confer upon him the states of ether Brahma or of Kesava or of Sakra with
all the deities under him, or the sovereignty of the three worlds. Those
men, O sire, who worship Bhava even mentally, succeed in freeing
themselves from all sins and attain to a residence in heaven with all the
gods. A person who raises houses to the ground and destroys tanks and
lakes indeed, who devastates the whole universe, does not become stained
with sin, if he adores and worships the illustrious Deity of three eyes.
A person that is destitute of every auspicious indication and that is
stained by every sin, has all his sins destroyed by meditating upon Siva.
Even worm and insects and birds, O Kesava, that devote themselves to
Mahadeva, are enabled to rove in perfect fearlessness. Even this is my
settled conviction that those men who devote themselves to Mahadeva
become certainly emancipated from rebirth. After this, Krishna again
addressed Yudhishthira the son of Dharma in the following words.

"Vishnu said, O Great King, 'Aditya, Chandra, Wind, Fire, Heaven, Earth,
the Vasus, the Viswedevas, Dhatri, Aryyaman, Sukra, Vrihaspati, the
Rudras, the Saddhyas, Varuna, Brahma, Sakra, Maruts, the Upanishads that
deal with knowledge of Brahman, Truth, the Vedas, the Sacrifices,
Sacrificial Presents, Brahmanas reciting the Vedas, Soma, Sacrificer, the
shares of the deities in sacrificial offerings or clarified butter poured
in sacrifices, Raksha, Diksha, all kinds of restraints in the form of
vows and fasts and rigid observances, Swaha, Vashat, the Brahmanas, the
celestial cow, the foremost acts of righteousness, the wheel of Time,
Strength, Fame, Self-restraint, the Steadiness of all persons endued with
intelligence, all acts of goodness and the reverse, the seven Rishis,
Understanding of the foremost order, all kinds of excellent touch, the
success of all (religious) acts, the diverse tribes of the deities, those
beings that drink heat, those that are drinkers of Soma, Clouds, Suyamas,
Rishitas, all creatures having Mantras for their bodies, Abhasuras, those