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GANGES
THE LIFE-STREAM OF INDIA |
"The Ganga, especially, is the river
of India, beloved of her people, round which are interwined
her memories, her hopes and fears, her songs of triumph, her
victories and her defeats. She has been a symbol of India's
age long culture and civilization, ever changing , ever flowing,
and yet ever the same Ganga."
- Jawaharlal Nehru, First Prime Minister
of India
The eternal life-stream of Indian culture;
the clock whose ticking denotes time to even Mahakaal (Lord
Shiva), the great time-keeper; the chord which unites the four yugs (eons)
- Ganga represents all of these and more - she integrates into
herself the history, the beliefs and sometimes even the hopes
of India and its people.
Ganga, or the Ganges, the holy river of the
Hindus, has its source at Gangotri in the Himalayas from where
it flows for a distance of 2,400 km. to fall into the Bay of
Bengal. Ganga is a major river of the Indian subcontinent, associated
in myth and reality with the land and people of India as well
as neighboring countries like Bangladesh.
In the move to Aryanise the Ganga basin, when
the Vedic people shifted focus from the Indus to the Ganga, a
myth evolved that Ganga would take on all the sins of the world.
Thereafter, people have religiously bathed in her waters to cleanse
themselves of sin. Gangajal (water of Ganga) is widely
used in religious ceremonies. The holy sight of Ganges gives
knowledge, splendors, name, fame etc. The gravest of sins like Brahmahatya (killing
of a Brahmin) and Gauhatya (killing of a cow) gets absolved
by the mere touch of Ganga's holy water. Lord Vishnu himself
has described the importance of river Ganges in the following
way: he says to Garuda - the eagle God, his divine vahana (vehicle):
"thousands of man's sins get destroyed
by the holy sight of the Ganges, and he becomes pure by the touch
of the water of Ganges, by consuming it, or just by pronouncing
'Ganga - Ganga'"
For this reason Ganges is also called the
savior of this world.
There are many versions of stories regarding
the origin of Ganges. The river Ganga is said to have originated
when Lord Brahma (one of the Supreme forms of divinity) washed
the feet of Lord Vishnu in His incarnation as Vamana - the dwarf
Brahmin. When He (Lord Vishnu, as Vamana) measured the world
in three steps, the nails on His left foot caused a pore on the
upper side of the universe from where Ganga fell down into heaven. According to Valmiki's Ramayana, Ganges was
the daughter of Himalaya and Menaka. The deities abducted her
and took her to heaven. From that time onwards Ganga started
living inside the Karmandala (a spout shaped vessel).
According to Krittivas' Ramayana the deities had taken Ganga
to Lord Shiva to get married with him. When Menaka did not find
her in the house, she cursed Ganga to attain the form of water.
The Vishnu Purana describes the birth of Ganga
in the following manner: she said to have issued forth from the
big toe of Lord Vishnu's left foot. Dhruva, the pole star, received
her in her descent and sustained her day and night on his head,
while the seven Rishis (the Pleiades) performed their ablutions
in her waters (because the Pleiades revolve around the Pole Star).
Ganga then encompassed the orb of the Moon by her currents, which
added to the luminary's brilliance. Thereafter, having issued
from the Moon, she alit upon Mount Meru, and then flowed in four
branches to the four corners of the Earth for the sake of its
purification. The name of theses branches are Sita, Alakananda,
Chaksu and Bhadra. The southern branch, Alakananda, was held
affectionately by Lord Shiva on His head for one hundred divine
years and then was released from His matted locks. Hence Lord
Shiva is depicted in Indian iconography with a crescent Moon
on his head, from where a shoot of water springs forth. Thereafter,
the southern branch of Ganga journeyed through India and divided
itself into seven rivers which flow into the southern ocean.
Hence Alakananda is known as the most sacred river of the four
branches.
According to another version, Goddess Ganga,
once lived on Mount Kailash and flowed demurely for the sole
pleasure of the Gods. Legend has that Sagar, King of Oudh,
the 13th ancestor of Lord Rama, the descendent of Sun God (Suryavanshi),
had performed the Ashwamedha Yagna, or the horse-sacrifice,
99
times. This ceremony consisted in sending a horse round the
Indian world, with defiance to all the earth to arrest its progress.
If the horse returned unopposed , it was understood to be acquiescence
in the supremacy of the king, and the horse was then solemnly
sacrificed to the gods. When King Sagar made preparations for
the 100th sacrifice, Indra, King of Heaven, who had himself
performed
the ceremony a 100 times, jealous of being displaced by this
new rival, stole the horse, and concealed it in a subterranean
cell, where the sage Kapila, or Kapila Muni, was absorbed in
meditation, dead to all occurrences of the external world.
