Skandapurana 2.9.19

Skanda said:

Then he saw the two ancient deities, the best of seers,

performing great austerity, firmly rooted in the Self, observant of great vows,

surpassing even the sun that illuminates all worlds in splendor,

bearing the mark of Śrīvatsa, venerable, wearing matted hair,

with hands bearing the lotus sign and feet marked with the discus,

broad-chested, long-armed, wearing white, fine, dense garments,

with handsome faces, broad foreheads, beautiful eyebrows, and auspicious noses,

endowed with auspicious marks, of divine forms, and of intense radiance.

Approaching them with humility and circumambulating them,

he prostrated himself with eight limbs in devotion and stood before them with folded hands.

Then those two seers, the abodes of austerities, of renown, and of splendor,

abandoned their silence at the conclusion of their morning rite

and, being composed, worshiped Nārada with affection with foot-water and water offering.

They sat on two seats of kuśa grass, and Nārada also [sat down].

When they had sat down there, that place shone forth

as an enclosure of sacrificial fires does with great flames fed by oblations of ghee.

Then Nārāyaṇa spoke words there to Nārada,

who was comfortably seated, rested, and given hospitable and respectful reception.

The venerable Nārāyaṇa said:

O brahmin, was that Blessed Lord, the eternal Supreme Self,

the ultimate cause of us both, seen by you in the supreme realm of Brahman?

Nārada said:

O Lord, by your grace, that Supreme Lord,

Vāsudeva, abiding in the imperishable abode, was seen by me.

And dismissed by him, I have arrived here to attend upon you both.

Dedicated to that, I shall abide with you two always.

The venerable Nārāyaṇa said:

Blessed are you, favored are you, that the Lord Himself was seen by you!

For no god or seer whatsoever has seen him, O brahmin.

Only those devotees who have attained similarity with the Imperishable through exclusive devotion

behold him, the cause of all.

That Blessed Lord of divine form is the Supreme Person, difficult to behold.

O Nārada, this statement spoken by me is indeed the truth.

No one in the world is dearer to him than a devotee.

Therefore, O best of brahmins, he revealed himself to you.

His limbs are enveloped in a mass of radiance; his wondrous form transcends the qualities [of material nature];

His nature is unbroken bliss; he is ever pure and imperishable.

Indeed, his form, complexion, and stage of life are not material at all.

Everything belonging to him is divine, as are all his accoutrements.

He alone is the supreme goal of single-minded devotees.

Even by those who have attained the oneness of the Self with Brahman and who have turned away from the gunas,

devotion is paid to Vāsudeva—such indeed are his qualities.

Who could declare the majesty of this Supreme Self,

the master of inconceivable, infinite powers, O great sage?

He is the Self of the self, and the Self of the imperishable, spotless as space;

perceivable by divine vision, pure existence, the Person, the son of Vasudeva.

He possesses all auspicious qualities, yet is free from the gunas, the Lord of lords,

to be known through supreme knowledge, to be worshipped, the master who knows Brahman.

That Lord of divine form—whoever pleases him

through single-minded austerity and righteousness is said to be the most blessed.

Therefore, O divine seer, worshipping him with single-minded righteousness,

perform austerity right here, my dear, for some time.

Purified in self through austerity alone, the majesty of that Lord of the virtuous,

as it is being declared in full by me, you shall properly comprehend.

Know austerity to be the means of accomplishing all goals, O sage; it is his heart.

By one who has not performed abundant austerity, that Lord is not brought under control.

Skanda said:

Thus addressed by the blessed Nara-Nārāyaṇa,

he was delighted, and desiring to perform austerity, the wise one said:

Thus ends the nineteenth chapter, named 'The Meeting of Nārada and Nara-Nārāyaṇa,' in the Vāsudevamāhātmya of the second [section], the Vaiṣṇavakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, a collection of eighty-one thousand [verses].