Srimad Bhagavatam — Navama Skandha, Shloka 28
Mahārāja Sagara, Kapila Muni, and the Deliverance of the Sixty Thousand Sons
श्रीभगवानुवाच अश्वोऽयं नीयतां वत्स पितामहपशुस्तव । इमे च पितरो दग्धा गङ्गाम्भोऽर्हन्ति नेतरत् ॥ २८ ॥
śrī-bhagavān uvāca aśvo ’yaṁ nīyatāṁ vatsa pitāmaha-paśus tava ime ca pitaro dagdhā gaṅgāmbho ’rhanti netarat
The Personality of Godhead said: My dear Aṁśumān, here is the animal sought by your grandfather for sacrifice. Please take it. As for your forefathers, who have been burnt to ashes, they can be delivered only by Ganges water, and not by any other means.
FAQs
In this verse, the Lord states that Sagara’s forefathers, burned to ashes, can be purified only by the waters of the Gaṅgā—highlighting Gaṅgā-jala as uniquely sanctifying for ancestral deliverance.
Because the horse was the rightful sacrificial animal of Aṁśumān’s grandfather (King Sagara) for the Aśvamedha, and the Lord clarifies it should be returned to complete the sacrifice properly.
It teaches respect for dharma and responsibility to one’s lineage, while emphasizing that true purification comes through sacred, God-centered means—cultivating humility, devotion, and sincere acts of remembrance and prayer for one’s ancestors.