After offering hymns—both lofty and humble—and praises drawn from the Purāṇas as well as from ordinary speech, the devotee extols the Lord, praying with deep longing, “Be gracious, O Lord,” and prostrates himself in reverence. Placing his head at the Lord’s feet, arms crossed in supplication, he implores, “Protect me, O Lord! I have surrendered to you, frightened by the vast ocean of death and its snares.” With devotion, he places upon his head the remainder of the offering given by the Lord, and if the worship is to be concluded, he respectfully returns the offering to the light, and again to the supreme light. Wherever and whenever faith in worship arises—whether in ritual or in daily life—he should worship the Lord there, for the Lord abides in all beings and within the self, as the universal soul. Through the paths of ritual and yoga, both Vedic and Tantric, a person who worships the Lord attains the desired perfection by both means. Establishing the Lord’s image, he should build a firm temple, and create delightful flower gardens for worship and festivals. For the ongoing flow of worship and related rites, on great festivals and daily, he should dedicate fields, shops, towns, and villages, thereby attaining the Lord’s realm. By consecration, he becomes sovereign over the three worlds with a residence; through worship and related rites, he attains Brahma’s world, and by the threefold path, equality with the Lord. Through exclusive devotion and yoga, he attains the Lord alone; thus, whoever worships the Lord obtains the path of devotion. But whoever takes for himself what he or others have 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, they repeatedly obtain the greater fruit of those deeds. Śuka then spoke: On the eleventh day, Nanda fasted and worshipped Janārdana; on the twelfth, he entered the waters of the Kālindī to bathe. 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 asuric boundary. The cowherds, unable to see him, cried out, “Krishna! Rama!” Hearing their calls, the Blessed Lord understood that his father had been taken by Varuna. The mighty one, who grants fearlessness to his own, went to that place. Seeing Hrishikesha arrive, the guardian of the world welcomed him with great honor, worshipped him splendidly, and spoke, celebrating the great festival of beholding him. 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, wondered, “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. 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 Blessed Lord Hari, full of great compassion, revealed to the cowherds his own world, which is beyond darkness. That world is truth, knowledge, infinite—Brahman, the eternal radiance—which the sages behold when the qualities have ceased and their minds are absorbed. Krishna led them to the lake of Brahman; after immersing and lifting them out, they saw the world of Brahman, where Akrura had once gone. Nanda and the others, seeing that place, were filled with supreme bliss and, amazed, saw Krishna being praised there by hymns. Knowledge, discrimination, scripture, austerity, direct perception, tradition, and inference—whatever is present at the beginning and end of these, and time and causality as well—that alone exists in the middle. Just as gold, made by oneself before and after, is all-pervading in golden objects, so too, in the midst of various designations, the Lord is that. This knowledge is threefold in its states, consisting of the three guṇas—cause, effect, and agent. By their conjunction and separation, that alone which is the fourth state is the truth. That which is not before, nor after, nor in the middle, is merely a designation; whatever is established as existent by the supreme, that alone is, thus is the Lord’s understanding. That which, though not existing, yet appears—this is the transformation born of rajas. Brahman itself, being self-luminous, shines forth as the wondrous variety of Brahman, senses, objects, mind, and their modifications. Thus, by clear reasoning that discerns Brahman, and skill in refuting opposing views, one should cut off self-doubt and become tranquil, satisfied in one’s own bliss, indifferent to all objects of desire. The self is not the body made of earth, nor the senses, nor the gods, demons, wind, water, or fire; mind is only food, intellect is sattva, ego is space, earth is the balance of elements. How could the senses, composed of guṇas, affect the one whose abode is clearly distinguished? Or what fault is there if they are agitated? Just as clouds, even when present, do not affect the sun when they have departed. Just as space is not attached to the qualities of wind, fire, water, or earth, as they come and go with their own properties, so too the imperishable is untouched by sattva, rajas, and tamas—the causes of transmigration in the mind. Nevertheless, association with the guṇas, which are creations of māyā, should be avoided, until, by firm devotion to the Lord, the impurity of rajas is removed from the mind. Those false yogis, hindered by obstacles created by gods or humans, again practice yoga by the force of previous habit, but not according to the method of karma. Thus ends the twenty-eighth chapter of the first half of the tenth book in the great Purana, Srimad Bhagavata, the scripture of the supreme swan-like sages.