Skandapurana 2.4.2.51

2.4.2.51

2.4.2.51
As a brahmin named Jaḍa was liberated by hearing a chapter of the Gītā. On this matter, there is a well-known story in the Sāroddhāra: In the city of Vidarbha, there was a brahmin of the Kauśika lineage named Jaḍa who, having abandoned his own duty, had relations with other men's wives, drank wine, and was addicted to theft. Once, after acquiring great wealth through theft from the northern region, while returning, he was killed by thieves at the foot of a tree on the path. Then his son, constantly searching for his father, received no news at all. Thereupon, taking supplies to perform the rites for his father's afterlife, he set out to go to Vārāṇasī. Spending seven or eight nights on the path, at the foot of the very tree where his father had previously been killed, having performed the twilight prayers, he recited the third chapter of the Gītā. At that very moment, hearing a terrible sound, he saw his father descending from the sky seated in an excellent aerial chariot, endowed with a divine form. Bowing, he asked him what had happened. And his father said: 'O son, that for the sake of which you had to go to Vārāṇasī has all been accomplished today; your purpose is fulfilled, return! You have liberated me by reciting the chapter of the Gītā. Moreover, O son, my brother and others of my family have fallen into hell; all of them must be liberated by you by giving the merit of reciting the Gītā.' Having said this and given his blessing, he went to the realm of Viṣṇu. The son too, in the course of time, went to the realm of Yama, granted the merit born of reciting the Gītā, liberated the denizens of hell, and himself went to the supreme abode. 51.