The holy rivers of India; save water; Ganga Dussehra
The Adiveda Weekly #3
Hari Aum Sadhakas!
We hope you’re doing well. This week we’ll take up the second element ‘water.’ Today’s newsletter is a plea to save water and care for our holy rivers, a cause closest to Vanamali Mataji’s heart. More from her below.
The Hindu way of life
Our culture teaches us to worship the rivers. Rivers to a country are like arteries and veins to the human being. They supply life giving water to the whole land just as the arteries and veins supply life giving blood to our system. Unfortunately many of our great rivers are already dried up and we are in the process of killing our great rivers like the Ganga and Kaveri. The rishis taught us to worship the Ganga like a goddess since they knew how important she was to our well-being. But we are totally uncaring. We throw all our filth, factory waste and trash into her pristine waters. Slowly but surely she is dying as the great Saraswati died at one time. The Kaveri, Krishna and Narmada have all become seasonal rivers and not perennial. These rivers depend on the water which is let down by the forests so when we cut the forests we are cutting off the life of the rivers also. The Ganga with its three major tributaries Alakananda, Mandakini and Bhagirathi depend on the melting of the ice and come from the great glaciers of the Himalayas. Unfortunately due to global warming, these glaciers are shrinking and thus her waters become less and less.
If we have no rivers you can be sure that soon humanity will also perish. This is an important point which was known by our ancestors and that is why they told us to worship the rivers but modern man is so callous and uncaring that he does not realise that the death of the rivers is the prelude to his own death!
Reflection of the week
“There is only One Existence. Physically this is divided into many. There can be no peace either individually or universally until we experience That One Existence.”
For your everyday practice
Turn off the taps.
While you shower, brush, wash hands, cook, do the dishes etc. use only as much water as needed and don’t allow the taps to run. It is also important to train your house help to conserve water. Another thing to be mindful about is to open the tap just to the required amount, and not full blast.
From Vanamali Mataji’s desk
The Ganga is the holiest river in Bharat. She is supposed to have come from the Milky Way. The great king Bhagiratha begged her to come down to bless his ancestors. Ganga agreed but told him that her fall would wash off the earth and advised to find someone who could help. Bhagiratha then did intense penance to Shiva and begged him to break her fall. He agreed and caught Ganga in his matted locks as she leapt from the sky to the earth. Shiva is said to have released only a trickle from his locks and this is the mighty river we see now. Mataji gives a full account of her descent on earth which is celebrated as ‘Ganga Dussehra.’
Important dates this week
Ganga Dussehra on Thursday, 9th June
Ekadashi on Saturday, 11th June
That’s all for now. What would you like to see more of? Let us know! Thank you very much for reading.
At your service,
The Adiveda Team