In plain words
This Gaṅgā is the sacred one that flows as a living form through the three times, the three worlds and the three guṇas too. That is, in heaven by the name Mandākinī, on earth by the name Bhāgīrathī, in the nether world by the name Bhagavatī, the one Gaṅgā keeps flowing. ‘Whether in the past, the future and the present, or in the several kinds of worlds, the highest, the middle and the lowest, or in the sattva, rajas and tamas guṇas, the very culture of Bhārata, flowing as one, is the great stream of the Gaṅgā,’ this Ānandagiri told the guru. Not content with Ānandagiri's inner meaning so far, Śaṅkara went on probing deeper. ‘Are there heaven, the middle world and the nether world? If so, in what form are they? How do they come into experience?’ he asked further. Then Ānandagiri: ‘The person who has proclaimed the truth that all, from the ant even up to Brahmā, shines as the one divinity of the Ātma, him I regard as a dweller in heaven. That is, the very highest state, recognised in one who is ever an embodiment of Ānanda, with Śānti and happiness, and who takes in the feeling of Satya through the rays of Prema, is heaven,’ he said. ‘As long as a man, going by the differences among beasts, birds, worms and insects, thinks of himself as one separate individual, he has reached the middle place, the world of mithyā,’ he said. Then he gave a fine basis for what is called the nether world. He taught that all those who forget humanity itself, or forget the very principle of Prakṛti, and pay no regard at all to the Vedas and śāstras, the Itihāsas and Purāṇas, every one of them, are none other than dwellers in the nether world; and so in every matter, in the feelings of the mind, we keep seeing all these places too as highs and lows. Just as the human body has its highs and lows, so the nature of the mind that lives in it has just those same highs and lows too. In the world we see no mind, no man, without highs and lows. That the sattva, rajas and tamas guṇas live in the one man, and that each guṇa surges up as its time comes, is the true picture of man's everyday experience.