Kedāreśvara is one of the best known Liṅgas of Kāśī. The Kāśī Khaṇḍa says its holiness is seven times greater than that of the first Kedāra in the Himālaya. This Liṅga is not a smooth shaft. It is a rough mound, shaped like a mound of khicārī cut in half. The Pīṭha of Kedāra in Kāśī is called “the most sacred part of Kāśī”. Chapter 77 of the Kāśī Khaṇḍa Uttarārdha tells how the Liṅga came to be set up in Kāśī through the devotion of the young brāhmaṇa Vasishṭha of Ujjayinī. Vasishṭha made sixty-one yearly pilgrimages to Kedāra in the Himālaya. Bhagavān Śiva then appeared to him in a dream and granted his request that the full power of Kedāra should be fixed in Kāśī at the Harāpāpa Hrada.

The growth of puṇya

Bhagavān Śiva told Devī Pārvatī how the puṇya of going to Kedāreśvara grows step by step:

Resolving to go: all pāpa (sin) since birth is destroyed.
Setting out from home: the pāpa of two births leaves the body.
Reaching the halfway point: the pāpa of three births is destroyed.
Saying “Kedāra, Kedāra, Kedāra” three times in the evening at home: one gets the puṇya of the whole pilgrimage.
Visiting the mountain peak of Kedāra and drinking its water: the pāpa of seven births is removed.
Bathing in the Harāpāpa Hrada and worshipping Kedāreśa: the pāpa of a koṭi of births is destroyed.
Bowing once to Kedāra and offering water at Harāpāpa: the Liṅga is fixed in the lotus of the heart, and at death one reaches moksha.

Vasishṭha and the sixty-one pilgrimages

In the Rathantara Kalpa, a young brāhmaṇa of Ujjayinī came to Kāśī after his sacred-thread ceremony. His teacher Hiraṇyagarbha gave him the Mahāpāśupata Vrata. Every day he bathed in the Harāpāpa Hrada and worshipped the Liṅga three times a day. He made no difference between the Liṅga and his teacher.

When he was about twelve years old, he set out with his teacher on pilgrimage to Kedāra in the great mountain. When they came to the Asidhārā mountain, Hiraṇyagarbha died on the way. In front of all the ṛshis who had gathered, divine attendants came in a celestial chariot and took the teacher to Kailāsa. This confirmed the teaching of Bhagavān Śiva that one who dies on the way to Kedāra reaches Kailāsa for a long time.

Seeing this wonder, the young disciple Vasishṭha was sure that Kedāra is the greatest of all Liṅgas. He resolved to go to Kedāra every year on the full-moon day of Caitra, while he lived in Kāśī. He kept this vow faithfully for sixty-one pilgrimages, living as a celibate in Ānandakānana.

The dream of Bhagavān Śiva and the setting up in Kāśī

On the next Caitra, Vasishṭha was old and grey, and other ascetics tried to stop him, fearing he would die on the way. His resolve did not change: “Even if I die on the way I shall have moksha, like my teacher.” In a dream Bhagavān Śiva appeared and said: “O ascetic of steady vow, I am pleased. I am Kedāra. Ask for the vara (boon) you wish.”

Vasishṭha did not trust the dream. Bhagavān Śiva appeared again and told him that only the dreams of the impure are false, not those of men like Vasishṭha, who live in keeping with their name (vasishṭha means one with full control of the senses). Vasishṭha then asked for no vara for himself. He asked for the welfare of all who had gathered with him, which is the mark of one truly free of ego. And as a second request, he asked that Bhagavān Śiva should stay in Kāśī with the full measure of his power, leaving only a sixteenth part on the Himālaya mountain.

Bhagavān Śiva was doubly pleased by the selflessness of this request and said: “So be it.” At dawn, with all the followers of Vasishṭha and praised by the suras and ṛshis, Bhagavān Śiva himself came down from the Himālaya and made his home for good in the Harāpāpa Hrada Tīrtha in Kāśī. He kept only a sixteenth of his power at the first Kedāra, and the full measure in Kāśī. He said: “Seeing Kedāra in Kāśī earns seven times the puṇya of seeing Kedāra after climbing the Himālaya.”

Harāpāpa Hrada, Gauri Kuṇḍa and Haṃsa Tīrtha

Bhagavān Śiva said that all the sacred features of Kedāra in the Himālaya are also found in Kāśī:

Gauri Kuṇḍa: Devī Pārvatī herself bathed here, so it is known as Gauri Tīrtha.
Haṃsa Tīrtha: Two ravens that fell here while fighting became swans, as at the first Kedāra.
Harāpāpa Hrada: It destroys the pāpa of seven births. When it joins the Gaṅgā, it destroys the pāpa of crores of births.
Mānasa Tīrtha: The holy Mānasa lake did tapas here, and the water carries its presence.
Kedāra Kuṇḍa: Bathing here gives progress towards moksha to all varṇas and all stages of life (āśramas).

Fruit of worship here

Śrāddha in the Harāpāpa Hrada rescues seven generations, and the devotee reaches the world of Bhagavān Śiva.
Śrāddha done here when the new moon falls on a Tuesday gives more puṇya than śrāddha at Gayā.
A śrāddha with rice balls (piṇḍas) at Kedāra Tīrtha carries one hundred and one generations of the family across the ocean of worldly existence.
The fourteenth day of the dark half of Caitra is set for fasting and for drinking water three times.
One who bows to Kedāreśa three times a day for six months will be bowed to in return by Yama and all the guardians of the worlds.
Merely hearing how Kedāreśvara came to be here brings one to the world of Bhagavān Śiva.

Liṅgas near Kedāreśvara

Citrāṅgadeśvara: to the north of Kedāra. Constant worship gives the pleasures of svarga.
Nīlakaṇṭha: to the south. It protects from the poison of worldly existence.
Ambarīshesha: to the north-west. It prevents rebirth in the womb.
Indradyumneśvara: nearby. It takes the devotee to svarga in a shining vehicle.
Kālañjareśvara: to the south. It lets one overcome old age and Kāla.
Kshemeśvara: to the north of Citrāṅgadeśvara. It gives welfare everywhere.

Sources

Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Kāśī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 77