Adhyaya 240
This adhyāya is spoken in an Īśvara-centered voice (“Īśvara uvāca”), turning devotion toward the triad of Balabhadra, Subhadrā, and Kṛṣṇa, praised as spiritually potent. Kṛṣṇa is explicitly hailed as “sarva-pātaka-nāśana,” the destroyer of all sins. Their greatness is then grounded in kalpa-memory: in a former cosmic cycle Hari relinquished the body at this very place, and in the present kalpa a similar gātrotsarga (bodily relinquishment) is remembered. The chapter concludes with a clear pilgrimage fruit: those who perform pūjā to Balabhadra, Subhadrā, and Kṛṣṇa in the presence (saṃnidhi) of Nāgarāditya are declared svarga-gāmin—destined for heaven.
Shlokas
Verse 1
ईश्वर उवाच । ततो गच्छेन्महादेवि बलभद्रं सुरेश्वरम् । सुभद्रां च तथा कृष्णं सर्वपातकनाशनम्
Īśvara said: Then, O Great Goddess, one should go to Balabhadra, lord among the gods, and likewise to Subhadrā and to Kṛṣṇa, the destroyer of all sins.
Verse 2
पूर्व कल्पे महादेवि देहमत्रात्यजद्धरिः । अस्मिन्कल्पेपि च पुनर्गात्रोत्सर्गमिति स्मृतम्
O Great Goddess, in a former aeon Hari cast off his body here; and in this aeon too it is remembered again as a place of relinquishing the body.
Verse 3
तत्र ये पूजयिष्यंति नागरादित्यसंनिधौ । बलभद्रं सुभद्रां च कृष्णं ते स्वर्गगामिनः
Those who there, in the presence of Nāgarāditya, will worship Balabhadra, Subhadrā, and Kṛṣṇa—such devotees go to heaven.
Verse 240
इति श्रीस्कांदे महापुराण एकाशीतिसाहस्र्यां सहितायां सप्तमे प्रभासखंडे प्रथमे प्रभासक्षेत्रमाहात्म्ये बलभद्र सुभद्रा कृष्ण माहात्म्यवर्णनंनाम चत्वारिंशदुत्तरद्विशततमोऽध्यायः
Thus ends the two-hundred-and-fortieth chapter, called “The Description of the Greatness of Balabhadra, Subhadrā, and Kṛṣṇa,” in the first part, the Prabhāsakṣetra-māhātmya, of the seventh book, the Prabhāsa-khaṇḍa, of the Śrī Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, in the compilation of eighty-one thousand verses.