Skanda Purana — Nagara Khanda, Shloka 14
दुर्वासा उवाच । विद्यामदो धनमदस्तृतीयोऽभिजनोद्भवः । एते मदावलिप्तानामेत एव सतां दमाः
durvāsā uvāca | vidyāmado dhanamadastṛtīyo'bhijanodbhavaḥ | ete madāvaliptānāmeta eva satāṃ damāḥ
துர்வாசர் கூறினார்—கல்வி அகந்தை, செல்வ அகந்தை, மூன்றாவதாக உயர்குலப் பெருமையால் எழும் அகந்தை—இவையே அகந்தையர்களை மாசுபடுத்தும் மயக்கங்கள்; ஆனால் சத்புருஷருக்கு இவையே அடக்கத்தின் சாதனங்களாகின்றன.
Durvāsā
Type: kshetra
Listener: Śaunaka et al. (typical frame; not explicit here)
Scene: Durvāsā, now composed yet stern, instructs assembled brāhmaṇas; three symbolic objects appear—palm-leaf manuscript (vidyā), coin-pot (dhana), and ancestral emblem (kula)—shown as either intoxicating fumes or transformed into a yoke of discipline.
FAQs
The same advantages—learning, wealth, and lineage—become downfall when they generate pride, but become virtues when governed by humility and self-restraint.
This verse functions as a dharma-teaching within the Nāgara-khaṇḍa’s Tīrtha-māhātmya narrative; the specific tīrtha is not named in this single verse.
No specific rite is prescribed here; the emphasis is ethical discipline (dama) rather than a ritual act.