Skanda Purana — Nagara Khanda, Shloka 35
दण्डी भिक्षां च वा कुर्यात्तदेव व्यसनं विना । यस्तिष्ठति न वैराग्यं याति नैव यतिर्हि सः
daṇḍī bhikṣāṃ ca vā kuryāttadeva vyasanaṃ vinā | yastiṣṭhati na vairāgyaṃ yāti naiva yatirhi saḥ
اگر کوئی دَण्ड اٹھائے اور بھکشا بھی کرے—اور یہ سب دنیاوی لت اور عیب سے پاک ہو—پھر بھی اگر وہ ویراغیہ میں قائم نہ رہے تو وہ حقیقتاً یتی نہیں بنتا۔
Unspecified (deduced: didactic narrator within Nāgarakhaṇḍa Tīrthamāhātmya)
Type: kshetra
Scene: A staff-bearing mendicant stands at a crossroads: one path shows mere costume and public alms-round; the other shows inner detachment—calm gaze, empty hands, and a heart turned inward.
FAQs
External marks of renunciation are insufficient; inner vairāgya is the defining criterion of true ascetic life.
No specific tīrtha is named in this verse; it supports the broader tīrtha-māhātmya narrative by defining the worthy renunciant.
Bhikṣā (alms-begging) as a regulated livelihood for an ascetic, coupled with freedom from vyasana (vices).