Suta said: "At that very time the great ascetic Jaratkaru wandered over the whole earth, [finding] shelter [wherever] evening [overtook him]. Undertaking a vow severe and impossible for the unrestrained, the resplendent [sage] wandered on, bathing in the sacred tirthas. Living on air alone, fasting, withering day by day, that sage saw his ancestors hanging head-down in a pit. They clung to a tuft of virana grass of which only a single stalk remained; and that stalk was being gnawed by a mouse that lived in a burrow. [He saw them] starving, wasted, wretched, [languishing] in the pit, seeking deliverance. Approaching those wretched ones, himself of wretched appearance, he addressed [them]: 'Who are you, clinging to this tuft of virana grass -- weak, [already] gnawed by the mouse that lives in the burrow? [That] single root of virana grass still remaining here is being slowly gnawed by this mouse with its sharp teeth. And since little of it remains, it will soon be cut through; then you will fall into this pit [beneath you], head-down. Therefore grief has arisen in me at seeing you, [hanging] head-down, fallen into grievous calamity; what good may I do for you? With a quarter of this austerity of mine, or a third, or even half -- [I am ready] to deliver you from this calamity; tell me without delay. Or else, with the whole of it, let all of you cross beyond this [peril] by my austerity, as you wish; so let it be done.'"