Chapter
8:
Mârkandeya
Resists All Temptation and Prays to
Nara-Nârâyana Rishi

(23) The servants of
Indra in that place found him who, having offered his
oblations, sat in meditation with his eyes closed
invincible as fire personified.

(33-34) Of the two of
Them was one white and the other black; Their eyes were
like blooming lotuses, Their arms were four, Their
clothes black deerskin and bark, Their hands most
purifying, carried a waterpot and a straight staff of
bamboo, and Their sacred thread was three-stranded. With
prayer beads of lotus seeds which purify all living
beings and with the Vedas [in the form of bundles of
darbha] represented they, worshiped by the chief
demigods, effulgent yellowish of color standing tall
indeed radiating with light, the austerity.

Chapter
9:
Mârkandeya
is Shown the Lord's Bewildering Potency

(21) Upon a branch of
that tree toward the northeast he even more saw an infant
boy lying within the fold of a leaf swallowing the
darkness with His effulgence.

Chapter
10:
S'iva,
Lord and Helper Glorifies Mârkandeya
Rishi

(3) Sûta said:
"The great lord [S'iva] accompanied by
Rudranî [Umâ] and surrounded by his
entourage, saw, traveling though the sky on his bull, him
thus absorbed in trance.

Chapter
11:
Vishnu
His Attributes and the Order of the Month of Him as the
Sun-god

(11-12) His material
energy composed of the various modes is represented by
His flower garland, the yellow garment He wears stands
for the vedic metres and His sacred thread represents the
three syllable AUM. The processes of sânkhya and
yoga does the Godhead carry in the form of His makara
['sea-monster'] earrings, and His crown, bringing
fearlessness to all the worlds, represents the superior
[transcendental] position.

(45)
These ones constitute the glories of Vishnu, the Supreme
Personality of Godhead in the form of the sungod; they
do, of those men who at the junctures of each day
remember them, take away the sinful reactions.

Chapter
12:
The
Topics of S'rîmad-Bhâgavatam
Summarized

(5-6) At length are
discussed the bhakti-yoga and renunciation belonging to
it [in 1.2, 7.5-10 & canto 11.29], just as
the history of Nârada [1.4-6] and the
history of Parîkchit: the fast until death of
Parîkchit, the sage among the kings, because of his
being cursed by [the son of] a learned one and
the conversation between Parîkchit and S'uka, the
best of the brahmins [see canto 1.8-18].

(31-33) [Recounted
are] the subduing of the snake Kâliya [10:
16-17]; the vows that to the contentment of the
Infallible One were observed by the young gopîs
o[10.21 & 22];
the mercy for the brahmin wives feeling sorry
[10.23]; the lifting of Govardhana Hill
[10.25] and the worship and ritual bathing next
performed by Indra and Surabhi [10.27]; Krishna's
sporting with the gopîs during the nights
[10.29-33], the rescue of Nanda
Mahârâja from a great serpent [10.34]
and the killing of the foolish S'ankhacûda
[10.34], Arishtha [10.36] and Kes'î
[10.37].

(55) The remembrance of
Lord Krishna's lotusfeet destroys everything
inauspicious, leads to good fortune, purification of the
heart and, connected in the wisdom and detachment, to
spiritual knowing and devotion for the Supreme Soul.

Chapter
13:
The
Glories of
S'rîmad-Bhâgavatam