The sixty thousand sons of Sagar traced the
horse to its hiding place, and believing the sage to be the author
of the theft assaulted him. The holy man being thus roused opened
his eyes and cursed the assailants, who were immediately burnt
to ashes and sentenced to hell. Sagar heard of this fate through
Narada (devotee of Lord Narayana), the heavenly wonderer, and
sent the grandson Ansuman to undo the harm. Ansuman descended
to the underworld and met Kapila, who was much pleased with the
youth's bearing and conversation. He granted that the souls of
the sons of Sagar may be released by the waters of Ganga, then
resident in heaven. Despite much austerity and prayer, neither
Sagar nor Ansuman after him, nor his son Dilip could get Ganga
to appear on earth.
Finally it was Dilip's son Bhagiratha, who
after severe austerities, propitiated the Goddess, and she agreed
to come down to earth and then to the nether world to rescue
the tormented souls of the sons of Sagar. However, the impact
of her fall would be so severe, that it could be borne by none
less than Lord Shiva himself. Therefore Bhagiratha went into
meditation again and obtained Shiva's consent after many more
austerities. Finally, the river came down and fell into Lord
Shiva's matted hair, (this manifestation of Lord Shiva is known
as Gangadhara), from where she separated into seven streams,
of which three flowed to the west and three to the west. The
seventh stream followed Bhagirath to earth and then to the nether
worlds.
Bhagirath patiently led the river down to
the sea from the Himalayas and for this reason the Ganges is
also known as the Bhagirathi. However, being unable to locate
the exact spot where the ashes lay, he requested Ganga to follow
her own course. The Ganga, therefore in the region of Bengal,
divided herself into a hundred mouths and formed the Ganges delta.
One of these streams washed the ashes, and offered salvation
to the souls of the departed. In this way the children of Sagar
were saved and an ocean formed from the waters there. This is
the Sagar Island of today, where the Ganges flows into the Bay
of Bengal, where a bath at the confluence of the river and the
sea is considered to be sacred on Makara Sankranti (mid
January).
Thus on the tenth day of the bright half of Jyeshth (last
week of May), Goddess Ganga began to flow from heaven to the
matted hair of Lord Shiva, and from the hair of Lord Shiva she
began to flow on earth. The first ten days of the month of Jyeshth
(last week of May), known as Dashahara, are dedicated
to honour the river Ganges, or Mother Ganges. The Ganges is believed
to flow in the three worlds - heaven, earth and the nether world
(patala - where the ashes of the sixty thousand sons of
King Sagar lay): Thus the Ganga is known as "Three Path
River". People believe that by bathing in the Ganga
sins are washed away. The principle centers for the worship of
the Ganga are Gangotri, the source of the river; Haridwar, where
she comes down to the plains; Allahabad, where she joins the
Yamuna; Varanasi, the holy city; and Sagara Island in her estuary
where she finally flows into the Bay of Bengal.
The descent of Ganga from the heavens to Earth
and finally to the nether world, escorted by Bhagirath, has an
interesting interpretation on the metaphysical body plane, involving
the Chakras and the Kundalini:
At the inner core of each individual spin
seven wheel-like energy centers or chakras which together
form a system. They are located within the body in front of the
spinal column and are aligned vertically up and down the spine.
The chakras are centers of activity which receive, assimilate
and transmit life energies. As such, they are a kind of vortex
or gathering point of organized life energy. Each chakra represents
a dimension of our consciousness on seven basic levels corresponding
to the major chakras. Together, they form a meta-physical vertical
column called the sushumna, which is the central integrating
channel for connecting the chakras, and their various dimensions
of consciousness. The lowest chakra is called the Muladhara and
is located at the tailbone base of the spine, while the topmost
is called the Sehasara and is located at the top of the
head. The Kundalini or the divine serpent energy of the
Self is depicted as a coiled serpent, at the base of the spine
and is a great reservoir of creative energy. It is said that
self realization is the awakening of the Kundalini through
the sushumna, piercing through the six chakras above the Muladhara and
emerging at the Sehsara as a gentle "fountain" of
coolness.
The journey of Goddess Ganga from heaven
to the nether worlds symbolizes the origin of Kundalini and
its descent through the various chakras of the body into
the lowest chakra - the muladhara - which corresponds
to the patala regions - the nether worlds - where it remains
coiled like a serpent, till it ascends into the higher chakras
during one's spiritual awakening. If the word Bhaghiratha (pronounced
as Bhageerath, in Sanskrit) is interpreted as being formed from
the words Bhaga and Rathi, it transalates into "He
who rides the Bhaga (the reproductive organ)", which
is where the Kundalini remains in a coiled state. The
sons of Sagar, whose souls Bhagiratha redeemed, probably correspond
to the various nerve centres in this region of the body.
