Skanda Purana — Nagara Khanda, Shloka 38
देवानां च यथा मर्त्याः कीटस्थाने च संस्थिताः । तथा देवा अपि ज्ञेया ब्रह्मणोऽव्यक्तजन्मनः
devānāṃ ca yathā martyāḥ kīṭasthāne ca saṃsthitāḥ | tathā devā api jñeyā brahmaṇo'vyaktajanmanaḥ
ดุจดังมนุษย์ผู้เป็นมรรตยะ เมื่อเทียบต่อเหล่าเทวะ ยืนอยู่ในฐานะประหนึ่งแมลงฉันใด แม้เหล่าเทวะก็ควรรู้ว่าอยู่ฉันนั้นต่อพรหมัน ผู้มีปฐมกำเนิดอันไม่ปรากฏแจ้ง
Sūta
Type: kshetra
Listener: dvijottama (addressed)
Scene: A contemplative sage instructs a learned brāhmaṇa at a sacred ford; above them, layered cosmic tiers show mortals, devas, and a vast formless radiance signifying the unmanifest Brahman.
FAQs
Humility deepens: as humans are small before gods, so gods are small before the unmanifest Brahman—pointing the seeker to the supreme reality.
No specific tīrtha is named in this verse; it provides theological framing commonly embedded in Māhātmya literature.
None; it is a metaphysical instruction about relative status and the supremacy of Brahman.