Individual verses with meanings
Hari Om.
Let us begin the fortyfourth sarga of the bAlakAnDam with offering our prostrations at the lotus feet of SrIrAma and our sathguru.
Having achieved the descent of ganga through his intense and determined penance bhagIratha performed the rites of his great grandfathers and ensured their salvation and ascent to heaven…
Following bhagIratha ganga reached the ocean and from there the nether regions where the sons of sagara lay as heaps of ashes. As the heaps submerged in ganga, lord brahma manifested in front of bhagIratha and confirmed to him that his forefathers have attained salvation and attained heavens and that they shall dwell there as long as there is water in the oceans. He said, “ganga is your elder daughter and will be famously known as bhagIrathi after you. By virtue of her trifold flows in the heavens, earth and the nether worlds, she shall be known as tripathaga. You may offer ablutions to your forefathers here and fulfil your vow to bring ganga down from the heavens. O dear son anSumAn, your feat is unrivalled by your father and grand father. Inspite of his maharshi like splendorous qualities and supreme austerities your father dilIpa couldn’t achieve this. Hence you have achieved great renown and reverence by this act of yours”. With those pleasing words, exhorting bhagIratha to take a holy dip and perform the funeral rites of his forefathers lord brahma withdrew to his abode.
The king observed the obsequies as directed and purified himself. Then he entered his capital city and ruled the kingdom. Succeeding with determined efforts, he became free of sorrow and other mental afflictions and rejoiced.
viSwAmitra concludes the marathon narration of the descent of ganga – O rAma, this is the whole episode that I narrated in detail of how ganga descended on to the earth and flowed into the nether worlds. Peace and prosperity be yours. The dusk is upon us and let’s quickly complete our ablutions.
He further added, O kakutstha, whoever narrates this holy story of the descent of ganga, irrespective of which caste he belongs to will attain prosperity, fame, longevity of life, progeny and his desires will be fulfilled and sins destroyed leading to a happy life. His forefathers and the gods will be pleased with such a person.
[It is rare in rAmAyaNa to read the resultant merit of the narration of a particular episode. Going by that, the descent of ganga episode is pretty significant. Perhaps it is a pointer to how critical this river has been for the enablement of the Indian civilization]
Here we conclude the fortyfourth sarga of the bAlakAnDam of SrImath vAlmiKi rAmAyaNam and humbly offer it at the lotus feet of SrIrAma. Hari: Om!
jAi SrIrAma.
Next: bAla kANDam, 45th sarga
Previous: bAla kANDam, 43rd sarga
rAmabhaktisAmrAjyam 