Another possible interpretation is that Ganga
represents a form of divine knowledge which, with its strength
of purity and illumination has the powers to elevate all - dead
and living - towards the heavens. This knowledge, available only
to the Gods was brought to mankind by Bhagiratha through his
devotion to Lord Shiva, who helped him receive this knowledge,
to be passed on to mankind for its eventual salvation.
Another legend regarding Ganga has it that
Ganga followed Bhagiratha and because of his tremendous speed,
all the villages, forests etc. in the way were either getting
submerged or drowned. Sage Jahnu who was doing a yagya in his
hermitage got angry when his hermitage was submerged in the Ganga.
He drank whole of the Ganga by his yogic power. At this the deities,
and the men became restless and they requested Jahnu to release
Ganga. Jahnu released Ganga from his thigh by cutting it and
for this reason Ganga is also called "Jahnvi" or "Jahnusta".
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GODDESS
GANGA WITH
KING SHANTANU |
Yet another important story involving Ganga
describes the following episode: Ganga saw Pratipa, a king of
the Lunar Dynasty in the forest, doing tapasya, she fell in love
with him and wishing to be taken by him for his wife, given the
fact that she sat upon his right thigh. The king then explained
that his right thigh was the place for his daughters-in-law and
children to sit; the left thigh was for his wife. Since she sat
upon his right thigh, he could not marry Ganga himself, but she
could marry his son. This was arranged and the Goddess married
Shantanu. When Prapita withdrew to the forest to spend all his
time doing penance, he made Shantanu king and turned over his
kingdom to his son. Shantanu was accepted by the Goddess on condition
that he would not contradict her in anything. And he, being so
enraptured by Ganga, agreed.
Meanwhile it happened that because of a curse
cast upon them by the sage Vasishtha, the eight Astavasus were
obliged to incarnate on Earth. Consequently they all took birth
in the womb of Ganga. But, as each child was born, Ganga took
it to the banks of the Ganges and cast it into the waters of
the sacred river. Shantanu could say nothing to contradict her
actions. So he watched as seven children were done away with
this manner. Finally the eighth and last of the Astavasus took
birth, whom Vasishtha had said was the only one that must stay
upon earth for a longer period. When Ganga was about to cast
him in the river, Shantanu could no longer contain himself and
he pleaded with the Goddess to refrain from her act. Because
of his intervention, the Goddess became enraged and disappeared
from the palace, along with the child whom she named Devavrata.
This child grew up to be Bhishma, one of the key protagonists
of the epic of Mahabharata.
The Goddess Ganga is very rarely thought of,
without reference to Lord Shiva. In common understanding, Ganga
is understood to have emerged from Lord Shiva, as is symbolized
by the stream of water gushing forth from the matted locks of
Lord Shiva. Having originated from the mountains (the Himalayas),
or Himavan, Ganga can also be thought of as the sister
of Goddess Parvati, daughter of Himavan and eternal consort of
Lord Shiva. The following tale will provide another interesting
insight into the complex symbolization prevalant in Hindu mythology:
The Shiva Purana mentions that the
son of Lord Shiva was destined to salvage Earth by leading the Devatas -
the divine forces - to drive out the Asuras - the evil
forces - who had taken possession of the planet. In order to
hasten the birth of this divine son, the Gods decided to steal
Lord Shiva's Bija (seed - his sperm) by interrupting his
loveplay with his consort, Goddess Parvati, at the precise moment
of emergence of the Bija from Lord Shiva. The interruption
of the love making process led to the precious seed to fall on
the ground. Agni - the Fire God, assumed the form of a
white dove and picked up the Bija in its beak and flew
away. Having emerged from Lord Shiva himself, the seed had immense
power and fire stored within it - so much so that even Lord Agni
found it difficult to keep holding it in his beak and he let
go off it and dropped it in the Ganges. Ganga then carried the
seed with her for long, and as instructed by Lord Brahma, deposited
it in a sacred reed grove in the Saravana forest, situated
on her shores, where the divine child was born after 10,000 years.
Lord Shiva then proclaimed that this celestial child be known
by six different names, to be known as the son of six different
creators. He was to be known as Kartikeya as the son of
the Kritikas or the six sacred Pleiades, whose wives had
nourished him. As the son of Agni he was to be known as Mahasena.
As the forest Saravena's son, he was to be known as Saravana.
As Parvati's son he would be known as Skanda and as his
own, as Guha. And finally, Lord Shiva proclaimed that
the child would be known as Kumara, as the son of Ganga.
