On Mount Ṛkṣa

Brahmā told Atri to bring forth offspring. So Atri, the best of those who know Brahman, went with his wife to Ṛkṣa, one of the great mountains, and there he gave himself to austerity.

It was a forest of palāśa and aśoka trees, all in flower, and on every side it sounded with the running waters of the river Nirvindhyā. There, for a hundred years, the sage held his mind still by holding his breath. He stood on one foot, beyond heat and cold and every pair of opposites, and lived on air. And all that time he had one thought: I take refuge in the one who is Lord of the world. May he give me offspring like himself.

Then a fire, fed by his holding of the breath, went out from the sage's head and scorched the three worlds, earth, sky and heaven. Then the three from whom all things come, Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva, came to his hermitage, while the dancers and the musicians of heaven, the sages, the perfected ones, the beings of the sky and the serpent people sang their fame.