Maa Ganga - The Celestial River

The Sanatana Dharma has always encouraged the worship of water bodies and specially rivers. This holy country of Bharat has seven sacred rivers flowing through it. These are Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, Saraswati, Narmada, Sindhu and Kaveri. When we do a puja, we always invoke the waters of these rivers to flow into the kalasha vessel which contains water.

In Vedic times, the river Saraswati took predominance over the others. Today the Ganga has taken over this exalted position since the waters of the Saraswati have disappeared into the desert. The very first mention of Ganga is found in the Rig Veda.

She is the artery of North Bharat so let us follow her journey from the Himalayas to the ocean. She originates from the mighty Himalayan mountains and flows through the north of Bharat. Cutting through the massive icy mountains with enormous force, Ganga reaches Central Bharat and flows in serenity up to the Bay of Bengal.

She is described in the Mahabharata as the “best of rivers, born of all the sacred waters.” Her father is Himavan, the mighty king of the Himalayas and her mother is his wife Mena. This makes her the sister of Parvati who was also the daughter of Himavan and Mena. 

In the beginning she was a celestial river. In fact her name is associated with the Milky Way. This is why she is referred to as a theertha which is a crossing point between heaven and earth. What is the reason for her to come down to the earth? As usual science and myth are woven together in the inspiring story of her descent.

It starts eons ago when Lord Vishnu took on the avatara of Vamana or the dwarf. He came in order to put down the pride of the asura king, Mahabali, who had subdued the heavens and had declared himself to be the emperor of all the three worlds. However, since Mahabali was also a Vishnu devotee, the Lord decided to reduce his pride and give him a glorious opportunity to become the greatest of bhaktas! Actually he is supposed to be the grandson of the great asura devotee of Lord Vishnu called Prahlada!

The Lord took the form of a small Brahmin boy who had just been initiated into the Gayatri Mantra. The boy was supposed to go to three houses and beg for food – take biksha. He went to the yajnashala of Mahabali and asked him for three steps of land. Mahabali who was intoxicated with the power of wealth, laughed in scorn at this miserable request and told the boy to ask for anything he wanted since there was nothing in the whole world that he could not give!

The child smiled his mysterious smile and said, “One who is not satisfied with what he requires will never be satisfied with anything!”

The king condescendingly told him to measure it. At this time Vamana grew to his colossal proportions and with his first step he measured the whole earth and with his next he measured the whole of the heavenly regions. His big toe is said to have poked a hole in Brahma’s kamandalu (water pot). The water came pouring out and this is said to be the origin of the Ganga. She came out of Brahma’s pot, bathed Vishnu’s divine feet and rested on Shiva’s locks. Hence, she was blessed by each one of the trinity.

To continue with the story of the Ganga, we have to go to another great dynasty that ruled over Bharat a long time ago. This was the Ikshwaku dynasty in which Lord Rama was born a long time later. There was a great king of that dynasty called Sagara, who was an ancestor of Lord Rama. Their dynasty was known as Suryavamsha since they claimed their descent from the sun god, Surya. He had performed the Ashwamedha Yaga or the horse sacrifice, ninety-nine times. This yaga consisted in sending a horse round the sub-continent followed by the king’s army, daring anyone to oppose it. If the horse returned unopposed, it was taken as a sign of acceptance of the supremacy of the king, and the horse was then solemnly sacrificed to the gods. When King Sagara made preparations for the hundredth sacrifice, Indra, King of the devas (demi-gods), who had himself performed the ceremony hundred times was jealous of being displaced by this new rival. He stole the horse, and concealed it in a subterranean cave, where the sage Kapila known as Kapila Muni, was absorbed in meditation, dead to all occurrences of the external world.

When the horse did not return, Sagara sent his sixty thousand sons to trace the horse. They found the cave where it had been hidden. They saw the sage meditating there and presumed that he was the perpetrator of the deed and started berating him. Kapila Muni simply opened his eyes and the sons of Sagara were burnt to ashes by the power of his tapas. Sagara heard of their fate through Narada, the heavenly sage. He sent his grandson Ansuman to undo the harm. Ansuman descended to the underworld and met Kapila, who was very pleased with the youth’s bearing and humility. He told him that the sons of Sagara would attain moksha if the waters of the Ganga flowed over them. However, despite all their tapas, neither Ansuman nor his son Dilipa could coax Ganga to appear on earth.

Next came the turn of Dilipa’s son Bhagiratha, who performed extremely severe austerities and at last propitiated the Goddess so that she agreed to come down to earth to liberate the tormented souls of the sons of Sagara. However, she said that the impact of her fall would be so severe that she might wash off the whole of the earth so she advised Bhagiratha to find someone who could stop her fall. This could only be Lord Shiva. Therefore, Bhagiratha went into meditation again and after many years of intense tapas he obtained Shiva’s consent. Finally, the Ganga came down and fell into Lord Shiva’s matted hair (this manifestation of Lord Shiva is known as Gangadhara).

