knoweth all things, who is the form of all things, being without form himself, and of whom whatever is, from mount Meru to an atom, all consists--he, the glorious Vishńu, the destroyer of all sin--is described in this Puráńa. By hearing this Puráńa an equal recompense is obtained to that which is derived from the performance of an Aśwamedha sacrifice, or from fasting at the holy places Prayága, Pushkara, Kurukshetra, or Arbuda. Hearing this Puráńa but once is as efficacious as the offering of oblations in a perpetual fire for a year. The man who with well-governed passions bathes at Mathurá on the twelfth day of the month Jyesht́ha 5, and beholds (the image of) Hari, obtains a great recompense; so does he who with mind fixed upon Keśava attentively recites this Puráńa. The man who bathes in the waters of the Yamuná on the twelfth lunation of the light fortnight of the month in which the moon is in the mansion Jyesht́há, and who fasts and worships Achyuta in the city of Mathurá, receives the reward of an uninterrupted Aśwamedha. Beholding the degree of prosperity enjoyed by others of eminence, through the merits of their descendants, a man's paternal ancestors, his parents and their parents, exclaim, "Whosoever of our descendants, having bathed in the Yamuná and fasted, will worship Govinda in Mathurá, in the light fortnight of Jyesht́ha, will secure for us eminent exaltation; for we shall be elevated by the merits of our posterity!" A man of good extraction will present obsequial cakes to his fortunate ancestors in the Yamuná, having worshipped Janárddana in the light fortnight of Jyesht́ha. But the same degree of merit that a man reaps front adoring Janárddana at that season with a devoted heart, and from bathing in the Yamuná, and effecting the liberation of his progenitors by offering to them on such an occasion obsequial cakes, he derives also from hearing with equal devotion a section of this Puráńa. This Puráńa is the best of all preservatives for those who are afraid of worldly existence,

a certain alleviation of the sufferings of men, and remover of all imperfections.