Narada said: -
1. Being thus made to ascend heaven by those pious rulers of the earth, who were greatly given to liberality, Yayati was established in heaven after taking leave of his grandsons.
2. (He went up to heaven) amidst the downpour of a shower of sweet scented flowers and fanned by a holy wind, whose very smell indicated its holiness.
3. Reaching then the eternal regions earned for him by his grandsons by the fruit of their own deeds, he became effulgent with excellent beauty.
4. He was gladly received in heaven with songs and dances by groups of Gandharvas and Apsaras and with the sound of cymbals.
5. He was also duly gratified by various classes of celestial Rishis, royal Rishis and Charanas and honoured by an excellent Arghya and otherwise pleased by the gods.
6. The grandfather then said to him who bad earned the merit of ascending heaven as if trying to please him who had obtained gratification and tranquillity of mind with his words.
7. The four Padas (the full amount) of virtue had been earned by you by your worldly deeds and these regions were yours for an endless period and your renown in heaven too was eternal.
8. But that merit, O royal Rishi, you nullified again, for by your vanity were the minds of all the denizens of heaven clouded.
9. In consequence of this they did not recognize you and being thus rendered unknown (to them) you were hurled down and you have come her? again, your grandsons saving you out of affection for you.
10. Earned by your own deeds you have now come to a place which is stable, eternal sacred, excellent and surely indestructible.
Yayati said: -
11. O you endued with divine prosperity, I have a certain doubt which it is proper for you to remove; it is not proper that I should ask anybody else, O grandfather of the universe.
12. Great was the merit earned by me by protecting my subjects and increasing the human stock for a great many - thousands of years and by many sacrificial rites and pieties.
13. How could that all be spent tip in a very short time in consequence of which I was hurled down, O you endued with di- vine prosperity, you know that the eternal regions were built for me and how and why were all these destroyed, O you of great effulgence?
The grandsire said: -
14. The merit, earned by you by protecting your subjects and increasing the human stock for a great many thousands of years and the performance of many sacrificial rites and making many gifts.
15. Was destroyed by this defect owing to which you were hurled down: O chief among kings, owing to your vanity you cared very little and held in contempt the denizens of heaven.
16. In the case of a man affected by vanity, O royal Rishi, or by envy or by force or by wickedness, or by deceit, these regions cannot be eternal.
17. By you, O king, are not to be disregarded or insulted those that are superior or those that are inferior or those that are indifferent; salvation cannot be attained by one who is consumed by vanity.
18. Those men, who will converse on this story of your fall and recension, will attain salvation though affected by sins; there is no doubt of it.
Narada said: -
19. By Yayati was such a distress met within days of old for his vanity and by Galava owing to an excessive measure of obstinacy, O lord of the world.
20. The advice of your well-wishers should be listened to by you, for your friends wish you well; obstinacy should not be re- sorted for it gives rise to ruin.
21. Therefore, do you also O son of Gandhari, abandon vanity and wrath; O hero, make peace with the sons of Pandu and abandon wrath, O ruler of the earth.
22. O ruler of the earth, that which one gives, or does, or the asceticism one practises or the sacrifices one makes can never be destroyed nor do they suffer deterioration in quality and the fruits are enjoyed by nobody save the doer.
23. By understanding this great story than which nothing is better, and which is approved of by those who are well read in holy books and those who are past the operations of desire and wrath, a man obtains in this world a knowledge of (virtue, worldly good and desire) and gets the sovereignty of this world.
Thus ends ike one hundred and twenty third chapter, the ascension to heaven of Yayati in the Bhagavat-yana of the Udyoga Parva.