation-oriented Shaiva practice.
These kṣetras are traditionally associated with intensified Saguna worship—temples, liṅga-darśana, and vrata—where devotion becomes more focused; the tīrtha setting is treated as an aid that turns the seeker toward Śiva’s grace.
Undertake tīrtha-yātrā with Śiva-bhakti: bathe (snāna) at the tīrtha, perform japa of the Pañcākṣarī (Om Namaḥ Śivāya), and offer simple pūjā to a liṅga with a pure, restrained mind.