Skanda Purana — Prabhasa Khanda, Shloka 20
मत्वा कलियुगं रौद्रं बहुपापं वरानने । नान्येन तरते दुर्गां कर्मणा दुर्गतिं नरः
matvā kaliyugaṃ raudraṃ bahupāpaṃ varānane | nānyena tarate durgāṃ karmaṇā durgatiṃ naraḥ
اے خوب رُو! کَلی یُگ کو سخت اور بہت سے پاپوں سے بھرا جان کر، انسان کرم سے پیدا ہونے والی اس بدحالی کی دشوار گھاٹی کو کسی اور ذریعے سے پار نہیں کر سکتا۔
Śiva (addressing Devī; 'varānane')
Tirtha: Prabhāsa-kṣetra (implied)
Type: kshetra
Listener: Varānanā (addressed ‘O lovely-faced one’; likely a female interlocutor within the narrative frame)
Scene: A contrast scene: dark, turbulent Kali-yuga with people burdened by chains labeled ‘karma’, and a luminous path leading to the Somanātha shrine at Prabhāsa, suggesting refuge through divine grace rather than mere worldly striving.
FAQs
In the Kali age, ordinary karmic striving tends toward hardship; one needs a higher salvific support—implied here as the kṣetra’s deity-centered refuge.
The surrounding context is Prabhāsa Kṣetra and Someśvara worship as the implied means of crossing Kali-yuga’s dangers.
No explicit ritual is named in this verse; it sets the theological premise that ordinary means are insufficient, preparing for the kṣetra-based remedy.