sire, thy mother, and thyself, O son, shall all be freed from death.  Go quickly and enter thy abode; thou shall behold thy sire there.—­Having obtained the permission of the illustrious Deity, I then repaired to my home, O Yudhishthira, and beheld my father, O son, coming out after having finished his daily sacrifice.  And he came out, bearing in his hands a quantity of Homa-fuel and Kusa grass and some fallen fruits.  And he seemed to have already taken his daily food, for he had washed himself properly.  Throwing down those things from his hand, my father, with eyes bathed in tears (of joy), raised me, for I had prostrated myself at his feet.  Embracing me he smelt my head, O son of Pandu, and said.—­By good luck, O son, art thou seen by me.  Thou hast come back, having acquired knowledge from the preceptor.’

“Vaisampayana continued, ’Hearing these marvellous and most wonderful feats of the illustrious Mahadeva recited by the ascetics, the son of Pandu became amazed.  Then Krishna, that foremost of all intelligent persons, spoke once more unto Yudhishthira, that ocean of righteousness, like Vishnu speaking unto Puruhuta.’

“Vasudeva said, ’Upamanyu, who seemed to blaze with effulgence like the Sun, said unto me,—­Those sinful men that are stained with unrighteous deeds, do not succeed in attaining to Isana.  Their dispositions being stained by the attributes of Rajas and Tamas, they can never approach the Supreme Deity.  It is only those regenerate persons who are of cleansed souls that succeed in attaining to the Supreme Deity.  Even if a person lives in the enjoyment of every pleasure and luxury, yet if he be devoted to the Supreme Deity, he comes to be regarded as the equal of forest recluses of cleansed souls.  If Rudra be gratified with a person, he can confer upon him the states of ether Brahma or of Kesava or of Sakra with all the deities under him, or the sovereignty of the three worlds.  Those men, O sire, who worship Bhava even mentally, succeed in freeing themselves from all sins and attain to a residence in heaven with all the gods.  A person who raises houses to the ground and destroys tanks and lakes indeed, who devastates the whole universe, does not become stained with sin, if he adores and worships the illustrious Deity of three eyes.  A person that is destitute of every auspicious indication and that is stained by every sin, has all his sins destroyed by meditating upon Siva.  Even worm and insects and birds, O Kesava, that devote themselves to Mahadeva, are enabled to rove in perfect fearlessness.  Even this is my settled conviction that those men who devote themselves to Mahadeva become certainly emancipated from rebirth.  After this, Krishna again addressed Yudhishthira the son of Dharma in the following words.