Restore, again and again, all that has been lost by fate—such is the constant prayer to the divine. For you, O Goddess, are the very embodiment of Brahman: supreme, eternal, and radiant as the form of light itself. Without you, this entire world lives as if dead; without your presence, all beings are mute and mad, as though bereft of sense. Your beauty is likened to snow, to sandalwood, to jasmine, to the moon, to the white lotus, and the water-lily—pure, cool, and soothing. You are the presiding power over the sacred syllables, visarga and bindu, without whom even those skilled in numbers cannot count them. Indeed, you are the goddess who is the very form of explanation, the presiding deity over exposition, the embodiment of memory, knowledge, and intellect. Long ago, Sanatkumāra once approached Brahmā with questions about knowledge. At that time, the blessed Lord, the Supreme Self—Śrī Kṛṣṇa—arrived, and Brahmā, as directed by that Supreme Lord, praised you, O Goddess. When the earth herself sought from the Infinite One a single, unified knowledge, Kaśyapa, too, at his command and out of reverence, praised you, though he was filled with awe. In another time, Vyāsa questioned Vālmīki regarding the Purāṇa-sūtra. By your boon, O Goddess, the lord of sages composed that treatise. Having heard the Purāṇa-sūtra, Vyāsa—born in the age of Kṛṣṇa—received your blessing and became the foremost of poets. It was then that he divided and arranged the Vedas and the Purāṇas. Upon meditating on you, even for a moment, the Lord granted her knowledge. For a thousand divine years, he meditated upon you at Puṣkara, and in time, taught the science of words and their meaning to the lord of the gods. The disciples who received this teaching, and the great sages who studied it, all honored you. You are praised and worshipped by the foremost sages—by Manu and all his descendants. Even the thousand-headed one, the five-faced, and the four-faced—great beings all—became stupefied before your glory. Thus, Yājñavalkya, bowing his neck in deep devotion, spoke these words. Then she, the Goddess in the form of light, though unseen by him, spoke to him. Whoever, with self-restraint, recites this hymn to Vāṇī composed by Yājñavalkya—even if he is a fool, or dull of intellect—if he recites it for one year, he will be blessed. Nārāyaṇa said: Because of Gaṅgā’s curse, because of quarrels and conflicts, O river of Bhārata, she came into being. She is the giver of merit, the mother of virtue, and the very embodiment of all sacred pilgrimage sites. Among ascetics, she takes the form of austerity; she is penance itself. In knowledge, she is Sarasvatī; in water, she is present; and those humans who have attained her on earth—even those who have sinned—are purified by bathing playfully in her waters. On the fourteenth day, on the full moon, or on the imperishable day at the end of the day, whoever bathes there—whether casually, indifferently, or with faith—and whoever recites the Sarasvatī mantra for one month, or bathes daily in her waters and shaves his head, attains great merit. Thus, a little has been told about the praise of Bhārata’s virtues. Sauti said: Again, O Śaunaka, he quickly asked to dispel his doubt. Nārada replied: By a portion and by quarrel, the river that bestows merit came to be. And as I hear the essence of these sacred stories, my curiosity only increases.