Skanda Purana — Nagara Khanda, Shloka 57
तथा धर्मक्रियाः सर्वा मानुषाणामुदाहृताः । न प्रेतानां न देवानां नान्येषां मानुषं विना
tathā dharmakriyāḥ sarvā mānuṣāṇāmudāhṛtāḥ | na pretānāṃ na devānāṃ nānyeṣāṃ mānuṣaṃ vinā
ฉันนั้นแล กิจแห่งธรรมทั้งปวงประกาศว่าเป็นของมนุษย์ มิใช่ของเปรต มิใช่ของเทวดา มิใช่ของผู้อื่นใด—มีเพียงกายมนุษย์เท่านั้นเป็นแดนแห่งการกระทำตามธรรม
Māṃsāda
Listener: nṛpa (king)
Scene: A calm instructional tableau: the teacher enumerates beings—humans, pretas, devas—emphasizing that dharma-kriyā belongs to human embodiment; symbolic icons (human figure holding mala, preta as faint shadow, deva as radiant) appear as didactic emblems.
FAQs
Human life is uniquely empowered for dharma and liberation-oriented action; it should not be wasted.
No specific site is named; the verse provides a universal dharma principle often used to motivate tīrtha-yātrā and righteous practice.
Implicitly, it points to dharma-kriyā (rites, duties, vows) as human responsibilities, but it does not specify a particular ritual.