With deep devotion and reverence, the worshipper bathes the sacred deity each day, if resources allow, using sandalwood paste, camphor, kuṅkuma, aguru, and fragrant waters, all the while reciting holy mantras. The rites are performed with the chanting of the Svarṇagharman hymn, the Mahāpuruṣa-vidyā, the Pauruṣa Sūkta, and the Sāman hymns, as prescribed by tradition. With loving care, the devotee adorns the Lord with garments, sacred threads, ornaments, garlands of leaves, and fragrant ointments, following what is proper and fitting. Water for washing the feet, water for sipping, fragrant substances, flowers, unbroken rice, incense, lamps, and various offerings are presented to the Lord with faith. Offerings such as sweet rice with jaggery, clarified butter, fried cakes, rice cakes, sweets, curd, soup, and other foods are prepared if available, to please the Lord. Oiling and massaging the deity, offering mirrors, cleansing the teeth, bathing, providing food and drink, singing, dancing, and other such services are performed daily and especially on festival days. In the prescribed manner, a consecrated fire-pit is prepared with girdle, fuel, and altar; the fire is kindled and gathered all around as directed, with care and devotion. After spreading kuśa grass and sprinkling the area, the offerings are placed as prescribed and purified with water. Approaching the fire, the devotee offers these to the Lord. In meditation, the worshipper envisions the Lord resplendent as molten gold, holding the conch, discus, mace, and lotus, shining with four arms, peaceful, and dressed in garments the color of lotus filaments. The Lord is radiant with crown, bracelets, waistband, and splendid armlets, adorned with the mark of Śrīvatsa upon his chest, the Kaustubha gem, and a garland of forest flowers. While meditating and worshipping, the devotee places wooden offerings and those soaked in clarified butter into the fire. After offering ghee for the ancestors and the gods, he presents the oblation immersed in ghee to the Lord. Having worshipped and bowed, he offers gifts to the Lord’s attendants, recites the root mantra, and contemplates Brahman, remembering always the essence of Nārāyaṇa. After giving water for sipping and the remnants, he prepares them for Viṣvaksena, and then offers fragrant mouth-fresheners such as betel, as is proper. Singing, praising, dancing, and enacting the Lord’s deeds, narrating and listening to his stories, the devotee becomes absorbed, even if just for a moment. With hymns both high and low, with praises from the Purāṇas and even from everyday speech, he extols the Lord, praying, “Be gracious, O Lord,” and prostrates himself. Placing his head at the Lord’s feet with arms crossed, he implores, “Protect me, O Lord! I have surrendered, frightened by the ocean of death and its snares.” With reverence, he places upon his head the remainder given by the Lord. If the worship is to conclude, he respectfully returns the offering first to the lamp, and then again to the supreme light. Wherever and whenever there is faith in worship or similar acts, he should worship the Lord there, for the Lord is present in all beings and within the self, as the universal soul. Thus, by the paths of ritual and yoga, both Vedic and Tantric, a person who worships attains from the Lord the desired perfection, in both ways. Establishing the Lord’s image, he should construct a firm temple, and create delightful flower gardens for worship and festivals. To ensure the ongoing flow of worship and related rites, both on great festivals and daily, he should dedicate fields, shops, towns, and villages, thereby attaining the Lord’s realm. Through consecration, he becomes sovereign over the three worlds with a residence; through worship and related acts, he attains Brahma’s world; and by the threefold path, he attains equality with the Lord. By exclusive devotion and yoga, he attains the Lord alone; thus, whoever worships the Lord obtains the path of devotion. But if anyone takes what was given—by himself or others—to the gods or to Brahmins for their sustenance, he becomes a dung-eater for tens of thousands of years. For the doer, the essence, and the approver, those who share in the actions, after death, repeatedly obtain the greater fruit of those deeds. Now, Śuka continued: On the eleventh day, fasting, Nanda worshipped Janārdana; on the twelfth, he entered the waters of the Kālindī to bathe. But a servant of Varuṇa, an asura, seized him and brought him to Varuṇa’s presence, for Nanda had entered the water at night, disregarding the boundary set by the asuras. The cowherds, unable to find him, cried out in distress, “Krishna! Rama!” Hearing their calls, the Blessed Lord understood that his father had been taken by Varuṇa. O King, the mighty one who grants fearlessness to his own went at once to that place. Seeing Hrishikesha arrive, Varuṇa, the guardian of the world, welcomed him with great honor, worshipped him splendidly, and spoke, celebrating the great festival of beholding the Lord. Varuṇa 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 even 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 Varuṇa and his reverence for Krishna, spoke to his kinsmen, astonished. The cowherds, their minds eager, wondered, “Will this Lord show us our own subtle destination?” The Blessed Lord, knowing the minds of his own people, considered this with compassion, wishing 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. Thinking thus, the compassionate Lord Hari revealed to the cowherds his own world, which is beyond darkness—a realm of truth, knowledge, and infinity—Brahman, the eternal radiance, which the sages behold when all qualities have ceased and their minds are fully absorbed.