The king, troubled by the laughter of his queen, asked her the reason behind it. With her bright smile, she assured him there was no other reason for her laughter, nor had the queen spoken anything false. She explained, “I alone have laughed here; now I will not live with you. How can a mortal know the speech of ants unless he is a god?” Thus, she insisted that only she had been laughed at by him, and there was nothing more to say. The king, left speechless and perplexed by her words, yearned to understand their meaning. Determined, he undertook a vow of purity for seven nights. At the end of his observance, during his dream, Brahmā appeared to him as he wandered the city at dawn. Brahmā revealed, “Your beloved will learn everything from an aged, excellent brāhmaṇa,” and then vanished. Taking this divine message to heart, the king set out from the city at sunrise, accompanied by his ministers and wife. As they journeyed, they encountered ahead an old brāhmaṇa, who approached them and began to speak. The king and his retinue beheld the aged one attentively. The brāhmaṇa proclaimed, “Those foremost brāhmaṇas in Kurujāṅgala, the Dāśas in Dāśapura, the deer, the seven cakravāka birds in Kālañjara, and the siddhas dwelling in Mānasasaras—” Upon hearing these words, the king was overcome with grief and fell to the ground. The minister’s sons, too, were struck by the memory of their past births. Among them was Bābhravya, the renowned author of the treatise on love, known among the people as Pañcāla, a master of all scriptures. Puṇḍarīka, righteous and a promoter of Vedic knowledge, also remembered his past lives and fell down in sorrow. Lamenting, they cried, “Alas, we are fallen from our duties, bound by karma out of desire!” These masters of yoga, learned in many scriptures, were deeply moved. Amazed, they praised the greatness of the śrāddha rite again and again. The king honored the old brāhmaṇa with wealth and many villages. However, realizing the brāhmaṇa’s pride in his wealth, the king set him aside and instead appointed his own son—endowed with royal marks—as successor. He anointed his son, Viṣvaksena, as ruler over the kingdoms. Then, all those foremost yogins, including Brahmadatta and others, devoted to their ancestors and free from envy, immersed themselves in the waters of Mānasa lake. Their humility became bold, as revealed in the narrative. The king, rejoicing before them, declared, “All the fruits of royal yoga that are sought after—so it is, just as you have said. All this fruit has been attained by me through your grace alone.” The forest-dwellers, embracing yoga, attained the supreme state through the Brahmarandhra by the power of their austerity. Thus, when grandfathers are pleased, they grant men long life, wealth, knowledge, heavenly joys, liberation, sons, and kingdoms. O king, the greatness of Brahmadatta’s ancestors is such that if a learned man recites or hears it read to the twice-born, he is honored in Brahmā’s world for a hundred crores of kalpas. Bhīṣma then asked, “At what time of day should one perform the śrāddha rite? And at which holy places does performing śrāddha yield the greatest fruit, O twice-born?” Pulastya replied, “The holy place called Puṣkara is regarded as the most excellent; it stands as the cherished wish of all foremost brāhmaṇas. Whatever is given, offered in sacrifice, or recited there becomes infinite and certain; it is always dear to the ancestors and held as supreme by the sages. Likewise, the holy places Nandā and Lalitā, and the auspicious city of Māyāpurī; also Mitrapada, and the most excellent Kedāra. They say that Gaṅgāsāgara is the auspicious holy place made of all tīrthas; also the holy lake of Brahmā, and the auspicious waters of the Śatadru. There is also the holy place called Naimiṣa, which grants the fruit of all holy places; and where the eternal Gaṅgā emerges in the Gomati. There too is Yajñavarāha, and the god of gods who bears the trident; there, the eighteen-armed Hara receives the gift of gold. In ancient times, the rim of the wheel of dharma was worn away by Nemi at Naimiṣāraṇya, frequented by all holy places. There, too, is the vision of the god of gods and of Varāha; whoever goes there, purified in soul, reaches the city of Nārāyaṇa. Kokāmukha and Indramārga are supreme holy places, as is Pitṛtīrtha belonging to Brahmā of unmanifest birth. In the Puṣkara forest, Pitāmaha abides; the supreme vision of Viṣṇu is found there, bestowing the fruit of liberation. It is called Kṛta, supremely meritorious and destroyer of all sins, where the primeval Nārasiṃha, Janārdana himself, appeared. There is a sacred ford named Ikṣumatī, auspicious for the ancestors; the forefathers are always satisfied at the confluence of the Gaṅgā and Yamunā. Kurukṣetra is supremely holy, where the path is also marked; even now, the ancestral ford there grants the fruit of all desires. The ancestral ford known as Nīlakaṇṭha, as well as the holy Bhadrasara and the lake called Mānasā, are renowned. Mandākinī, Acchodā, Vipāśā, and Sarasvatī likewise; the place called Sarvamitrapada, and Vaidyanātha, which yields great results. The sacred river Kṣiprā, and the auspicious Kālañjara; the emergence of tīrthas, the emergence of Hara, Garbha-bheda, and the great shrine. Bhadreśvara, Viṣṇupada, and the gateway of the Narmadā; the sages declare that offering piṇḍa at Gayā is equivalent to these. These ancestral fords remove all sins; what then for those who perform śrāddha there, if even remembering them benefits the worlds? Oṃkāra is an ancestral ford, as is the water of Kāverī and Kapilā; the confluence at Caṇḍavegā, and likewise Amarakaṇṭaka. Such, O king, are the holy places and the greatness of the ancestors, whose blessings are boundless for those who honor them with faith and reverence.