A wise teacher once instructed: “One should avoid dwelling near trees with thorns, creepers, and similar growths. Likewise, keep away from kharjūra, coconut, and tāla trees, for such places are not auspicious for the righteous. Above all, purity is essential—without it, a person remains perpetually impure and unfit for any sacred action. At the break of dawn, after carefully washing the feet and rinsing the mouth, one must perform the morning sandhyā, the sacred twilight worship. Know this: even if a person bathes in every holy river and faithfully performs the three daily sandhyās, if he lacks purity, none of his actions during the day bear fruit. Such a person should be excluded from all duties of the twice-born, just as a Śūdra is. In fact, a twice-born who neglects these duties incurs the grave sins equivalent to killing a Brāhmaṇa or committing self-destruction, suffering daily. For such transgressions, he is destined for the Kālasūtra hell for an entire age, as is the fate of one who marries beneath his caste. But those who honor the divine—Brahmā, Īśa, Viṣṇu, Māyā, Padmā, and Sarasvatī—should, at the proper time, touch water and perform their bathing and related rites with devotion. At the outset, the wise and righteous should gather the five balls of food, signifying readiness for the day’s duties. After bathing, one must make a solemn resolve, and then bathe again, for this resolve, especially for householders, destroys the sins that have been committed. With the appropriate Vedic mantra, a person should purify the body, praying: ‘O earth, take away my sin, whatever wrong I have done. Having come upon my limbs, remove all my sins.’ Having spoken this, one should stand in water up to the navel and, as prescribed, invoke the presence of the sacred rivers, placing the hand reverently. Thus, the practitioner calls: ‘O Gaṅgā, O Yamunā, O Godāvarī, O Sarasvatī; O Nalinī, O Nandinī, O Sītā, O Mālinī, O great river; O Padmāvatī, O Bhogavatī, O Svarṇarekhā, O Kauśikī; O Vidyādharī, O Suprasannā, and also O Lokaprasādhinī; O Sāvitrī, O Tulasī, O Durgā, O Mahālakṣmī, O Sarasvatī; O Ahalyā, O Aditi, O Saṃjñā, O Svadhā, O Svāhā, and O Arundhatī—may you all be present and purify me.’ Having bathed repeatedly and attained great purity, the wise one should then apply the sacred tilaka mark upon the forehead. Bathing, giving in charity, austerity, oblations, and rites for the gods and ancestors—all these are to be performed after such purification. A brāhmaṇa, adorned with the tilaka, should then perform the twilight worship and the ritual offering of water. Care must be taken: after bathing, one should carefully wash the feet and don clean garments. Whoever enters a temple after bathing without washing the feet fails in propriety. The householder, after putting on smooth, fresh clothing, should enter his home. If a Brāhmaṇa washes his feet only above the shins, the act is insufficient. Once seated, the pure practitioner should sip water for internal purification. Worship is praiseworthy in all places—at the Śālagrāma stone, upon a gem, with a mantra, before an image, in water, or on land—but especially at the Śālagrāma, O Nārada. One who worships there is considered as if he has bathed in all sacred waters and been initiated in every sacrifice. Whoever daily drinks water sanctified by the Śālagrāma stone, with devotion, attains special merit. Wherever the Śālagrāma stone and its disc are present, O Nārada, whoever dies there—knowingly or unknowingly—attains the divine realm. Truly, apart from the Śālagrāma, who else among the virtuous would choose to worship Hari elsewhere?