Sūta said: Remembering his hundred sons, the eldest of whom was Śakti, and knowing that the family was extinct, the powerful sage decided to die. Coming to this conclusion that he will not remain alive without his sons, he felt all the more miserable. Vasiṣṭha the son of Brahmā, the knower of everything, the self-possessed sage who had realized the Ātman, climbed to the top of a mountain along with his wife. With tears welling up in the eyes he suddenly fell down on the ground. As he fell down on the ground, the earth (assuming the form of a lady) who had a wonderful necklace and the sportive gait of an elephant, caught him up with her lotus-like hands and as he cried she too bewailed with him. At that time, his daughter-in-law, the wife of Śakti, cried in great fright and spoke thus to Vasiṣṭha, the great sage and the best among the eloquent sages.