ये चान्ये काश्यां पुरीष कारिणः प्रतिग्रहरतास्त्यक्तभस्मधारणास्त्यक्तरुद्राक्षधारणास्त्यक्तसोमवारव्रतास्त्यक्तग्रहयागास्त्यक्तविश्वेश्वरार्चनास्त्यक्तपञ्चाक्षरजपास्त्यक्तभैरवार्चना भैरवीं घोरादियातनां नानाविधां काश्यां परेता भुक्त्वा ततः शुद्धा मां प्रपद्यन्ते च
ye cānye kāśyāṃ purīṣa kāriṇaḥ pratigraharatāstyaktabhasmadhāraṇāstyaktarudrākṣadhāraṇāstyaktasomavāravratāstyaktagrahayāgāstyaktaviśveśvarārcanāstyaktapañcākṣarajapāstyaktabhairavārcanā bhairavīṃ ghorādiyātanāṃ nānāvidhāṃ kāśyāṃ paretā bhuktvā tataḥ śuddhā māṃ prapadyante ca
«And others too, who defile Kāśī, greedy for gifts, who have abandoned the wearing of ash, who have abandoned the wearing of rudrākṣa, who have abandoned the vows of the lunar day, who have abandoned offerings to the luminaries, who have abandoned worship of the Lord of the universe, who have abandoned the repetition of the five-syllable mantra, who have abandoned worship of Bhairava — dead in Kāśī, having undergone the torment of Bhairava, beginning with the terrible, of various kinds — then, purified, they come to me».
28b20f3c99e8 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The line lists offenses and prescribes for them bhairavī yātanā, «the torment of Bhairava»; and this must be said plainly, without smoothing it over. The list itself is revealing. In one row stand uncleanliness in a holy place, pratigraha-rata («greedy for gifts», that is, one who lives on alms not from need but from greed), and — the abandonment of ritual marks: ash, rudrākṣa, fasts, japa.
To equate these things is wrong, and it is worth saying why. Greed under the guise of piety is a moral fault: it deceives the giver. But one who has stopped wearing beads has deceived no one; he may have simply grown cold, or grown poor, or fallen ill.
The substitution of the moral by the ritual is, to my mind, the chief ailment of every developed system of ritual. Ritual is visible, morality is not; a rule is easy to check, a heart cannot be — and so what can be checked is checked, and gradually comes to be taken for the main thing. But in this very line stands what redeems it, and it deserves being noted with gratitude: tataḥ śuddhāḥ mām prapadyante ca, «then, purified, they come to me».
That is, the torment is not eternal and is not an end: it is described as a purification, after which they come. This distinguishes such passages from teachings of eternal ruin, and the difference is not small: in one case the punishment is a correction, in the other, a final outcome. The Vaishnava side holds the same view and here agrees with the book: in the Bhāgavatam the hells are described in detail (5.26), but all of them are for a fixed term, and once the term is served the being returns to the cycle. In this structure there is no hopelessness for anyone.