Skanda Purana — Kashi Khanda, Shloka 64
अहो वैश्वेश्वरे क्षेत्रे मरणादपिनोभयम् । यत्र सर्वे प्रतीक्षंते मृत्युं प्रियमिवाति थिम्
aho vaiśveśvare kṣetre maraṇādapinobhayam | yatra sarve pratīkṣaṃte mṛtyuṃ priyamivāti thim
آہ! وِشوَیشور کے مقدس کھیتر میں موت سے بھی خوف نہیں؛ وہاں سب موت کا انتظار یوں کرتے ہیں گویا وہ کوئی محبوب مہمان ہو۔
Skanda
Tirtha: Viśveśvara-kṣetra (Avimukta/Kāśī)
Type: kshetra
Listener: Audience contemplating mortality and liberation
Scene: A serene Kāśī scene where elders and pilgrims sit near Viśveśvara-kṣetra, calm-faced, as a symbolic figure of Death approaches like an honored guest; lamps burn steadily, suggesting fearlessness and release.
FAQs
In Kāśī, death is transformed into an auspicious passage; devotion to Viśveśvara removes fear at life’s end.
Viśveśvara-kṣetra—Kāśī as the domain of Lord Viśveśvara (Śiva)—is glorified.
No specific rite; the verse extols the kṣetra’s grace where even dying there is welcomed as sacred.