In this chapter Sri Suta Gosvami describes how Markandeya Rishi received benedictions from Lord Siva.

Once, as Lord Siva was traveling in the sky with his wife, Parvati, he came across Sri Markandeya merged in meditative trance. At the request of Parvati, Lord Siva presented himself before the sage to grant him the result of his austerities. Coming out of his trance, Sri Markandeya saw Lord Siva, the spiritual master of the three worlds, together with Parvati, and he worshiped them by offering them obeisances, words of greeting and a sitting place.

Then Lord Siva praised the saintly devotees of the Personality of Godhead and requested Sri Markandeya to choose whatever benediction he desired. Markandeya begged for unflinching devotion to the Supreme Lord Sri Hari, to the devotees of the Supreme Lord and to Lord Siva himself. Satisfied with Markandeya's devotion, Lord Siva awarded him the boons of renown, freedom from old age and death until the time of universal dissolution, knowledge of all three phases of time, renunciation, realized knowledge and the position of a teacher of the Puranas.

Those who chant and hear the story of Markandeya Rishi will attain liberation from material life, which is based on the accumulated desires generated from fruitive work.