"Lomasa said, 'The blessed God having heard what Bhagiratha had said,
and with a view to doing what was agreeable to the residents of heaven,
replied to the king, saying, "So let it be. O most righteous of the
protectors of men, O (prince) of a powerful arm! For thy sake I shall
sustain the river of the gods, when she will take her descent from the
sky, she who is pure and blessed and divine, O (king) of a mighty arm!"
Saying this, he came to the snowy mountain, surrounded by his
attendants, of awful mien, and with uplifted weapons of diverse forms.
And standing there, he said to Bhagiratha, the most praiseworthy of men,
"O (prince) of a powerful arm! do thou pray to the river, the daughter
of the king of mountains. I shall sustain that most praiseworthy of
rivers when she falls down from the third region of the world (heaven)."
Having heard these words uttered by Siva, the king became devout (in
heart), made obesiance and directed his thoughts towards Ganga. Then the
delightful (river), of pure water in being so thought of by the king,
and seeing that the great lord (Siva) was standing (to receive her
fall), came down all of a sudden from the sky. And seeing that she had
taken her leap from the sky, the gods, together with the mighty saints,
the Gandharvas, the snakes, and the Yakshas, assembled there as
spectators. Then came down from the sky Ganga, the daughter of the snowy
mountain. And her whirlpools were raging, and she was teeming with
fishes and sharks. O king! she directing her course towards the sea,
separated herself, into three streams; and her water was bestrewn with
piles of froth, which looked like so many rows of (white) ganders. And
crooked and tortuous in the movement of her body, at places; and at
others stumbling as it were; and covered with foam as with a robe: she
went forward like a woman drunk. And elsewhere, by virtue of the roar of
her waters, she uttered loud sounds. Thus assuming very many different
aspects, when she fell from the sky, and reached the surface of the
earth, she said to Bhagiratha, "O great king! show me the path that I
shall have to take. O lord of the earth! for thy sake have I descended
to the earth." Having heard these words, king Bhagiratha directed his
course towards the spot where lay those bodies of mighty Sagara's sons,
in order that, O most praiseworthy of men, the holy water might flood
(the same). Having achieved the task of sustaining Ganga, Siva, saluted
by men, went to Kailasa the most praiseworthy of mountains, accompanied
by the celestials. And the protector of men (Bhagiratha) accompanied by
Ganga reached the sea; and the sea, the abode of Varuna, was quickly
filled. And the king adopted Ganga as a daughter of himself, and at that
spot offered libations of water to the names of his forefathers; thus
was his heart's wish fulfilled. Thus asked by thee, I have narrated the
whole story how Ganga running in three streams, was brought down to the
earth for filling the sea; how the mighty saint had drunk up the sea for
a particular reason, and how, O lord! Vatapi, the slayer of Brahmanas,
was destroyed by Agastya.'"