Buy
this sculpture |
SHIVA
LINGA: GODDESS GANGES
AS CONSORT OF LORD SHIVA
Courtesy Exotic India |
The above tale points us in the direction
of viewing Ganga as being a consort of Lord Shiva, having carried
his seed and borne his would-be son. This interpretation is further
strengthened by the portrayal of Lord Shiva as always having
Ganga near him. Thus we are also drawn to a possible interpretation
of Goddess Parvati being the same as Goddess Ganga and Lord Shiva
being the same as Himavan - the mountain God, being the
common originator and consort of Goddess Parvati as well as Goddess
Ganga. Goddess Ganga therefore, can also be looked at as Mahakali,
consort of Mahakala (Lord Shiva - Time personified), and
as the power of Time, she nourishes humankind with Lord Shiva's Bija -
seed.
Hindu iconography depicts Goddess Ganga as
sitting on a mythical creature, called the Makara - with
the head of an elephant and the body of a fish. The Makara is
the Goddess's vahana or vehicle. In astrology, the makara is
often translated as a Water Horse, and corresponds to the western
astrological sign of Capricorn, which is depicted as having the
head of a goat and the body of a fish. Yet another depiction
of the makara is in the form of a crocodile or alligator,
which also is depicted as the vehicle of Lord Varuna -
the God of winds.
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GOMUKH
GLACIER:
ORIGIN OF RIVER GANGES |
River Ganges is the longest river in India.
The origin of river Ganges lies at the height of 14000 ft in
the Gangotri glacier which is a vast expanse of ice, five miles
by fifteen, at the foot hills of Himalayas in the Uttarakhand
mountain ranges of the Himalayas in Tehri Garhwal, near Gangotri.
The cave from which river Ganges originates is called Gaumukh and
at its origin, Ganges is known as Bhagirathi.
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GANGA
AT DEVPRAYAG: CONFLUENCE OF
ALAKANANDA AND BHAGIRATHI |
Many small and big rivers merge with the Ganges
in the Himalayan region. From the point of her origin upto Badrinath
in the eastern region the Ganges is known as Vishnu Ganga.
In the western region it is the Dhauli Ganga of the Drona Giri.
Dhauli Ganga merges with Vishnu Ganga near Joshimath and this
combined stream is known as Alakananda. In Rudraprayag, Alakananda
merges with Mandakini. Mandakini comes from Kedarnath, the abode
of Lord Shiva. Bhagirathi joins Alakananda to form Ganga at the
craggy canyon-carved town of Devprayag.
After Devprayag river Ganges enters Rishikesh
and after that she turns towards Haridwar, which is situated
to the south west of Rishikesh. At Allahabad, river Yamuna merges
with river Ganges. In ancient times there was yet another river
named Saraswati, which merged at Allahabad with river Ganges
and Yamuna, but it has now become extinct. This union of three
rivers at Allahabad is also known as Triveni Sangam, or Prayag.
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TEMPLE
OF GANGOTRI:
DEDICATED TO GODDESS GANGA |
Hardwar and Allahabad, on the banks of the
Ganges, assume a great importance in the Hindu religious context,
since they are venues of the Kumbha Mela, one of the most
important festivals of the Hindus. There are four such spots
in India, the other two being Ujjain and Nasik, where the festival
is held one by one at each of these spots, with a gap of three
years between any two festivals. Each of these places therefore
has the festival at a gap of 12 years each. The most important
of these places however is Allahabad, which is said to be located
on the central longitude (or the time measurement of the globe,
latitude being known as the space measurement) on the map of
the material and spiritual body of India (not to be confused
with the geographical map of India). On the holy festival of
the Kumbha Mela, millions of Hindus from India and abroad take
a dip in the holy Ganges, hoping to redeem themselves off their
sins.
After Allahabad the Ganges reaches Varanasi,
having taken river Gomti into its folds. After that the Ganges
enters the state of Bihar. Near Patna river Gandak coming from
Nepal also merges into Ganges.
Thereafter, Ganges divides itself into two
major streams, one of which is known as Hoogli which passes through
the state of West Bengal and ultimately merges into the Bay of
Bengal. The other major stream, still known as Ganga, flows into
Bangladesh and merges with river Brahmaputra which originates
in Tibet and flows through Assam to reach Bangladesh. Having
merged with Brahmaputra, Ganges takes on the name of River Padma
and merges into the Bay of Bengal.
The importance, which the Bhagawad Gita has
in the field of spirituality, the same prominence and importance
has been given to the holy river Ganges in the field of religion
and religious activities. No other river has been as much mentioned
in the Purana as the holy Ganges. According to the Puranas
the Ganges is the holiest of all the shrines on this earth. Not
only man, but even the tiniest of insects get liberated and achieve
salvation. And thus river Ganges is given the apt title of Patita
Pavani - the liberator of the greatest of sinners.
This article was written by:
Madhuri Guin Our efforts have been directed at making this article informative and refreshing for you. We will truly appreciate all forms of feedback. Please send your feedback to newsletter@dollsofindia.com.
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