For the ongoing flow of worship and sacred rites—whether on great festivals or in daily observance—a devotee should dedicate fields, shops, towns, and villages for the service of the Lord. Such offerings, given with a pure heart, assure the devotee a place in the Lord’s own realm. Through the act of consecration, one attains sovereignty over the three worlds, complete with residence; through worship and related rites, one reaches the world of Brahma, and by performing all three—consecration, worship, and rites—one attains equality with the Lord Himself. Yet it is through exclusive devotion and the practice of yoga that one truly reaches the Supreme Lord alone; thus, whoever worships Him with a devoted heart finds the path of loving devotion opened before them. But those who take for themselves, or allow others to take, what has been dedicated to the gods or to Brahmins for their maintenance, fall into great misfortune. Such a person, for tens of thousands of years, is condemned to a lowly fate, living as a dung-eater. On the other hand, for the doer, the essence of the act, and the one who approves it, and for those who share in the actions, the greater fruit of those deeds is repeatedly obtained after death. Śuka continued his narration: On the eleventh day of the lunar month, Nanda fasted and worshipped Janārdana with great devotion. On the following day, the twelfth, he entered the waters of the Kālindī River to bathe. However, a servant of Varuṇa, an asura, seized Nanda and brought him before Varuṇa himself, for Nanda had entered the water at night, crossing the boundary set by the asuras. The cowherds, unable to see Nanda, were stricken with grief and cried out, “Krishna! Rama!” Hearing their desperate calls, the Blessed Lord Krishna, who grants fearlessness to His own, understood that His father had been taken by Varuṇa. O King, the mighty Lord hastened to that place. When Hrishikesha, the Lord of the senses, arrived, Varuṇa, the guardian of the world, welcomed Him with great honor. Varuṇa worshipped Krishna splendidly and spoke, celebrating the great fortune 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, 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 Nanda and returned, bringing joy and relief to all His relatives. Nanda, having witnessed the extraordinary glory of Varuṇa and his reverence for Krishna, was astonished and shared his wonder with his kinsmen. The cowherds, their minds filled with eagerness and curiosity, thought to themselves, “Will this Lord show us our own subtle destination?” Krishna, the Blessed Lord, knew the hearts of His people and, out of compassion, considered how best to fulfill their desire. People in this world, bewildered by ignorance, desires, and actions, 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—a realm beyond all darkness. That world is truth, knowledge, and infinity—Brahman, the eternal radiance, which the sages behold when all qualities have ceased and their minds are perfectly absorbed. Krishna led the cowherds to the lake of Brahman; they were immersed and then lifted out by Krishna Himself, and there they beheld the world of Brahman, the same place Akrura had once seen. Nanda and the others, upon seeing that supreme realm, were filled with boundless bliss and amazement, witnessing Krishna being praised there with divine hymns. In that sacred presence, knowledge, discrimination, scripture, austerity, direct perception, tradition, and inference—all these, whatever exists at the beginning and end of them, and even time and causality—the Lord alone exists in the middle. Just as gold, fashioned by oneself before and after, pervades all golden ornaments, so too, amidst various designations, the Lord alone is present. “O dear one,” the Lord revealed, “this knowledge is threefold in its states, consisting of the three guṇas—cause, effect, and agent; yet by both 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 my 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. Therefore, by clear reasoning that discerns Brahman, and with 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, and 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, so too, the imperishable is untouched by sattva, rajas, and tamas—the causes of transmigration in the mind. 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 the guṇas. Nevertheless, association with the guṇas, which are creations of māyā, should be avoided until, by firm devotion to Me, 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. Action is performed, and the living being acts, impelled by some cause or by fate; but the wise one, even while situated in nature, having renounced thirst, experiences his own happiness. Whether standing, sitting, walking, lying down, releasing, or eating food—whatever state the self assumes, the mind established in the self does not know it as anything else. If one perceives an unreal object of the senses, and by various reasoning sees something contrary, the wise do not consider it real—just as, upon waking, a dream disappears. The pattern of guṇas and actions, previously acquired and not distinguished from the self due to ignorance, ceases by mere observation; the self is neither grasped nor abandoned. Just as the rising sun destroys darkness for human eyes but does not create it, so too My keen discernment destroys the darkness of ignorance in a person’s intellect. This self-luminous, unborn, immeasurable one is the great experience, the experience of all; the one without a second, when speech ceases, by whom speech and life are directed.” Thus ends the twenty-eighth chapter of the first half of the tenth book in the great Purāṇa, Srimad Bhāgavata, the scripture of the supreme, swan-like sages.