After Krishna, Govinda—the lord of cows and cowherds—was ritually anointed, Indra, grateful and permitted by Krishna, departed for heaven accompanied by the gods and their retinues. With the completion of this divine event, the sacred path of worship was laid out for all devotees. One is instructed to honor Durgā, Vināyaka, Vyāsa, Viṣvaksena, the teachers, and the gods, each facing their respective directions, offering them various gifts such as sprinkling and other rites. If resources allow, the deity should be bathed daily with sandalwood, camphor, kuṅkuma, aguru, and fragrant waters, accompanied by appropriate mantras. The rites are to be performed with the recitation of hymns—Svarṇagharman, Mahāpuruṣa-vidyā, Pauruṣa Sūkta, and Sāman hymns. With love and care, the devotee adorns the Lord with garments, sacred threads, ornaments, leaf-garlands, and fragrant ointments. The offerings presented include water for washing the feet, water for sipping, fragrances, flowers, unbroken rice, incense, lamps, and other gifts, all given with faith. When possible, sweet rice with jaggery, clarified butter, fried cakes, rice cakes, sweets, curd, soup, and other foods are prepared as offerings. Daily and on festival days, oiling, massaging, mirrors, tooth-cleaning, bathing, food, drink, singing, dancing, and other acts of devotion are performed. In a consecrated fire-pit, with girdle, fuel, and altar, the fire is kindled and gathered around as prescribed. After spreading kuśa grass, sprinkling the area, and placing offerings purified by water, the devotee approaches the fire and offers them to the Lord. Meditation follows, envisioning the Lord resplendent as molten gold, holding conch, discus, mace, and lotus, shining with four arms, peaceful, and clothed in garments the color of lotus filaments. He is radiant with crown, bracelets, waistband, splendid armlets, adorned with the mark of Śrīvatsa on his chest, shining with the Kaustubha gem and a garland of forest flowers. As worship continues, wooden offerings and those soaked in clarified butter are placed. Portions of ghee are offered to the ancestors and gods, and the main oblation is immersed in ghee. After worship and bowing, gifts are given to the attendants, and reciting the root mantra, the devotee contemplates Brahman, remembering the essence of Nārāyaṇa. Water for sipping and the remnants are given, prepared for Viṣvaksena; fragrant mouth-fresheners such as betel are offered. There is singing, praising, dancing, and enactments of the Lord’s deeds; stories of the Lord are narrated and heard, and for a moment, the devotee becomes absorbed in divine remembrance. Hymns, both high and low, and praises from the Purāṇas and even common speech are sung, and the devotee prays, “Be gracious, O Lord,” prostrating himself. Placing his head at the Lord’s feet, arms crossed, he implores, “Protect me, O Lord! I have surrendered, frightened by the ocean of death and its snares.” With reverence, he places the remainder of the offering given by the Lord upon his head; when concluding the worship, he respectfully returns the offering to the light, and again to the supreme light. Wherever there is faith in worship, he should worship the Lord there, for the Lord is present in all beings and within the self, as the universal soul. By the paths of ritual and yoga, both Vedic and Tantric, one who worships attains from the Lord the desired perfection in both ways. Establishing the Lord’s image, one should build a firm temple, creating delightful flower gardens for worship and festivals. Fields, shops, towns, and villages should be dedicated for the ongoing flow of worship and rites, both daily and on great festivals, thereby attaining the Lord’s realm. Consecration grants sovereignty over the three worlds with residence; worship and related rites grant Brahma’s world, and through threefold practice, equality with the Lord. Exclusive devotion and yoga alone lead to attaining the Lord himself; thus, whoever worships the Lord obtains the path of devotion. But whoever takes what has been given to the gods or Brahmins for their maintenance becomes a dung-eater for tens of thousands of years. For the sake of the doer, the essence, and the approver, those who share in the actions, after death, repeatedly obtain the greater fruit of those deeds. On the eleventh day, Nanda fasted and worshipped Janārdana; on the twelfth, he entered the waters of the Kālindī river to bathe. A servant of Varuṇa, an asura, seized him and brought him before Varuṇa, for Nanda had entered the water at night, disregarding the asuric boundary. The cowherds, unable to see Nanda, cried out, “Krishna! Rama!” Hearing their calls, the Blessed Lord understood that his father had been taken by Varuna. The mighty Krishna, who grants fearlessness to his own, went to that place. Seeing Hrishikesha arrive, Varuna, the guardian of the world, welcomed him with great honor, worshipped him splendidly, and spoke, celebrating the great festival of beholding Krishna. Varuna said, “Today my body is pacified; today, O Lord, my purpose is fulfilled. Those devoted to your feet, O Blessed One, have reached the end of the path. Obeisance to you, O Blessed Lord, Supreme Self, Brahman, where illusion and the imagined creation of worlds are not heard of. Unknowingly, by my own foolishness and ignorance of what should not be done, your father was brought here; may you forgive this. You, who see all, O Krishna, are worthy to show your favor to me as well. O Govinda, lover of your father, let your father be taken back.” Thus propitiated, Krishna, the Lord of lords, took his father and returned, bringing joy to his relatives. Nanda, having witnessed the extraordinary glory of the guardian of the world and their reverence for Krishna, spoke to his kinsmen, astonished. The cowherds, their minds eager, thought, “Will this Lord show us our own subtle destination?” The Blessed Lord, knowing the minds of his own people, considered this out of compassion, to fulfill their desire. For people in this world, bewildered by ignorance, desire, and action, wander among higher and lower paths, not knowing their own true destination.