*SKANDHA V. CHAP. 7.*
The Avatara Vamana asked Bali, the Daitya King, for as much space as he
could cover in three steps. The first step covered the earth. Vamana
then raised his foot over the heavens and the stroke of his left
toe-nail caused a hole in the cosmic egg. Water entered the hole from
outside, water that carried the washings of Vishnu's feet and that was
consequently capable of purifying all the impurities of the world and
that was in itself very pure, water that was then called Bhagavat pudi.
In a thousand yugas the stream reached the highest point of Svar Loka,
called Vishnupada.
Dhruva carried the stream on his own head with ever increasing devotion.
The seven Rishis (of the Great Bear) carry the sacred water in their
braided tufts of hair, as something better than Mukti, for the stream of
devotion flows from Vishnu direct.
Thence the stream passes through the path of the Devas, studded with
thousands and thousands of starry chariots, till it overflows the lunar
regions and fall down on the abode of Brahma in Meru.
There the stream divides itself into four parts called Sita, Alakananda,
Vankshu and Bhadra.
The Sita flows from the abode of Brahma through the highest mountain
ranges, she comes down to Gandha Madana, thence through Bhadrasva Varsha
she falls into the salt ocean towards the east.
So the Vankshu flows through the Malyavat range into Ketumala Varsha and
falls on the west into the Salt ocean.
The Bhadra flows north from the Sumeru peak through several mountain
ranges down to Sringavat range and passes through Kuru in to the Salt
ocean.
The Alakananda flows south from the abode of Brahma through several
mountain ranges to Hema Kuta and thence to Himalaya till it reaches
Bharata Varsha (_i.e._ Nabhi Varsha) and at last flows through it into
the Salt ocean.
There are a thousand other rivers and a thousand other mountains in each
Varsha.
[The real source of the Ganges is not the melting of snow in the
Himalayas. That may be the source of the waters that swell the bed of
the Ganges, as we see it. But the Ganges is something more than a volume
of waters. There is a spiritual current underlying its waters. That
current comes from regions higher than the highest peak of the
Himalayas. Hence the great sanctity attached to it].