Skandapurana 2.9.31

Skanda said:

Having heard all these righteous words of the Lord as they were,

the sage, free of doubt, bowed to him with folded hands and spoke: // 1

Nārada said:

All my doubts have been destroyed by your grace, O Lord.

The māhātmya of Vāsudeva has been fully understood by me. // 2

Performing tapas right here together with you for some time,

and constantly listening to knowledge and the rest, I shall bring my soul to maturity. // 3

Skanda said:

Having spoken thus, Nārada, permitted also by him,

dwelt there performing tapas for a thousand divine years. // 4

And every day, at the appropriate time, he heard from Hari's mouth

dharma, knowledge, and the rest; thus the king of yogins attained maturity there. // 5

And he attained supreme affection for Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Soul of all;

intent constantly on singing [his] virtues, he became foremost among devotees of the Lord. // 6

Then, to that perfected yogin who had attained supreme steadfastness in devotion,

the Lord, pleased, the creator of welfare for all embodied beings, spoke: // 7

Śrī Nārāyaṇa said:

You have attained perfection today, O great seer; go, work for the benefit of the world.

You ought to propagate the exclusive dharma everywhere. // 8

Skanda said:

Placing on his head that command of the teacher of the world,

as he was departing, he then praised him, bowing down and standing with folded hands: // 9

Nārada said:

Salutations, salutations to you, O Lord, teacher of the world, O Nārāyaṇa, of uncreated, divine form!

You are a mine of boundless auspicious qualities; may you ever be most pleased with me, your servant! // 10

You are Vāsudeva, the abode of the world; you perform tapas for the welfare of the world.

O Master of the lords of yoga, established in tranquillity, sovereign of those delighted in the Self, you are the true guru of the paramahaṃsas! // 11

You are the all-pervading lord, the foremost of seers, the imperishable self, and the regulator of the souls and their rulers.

The witness, the supreme Person, self-dependent, from whose knit brow great Time arose! // 12

O Lord, through your self alone, the cosmic Puruṣa with his Māyā, you perform the play of creating and [sustaining] the worlds;

yet indeed you are the non-agent, devoid of guṇas, the Infinite, the supreme Brahman, and higher than the highest! // 13

True, self-luminous, of inconceivable power, your form is to be contemplated by those whose self has become Brahman,

O teacher of the great vow [of celibacy], O sovereign among great sages, O you whose splendour strips away the pride of the god of love! // 14

Those well-known enemies of ascetics—anger, passion, malice, and greed foremost among them—

are not able even to encompass this hermitage at any time; such is your power! // 15

Formed of the Vedic metres, formed of knowledge, the immortal path, the embodiment of dharma, the nourisher of the creation of dharma,

uprooter of the creation of adharma, great-souled, you are imperishable, undecaying, the kinsman of the unmanifest! // 16

For you whose form is faultless, all your actions are free from guṇas, for you are devoid of guṇas.

You, the Lord and Master, are to be worshipped by those seeking dharma, wealth, and pleasure, and by those who desire liberation. // 17

You alone are capable of protecting from great danger—from time, māyā, Yama, and the cycles of rebirth.

Overlooking the faults of your devotees, you are greatly compassionate, truly affectionate to your devotees. // 18

Whoever, at the time of death, remembers merely the name or the form of you who have assumed an avatar—

even he, O Lord, freed at once from the terrifying mass of sins, goes swiftly to heaven. // 19

Abandoning such a one as you, that man here who becomes attached to the body made of three humours and to bodily things,

to wife, children, kin, and wealth—he is a fool, utterly deceived by māyā. // 20

The human body alone is fit for devotion to you, which even those residing in heaven desire.

For I consider even the happiness of heaven, devoid of devotion to you, to be equal to hell. // 21

You perform tapas for the happiness of the three worlds; even so, your grace toward men residing in the land of Bhārata

is far greater, since having taken an avatar here, you shine forth wandering [among them]. // 22

Those who do not take refuge in you here are considered in the scriptures to be ungrateful indeed.

Therefore, may you be pleased with me who constantly and firmly take refuge in you alone. // 23

Thus ends the thirty-first chapter, named “Exposition of the Praise of Śrī Nara and Nārāyaṇa,” in the Vāsudevamāhātmya of the second [part], the Vaiṣṇavakhaṇḍa, in the Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses. // 31