Aṃśumān

Sagara's grandson Aṃśumān, sent by the king, went after the horse along the path his uncles had dug, and near a heap of ash he found it, and the sage Kapila sitting there. He bowed with folded hands and, with a steady mind, praised him.

Even Brahmā, born from the supreme Self, does not see you or know you, he said, for all his meditation. How then should we, who were made from his mind and body, and have no light of our own? You have no name and no form; you are beyond what is and what is not, and you have taken a body to teach knowledge. We bow to you, the ancient Person. Today, by the sight of you, the tight cord of our delusion, our desire and our deeds, has been cut.

Kapila was gracious to him and said: Take this horse, my child. It is your grandfather's sacrificial animal. And these forefathers of yours who were burned here can be saved only by the water of the Gaṅgā, the river of heaven.

Aṃśumān walked around him in reverence and bowed his head, and led the horse home. Sagara finished his sacrifice with it, gave the kingdom to Aṃśumān, and freed from all desire, went the highest way.

Aṃśumān did austerity for a long time to bring the Gaṅgā down to earth, and could not, and neither could his son Dilīpa after him. Dilīpa's son Bhagīratha did austerity greater still, and the goddess Gaṅgā showed herself to him, ready to give him what he asked. The god Śiva, pleased by his austerity, took her on himself as she fell, and Bhagīratha led her to where the ashes of his forefathers lay, and at the mere touch of her water the sons of Sagara went to heaven.