Skandapurana 2.2.35

Jaimini said:

Beyond this, I shall declare the rite that ensures the protection of the chariots,

by which terrible spirits, ghosts, and dire portents

do not afflict the chariots, O sages, as is approved by you.

Every day one should worship the deities, Kṛṣṇa and the others, stationed on the banners,

with perfumes, flowers, unbroken rice grains, garlands, and peerless offerings,

and with songs, dances, and presentations of incense and lamps.

One should offer an oblation of milk-rice to the guardians of the directions daily,

and one should give an excellent offering to spirits, ghosts, and goblins (piśācas).

And one should zealously guard those chariots suitable for boarding,

so that no person climbs upon them, nor domestic animal,

and especially birds whose dwelling is not auspicious.

On the eighth day, having turned the chariots southward again,

one should decorate them with cloth, garlands, banners, fly-whisks, and the like.

On the ninth day, in the morning, one should install the gods in them with great magnificence.

This southward journey of Viṣṇu is exceedingly rare.

That procession [should be undertaken] with effort by those endowed with devotion and faith.

Just as the former, so is this [latter one]; and both grant liberation.

The departure and the entry of the Lord are considered to be a single festival.

Those who know the past say that this festival lasts for nine days.

Those by whom this complete procession of three parts is celebrated,

for them the great festival of the Mahāvedī bears its full fruit.

Beholding Kṛṣṇa coming from the Guṇḍicā pavilion facing south,

along with mighty [Balarāma] and Bhadrā standing on their chariots, they become share-holders in liberation.

Whatever fruit they obtain from seeing them facing north,

those who thus behold the exalted ones—Rāma and the others—stationed on the chariots,

that same fruit they would attain when [they see them] facing south.

Whoever sees [Him] facing south, whether moving on foot or riding in the chariot,

his birth becomes fulfilled, and at every step [he gains the fruit of] a horse sacrifice.

With hymns of praise, prostrations, and showers of flowers,

with presentations of various dances, and with fans, umbrellas, and chowries,

and with offerings of many kinds, one should attend in front of the chariot.

Those who behold Hṛṣīkeśa, Subhadrā, and the plow-armed one [Balarāma], / standing in the chariot facing south and arriving at Nīlācala,

the wish-fulfilling tree of desires for men, granting liberation through mere darśana,

those great souls go to Vaikuṇṭha, the abode of Hari.

[Beholding] that Janārdana moving along the seashore in His chariot,

looking with compassionate side-glances upon the men bowed before Him,

journeying south toward His palace on the blue mountain [Nīlācala],

Hari, the treasure-store of all sacred fords and the wish-fulfilling tree of all gifts—

those men who praise Him, bow to Him, and have faith,

they do not return here again; they dwell firmly in the world of Brahmā.

O sages, this great festival of the Mahāvedī has been recounted to you,

by the mere recitation of which a man becomes purified.

And the man who recites this daily upon rising in the morning,

or hears it with focused mind, goes to the realm of Śakra.

Or whatever man, having installed even a secondary image of Hari on a chariot,

performs this procession with a disposition of faith and devotion,

he too, by the grace of Viṣṇu, having obtained the fruit born of the Guṇḍicā festival,

goes to the abode of Vaikuṇṭha; there is no doubt about this.

Behold, O brahmins, according to one's wealth, or according to devotion conjoined with faith,

to that extent this great procession is performed, however one wishes to do it.

This supreme, pure secret was spoken by Brahmā;

having caused it to be performed or having seen it, a man never comes to grief.

Thus ends the thirty-fifth chapter in the Puruṣottamakṣetramāhātmya of the second section, the Vaiṣṇavakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, a compendium of eighty-one thousand verses.