Adhyaya 197

After Ātmadeva’s departure, Dhundhukārī terrorizes his mother until she dies. Gokarṇa performs the funeral rites and continues his pilgrimages, including the Gayā-śrāddha. Dhundhukārī’s sinful life ends when courtesans kill him, and he becomes a preta, tormented and denied even water. He returns and appears before Gokarṇa in dreadful forms, confesses his sins, and admits that Gayā-śrāddha alone has not freed him. Gokarṇa consults learned brāhmaṇas; they praise Śrī Sūrya, and Āditya reveals the remedy: a seven-day Śrīmad Bhāgavata recitation (saptāha) along with the Vāñchā-Cintāmaṇi hymn. On the banks of the Tuṅgabhadrā, Gokarṇa conducts the saptāha; on the seventh day Dhundhukārī is released and ascends to Vaikuṇṭha. A second saptāha culminates in Kṛṣṇa’s epiphany and the listeners’ collective ascent to Goloka, proclaiming kathā-śravaṇa as a universal liberator.