In the sacred land of Vraja, the people performed many actions—some knowingly, some without awareness. For the wise, such actions brought success, but for the unwise, the results were often uncertain. Krishna, ever insightful, questioned the purpose of the ritual preparations he saw around him. Was it a meaningful act, or simply a custom followed without understanding? With gentle insistence, he asked Nanda, his father, to speak openly and explain. Nanda replied with reverence, explaining that Indra, the lord of rain, was believed to be the very embodiment of the clouds. The rains he sent nourished and delighted all living beings, sustaining their lives. Therefore, he and the people of Vraja worshipped Indra, offering sacrifices with clarified butter and other materials, following a tradition handed down through generations. From what remained after these offerings, people lived, pursuing the three aims of life—dharma, artha, and kāma. For them, Indra was the cause of the fruits of their efforts. Nanda warned that abandoning this traditional dharma—whether out of desire, greed, fear, or hatred—would not bring good fortune. The ritual was not just custom, but a duty that ensured well-being. Śuka, the sage, narrated that Krishna, hearing these words from Nanda and the cowherds, felt a surge of anger toward Indra and spoke to his father. Krishna declared that every living being is shaped by action—born through action, dissolved by action. Happiness, sorrow, fear, and safety all arise from action alone. If there were a lord who dispensed the fruits of others’ actions, even he would depend on the doer, for he would have no power over those who do not act. Krishna questioned the need for Indra among those who follow their own prescribed actions. Indra could not change what was ordained by each being’s nature. All—gods, demons, and humans—are governed by their own nature, acting accordingly. Whether one is friend, foe, or neutral, it is action alone that teaches and rules. Therefore, Krishna advised that one should worship through action, remaining true to one’s own nature and performing one’s own duty. The path by which one lives directly is truly one’s deity. If a person, having the means to live by one path, depends on another, he will not find well-being—just as an unchaste woman finds no happiness with a paramour. He continued, explaining that a brāhmaṇa should live by Brahman, a kṣatriya by protecting the earth, a vaiśya by commerce, and a śūdra by serving the twice-born. Among the livelihoods—farming, trade, cow protection, lending at interest, and music—the people of Vraja were always engaged in tending cows. Krishna taught that the three qualities—sattva, rajas, and tamas—are the causes of maintenance, creation, and destruction. From rajas arises the universe and its diversity. Urged by rajas, the clouds pour water everywhere, and by this alone all beings thrive. What, then, could Indra do? He pointed out that the people of Vraja had no cities, towns, or houses; they dwelled in the forests, living among woods and mountains. Therefore, Krishna proposed a new sacrifice, dedicated to the cows, the brāhmaṇas, and the mountain. The materials meant for Indra’s worship should be used for this sacrifice. He instructed them to prepare various kinds of cooked foods—soups, rice puddings, cakes, fried flour cakes, and other milk-based dishes. The brāhmaṇas, learned in the Veda, should offer the fires properly, and be given excellent food and cows as gifts. Gifts should also be given to others—such as horse-keepers, outcastes, and the fallen—as appropriate. After giving barley to the cows, an offering should be made to the mountain. Krishna advised that, adorned, anointed, dressed in fine garments and having eaten, the people should circumambulate the cows, brāhmaṇas, fires, and the mountain. He offered his opinion with affection, saying that this sacrifice would be dear to the cows, the brāhmaṇas, the mountain, and to himself. Śuka explained that, hearing Krishna’s words—spoken as Time itself, wishing to humble Indra’s pride—Nanda and the others accepted them as proper. They did everything as Krishna had instructed, having the brāhmaṇas recite blessings and using the materials for the mountain and the brāhmaṇas. After properly offering all the gifts and giving barley to the cows, they placed the herds at the forefront and circumambulated the mountain. The women, mounting their well-decorated carts yoked with oxen, sang of Krishna’s exploits and received blessings from the virtuous brāhmaṇas. Krishna, taking on another form to inspire confidence among the cowherds, declared, “I am the mountain,” and, in a great form, accepted their abundant offerings. Together with the people of Vraja, Krishna offered obeisance to the mountain as the Self to the Self, saying, “Behold, this mountain has appeared in form and has granted us his favor.” He reminded them that the mountain, taking on forms at will, dwells in the forest and destroys those mortals who disrespect him. Therefore, they bowed to him for the protection of themselves and their cows. Thus, prompted by Krishna, the cowherds, along with him, performed the prescribed rites for the mountain, the cows, the brāhmaṇas, and the sacrifice, and then returned to Vraja. At this point, the chapter concludes, marking the end of the twenty-fourth chapter of the first half of the tenth book in the Śrīmad Bhāgavata Mahāpurāṇa, the collection for the paramahaṃsas. In another scene, Krishna spoke of the Self, the self-luminous one who dwells in the hearts of all beings. By perceiving him within oneself, one attains freedom from sorrow and fear. He promised to impart spiritual knowledge to his mother, knowledge that brings peace to all actions and enables one to cross over fear. Maitreya narrated that, thus addressed by Kapila, the lord of creatures, his mother, pleased, circumambulated him to the right and went to the forest. She undertook a vow of silence, relying solely on the Self, wandering unattached over the earth, without fire and without a fixed dwelling. Absorbing her mind in Brahman—beyond both manifest and unmanifest, appearing as qualities yet itself without qualities—she realized it through single-minded devotion. Free from ego, free from possessiveness, beyond dualities, seeing equally and seeing her own Self, inwardly peaceful and steady in mind, like a calm ocean without waves. In Vāsudeva, the all-knowing Lord, the inner Self, through supreme devotion, she realized her own Self and became free from bondage.