Adhyaya 13

PP.7.13 opens with worship of Viṣṇu in the Jyeṣṭha season: cooling abhiṣeka, fragrant offerings, fanning with chowries, and rules on the suitability of temples and worship-sites. It then sets out a month-by-month discipline—Āṣāḍha offerings of curd-rice and butter; Śrāvaṇa and Bhādra prescriptions on flowers, fruits, food rules and prohibitions; and Āśvina guidance on the proper timing of water-offerings. A major section follows on ritual purity and conduct: clothing, hair, house-consecration, tilaka, and Vaiṣṇava weapon-emblems as protective and salvific marks. The chapter culminates in Kārtika devotion—lamp-offering, tulasī/bilva, and especially lotus worship—and closes with an itihāsa in which a former bandit is redeemed by offering even a single lotus to Viṣṇu, showing bhakti’s power to transform and lead to jñāna and mokṣa.