Once again poor Bhagiratha had to perform intense tapas in order to cajole Lord Shiva to release her from his locks. He agreed to his request and released a small portion of the waters which is what we see as the Ganga today.

This is supposed to have taken place on the tenth day of the bright half of the month of Jyeshta (May/June). This is known as Ganga Dussehra. This year, 2024, it falls on 16^th June.

Bhagiratha swiftly led the river down to the sea from the Himalayas and for this reason the Ganga is also known as Bhagirathi. However, being unable to locate the exact spot where the ashes lay, he requested Ganga to follow her own course. Therefore, she divided herself into a hundred mouths and formed the Ganga delta. One of these streams washed the ashes, and gave salvation to the departed souls. In this way the children of Sagara were saved and we see an island there. This is known as the Sagara Island and is the place where the Ganga flows into the Bay of Bengal. The confluence of a river and the sea is considered to be very sacred and a big festival takes place there on the holy day of Makara Sankranti (14th January).

The principle centres for her worship are Gangotri, the source of the river; Haridwar, where she comes down to the plains; Prayagraj, where she joins the Yamuna and Saraswati; Varanasi, the holy city of Shiva and Ganga Sagar which is her estuary where she finally flows into the Bay of Bengal.

The first ten days of the month of Jyeshta (May/June) are known as Dashahara and are dedicated to honour the River Ganga. Since she flows through the three worlds – heaven, earth and the nether world (patala – where the ashes of the sixty thousand sons of King Sagar lay), she is known as “Triveni.” As mentioned above, the Ganga is considered a theertha which is a meeting point between heaven and earth. At a theertha, prayers and offerings are thought most likely to reach the gods and, in the other direction, blessings can descend most readily from heaven.

Taking a dip in the Ganga is believed to get one rid of their sins and help attain moksha. Just a sip of her holy waters is said to liberate a person.

Her most celebrated festival is the Kumbh Mela which takes place on the Ganga in Haridwar, Prayagraj as well as in the cities of Ujjain and Nashik. The date and location are decided by the planetary positions in certain months in a twelve-year period.

Now the question arises as to why the Hindus consider the Ganga to be holy. All Hindu “so-called superstitions” are backed by deep scientific reasons. The rishis were able to see that her water was so pure that no germs could stay in it for more than six hours! In recent times it was the British East India Company that was responsible for verifying this. They found that when their ships were plying up and down from London to Calcutta, the water of the Thames which they brought when they were coming, became putrid by the time they reached Calcutta but the water from the mouth of the Ganga that they collected on their return journey remained absolutely pure and potable till the time they reached London! This made them investigate and they discovered that what the Indians believed was actually true and not a superstition. She was so pure that even cholera germs could not remain alive in her waters for more than a couple of hours!

Ganga water never becomes putrid. In olden days when pilgrims from the south of Bharat went north in order to pray at all the different places of pilgrimage, they used to take a small pot of Ganga water back with them which they kept very safely in their houses. This would remain pure for years and it was the custom to put a few drops of the water on the tongue of any dying person in the house. Hence, pilgrims from all over Bharat come to Rishikesh and Haridwar to have a dip in the holy waters of the Ganga. As usual, all the so-called superstitions of the Hindus have a scientific basis.

An esoteric meaning is also given about the descent of the Ganga.

Her journey from heaven to the nether worlds symbolises the descent of the Kundalini Shakti 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 with the spiritual awakening of the jivatma. The word Bhagiratha is formed from the words bhaga and rathi. It can be interpreted as the one who rides the bhaga (the reproductive organ), which is where the Kundalini remains in a coiled state. The sons of Sagar, who were redeemed by Bhagiratha, correspond to the various nerve centres in this region of the body.

It is really very sad that we who have been blessed by this miracle river, who is capable of taking us to the heights of purity, is being given such short shrift by this generation who seems to be incapable of realising the sanctity of anything on this holy land of Bharat, least of all Mother Ganga. She has been nurturing us through the ages and will continue to do so if we are a bit kinder to her. It is indeed a shame that she is used as a dustbin for throwing everything that is unwanted! Even then it is said by people who go round testing her waters that she somehow manages to shake off the pollution gathered from most of the cities she passes through. Apparently the only place she finds difficult to handle is when she passes through the leather factories of Kanpur!

If there is one river which can symbolise the culture of Bharat, it is Ganga. Flowing through her pure waters are intertwined our hopes and fears, our memories, our triumphs, our victories and our defeats. She is the symbol of our ancient culture and civilization, ever changing, ever flowing yet ever the same – changeless and divine! She is the lifeblood of our heartland, flowing 1,680 miles from Gaumukh in the Gangotri glacier to the Bay of Bengal, ever in motion, like a young woman anxious to meet her beloved – the ocean!

Let this article be a clarion call to all her children. Awake! Arise! Shake off the shackles of colonial rule and accept your birth right. Once again acknowledge that she is indeed the artery of North Bharat and remember that if the artery is broken, that will be the end of our story!

Ganga Mayya ki Jai!