Kashi Vishwanath

Suta begins with the nirguna paramatman, the form that is pure consciousness and bliss, without change and eternal. It is kaivalya, he says, but it desired a second. In this way the saguna form named Shiva arose. It divided itself into masculine and feminine, Shiva and Shakti, Purusha and Prakriti. These two could not see their own mother and father, and were full of doubt. A voice from the nirguna paramatman told them to perform austerities for the sake of creation.

They replied that they had no place for austerities. An auspicious energy then spread out for five kroshas and became a beautiful city, made by the nirguna Shiva and sent. It hung in the firmament near Purusha. Hari established himself there and meditated for a very long time, and from his effort many streams of water flowed and covered the void. When he shook his head in wonder, an earring fell from him, and from that arose the great tirtha of Manikarnika.

The five-krosha expanse floated in the flood. Nirguna Shiva quickly held it up on his trident. Vishnu slept there with his wife Prakriti, and at Shankara's command Brahma was born from the lotus in his navel and began the work of creation, producing the cosmic egg with its fourteen worlds.

Worrying that beings bound by karma in the cosmic egg would find it hard to reach him, Brahma released Panchakroshi. The text says it brings auspiciousness, destroys karma and gives jnana, and that Shiva loves it greatly. The lingam of Avimukta was established there by the paramatman himself. Hara released Kashika from his trident and brought it down to earth, among mortals. When Brahma's day ends it is not destroyed. Shiva holds it up on his trident then, and when Brahma starts creating again, it is re-established. The text gives the name Kashi as meaning that it "drags out karma".

The Purana says living beings can obtain other forms of liberation elsewhere, but only here do they attain sayujya, the highest. It says Panchakroshi destroys the sin of killing crores of beings, and that even the immortals wish for a death there. Suta admits he could not describe all its greatness even in a hundred years.

Rudra, who the text says has tamas outside and sattva within and is known as Kalagni when he takes on the gunas, bowed repeatedly and prayed: "For the welfare of the worlds, remain here always." Avimukta, controlled in his atman, entreated Shiva with tears of joy. He asked Shiva to accept Kashi as his capital, saying he himself would remain there in meditation, and that no one but Shiva can give liberation or grant wishes. He asked Sadashiva to stay there with Uma and save all beings from the ocean of samsara.

Vishvanatha Shankara agreed. The text says that from the day Hara arrived in Kashi, Kashi became the best of all places.

The next chapter opens with Parvati, full of delight, asking Shankara about the greatness of the two Avimuktas (the translator's note says these are the city of Kashi and the Vishveshvara lingam). Parameshvara called it a good question and described Varanasi as his most secret kshetra, where he is always present to grant emancipation. Siddhas who follow his vratas live there, and some have taken up the great yoga of Pashupata.

He then separated two cases. His devotees and those who possess jnana do not need tirthas; wherever they die they are jivanmuktas and will reach emancipation. But Avimukta is special for everyone else: whatever a person's varna, ashrama, age, sex or condition, as long as he or she dies in this city, the Purana says there is no doubt of liberation. The same, it says, holds for beings born from sweat, eggs, plants and wombs.

Shiva goes on to say that in this kshetra one does not depend on jnana, devotion, karma, donations, samskaras, dhyana, chanting or worship: it gives emancipation to any human who resides there. He calls it the most mysterious of mysteries, unknown even to Brahma, and says that is why it is called Avimukta, "never forsaken".

The chapter gives a short and careful account of karma. Shiva names three kinds: sanchita (accumulated across previous births), kriyamana (being done in this life) and prarabdha (what this body is about to experience). Prarabdha, he says, has to be exhausted by enjoying its consequences, and there is no other way. The other two can be destroyed through worship and other means. He says that in Kashi sanchita and kriyamana are destroyed by bathing in the Ganga, while prarabdha cannot be destroyed without experiencing it. A person who dies, and is reborn, exhausts it that way.

The Purana also says that a sin committed inside Avimukta is bitterly costly: ten thousand years of pain before emancipation. That is stated as a warning against treating the city as a licence.

Shiva ends with a comparison. Dying at Kashi, he says, means no rebirth; dying at Prayaga gives whatever one desires. If both were available at Prayaga, there would be no gain from Kashi, and if both were at Kashi, no gain from Tirtharaja (Prayaga). Suta then closes this section and announces Tryambaka next.