Virtual Yatra to Himalayas (Part 3)

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font-weight:bold">Sai Ram Brothers and Sisters

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font-weight:bold">This is the “Part 3” of the Virtual Yatra to

Himalayas series ……. (Due to the size of the

photos the e-mail got returned previously.)

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color:purple;font-weight:bold">MOTHER GANGES

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color:blue">Regarded as holiest of all rivers the perennial river Ganga

originates in the mighty Himalayas and flows through the Northern Plains of

India and drains into the Bay

of Bengal. The Northern plains of India have been shaped by the rich

alluvial deposits carried by the river over a vast period of time.

color:blue">The Gangotri Glacier, a vast expanse of ice

five miles by fifteen, at the foothills of the Himalayas at a height of about

14,000 feet in North Uttar Pradesh, is the source of Ganges.

The point of origin is called “Bindu-Sar” where Bagiratha is

believed to have carried out his penance to bring the “Ganages” to

Earth and thus at its origin referred to as “Bhagirathi”. It joins

with Alaknanda (origins nearby) to form “Ganga”

near Devprayag.

color:blue">

color:blue">The Ganga has an exalted position

in the Hindu ethos and repeatedly invoked in the Vedas, the Puranas, the

Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Ganga is revered as a Goddess, “Ganga

Devi”, one of two daughters of Meru (the Himalayas),

the other being Uma, consort of Lord Shiva. In her youth, Indra had asked for

Ganga to be given to heaven to soothe the Gods with its

cool water.

color:purple;font-style:italic"> (This picture shows the place near

Devprayag where ‘Ganaga’ is formed by the convulsion of

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two

rivers.) The Ganges has many names associated with its many roles in

Sanskrit mythology and due to the different colours it takes at different

places. Known as “Bhagirathi” as Bhagiratha was the cause for it to

flow on Earth; “Jhanavi” - When Bhagiratha went too close to the

sage Jahnu's ashram, the disturbed hermit immediately gulped up all the water.

After the apologies from Bhagiratha, the sage yielded the water, and retained

color:blue">the name "Jhanavi"; “Kshiraganga” as it flows

like milk; “Niliganaga” due to its blue water;

“Gritaganga” with its murky water; “Kanchanaganga” with

its golden water and many more.

color:blue">

Water from the Ganga has the recursive property that any water mixed even with

the

10.5pt;font-family:Arial"> minute quantity of

Ganga water becomes Ganga water, and inherits

its healing and other holy properties. Also, despite its many impurities, Ganga

water does not rot or stink if stored for several

days. Sealed containers of Ganga water remain

pure for years. Scientists have done lots of studies on it but the reason for

the purity remain unknown for them.

 

font-weight:bold">THE MYTH BEHIND MOTHER GANGA:

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 the man, but even the

meanest creatures like insects etc get liberated and achieve salvation. The

gravest of sins like Brahmhatya (killing of a brahmin) and Gauhatya (killing of

a cow) gets absolved by the mere touch of Ganga

holy water. Lord Vishnu himself has described the importance of river Ganges in

the following way, he says to Garuda.

font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:navy">”

font-weight:bold">DARSHANATSPARSHANATPANATTATHA GANGETI

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font-family:"Comic Sans MS";font-weight:bold">KEERTANAT PUNATYAPUNYANPURUSHANA

SHATASHOTHA SAHASRASHAH”

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It means – “Thousands of man’s sin gets destroyed by the holy

sight of the Ganges, and he becomes pure, by the touch of Ganges

water, by having it, or by just pronouncing ‘Ganga-Ganga’. For this

reason Ganges is also called SANSARTARINI

(Saviour of this world).”

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According to the

legend, King Sagar the ruler of Ayodhya, an ancestor of Rama, had two wives.

Due to a boon from the Lord Shiva, one wife bore him sixty thousand sons, all

of whom were to die simultaneously, and the other bore him one son, Asamanjas,

who would continue the dynasty. The sixty thousand sons grew to be great

warriors, while the mighty Asamanjas caused so much misery to the populace that

his father the king had to expel his own son, though a grandson, Ansuman, was

left behind. King Sagara performed “Aswamedha Yaga” the horse

ceremony, in which a horse is allowed to roam at will, and is followed by

warriors. Stopping the horse is a challenge to war; not stopping it is a

compact of obeisance. It was performed 99 times and the horse returned to his

kingdom unchallenged. Indra the King of Gods, in an act of jealousy, kidnapped

and hid the horse in the hermitage of Kapila Muni - when the 100th sacrifice

was being performed. When Sagara’s sons eventually found it they

disturbed the great saint Kapila (Vasudeva) meditation. He instantly burnt them

to ashes with his fiery gaze. Ansuman the grandchild of King Sagar, prayed to

Kapila Muni and asked him for a solution. He said that the souls of the sons of

Sagara may be released by the water of Ganga,

then resident in heaven. Despite much austerity and prayer, neither Sagara, nor

Ansuman after him, nor his son Dilipa, could get Ganga

to appear on earth.

color:navy">Finally it was Dilipa's son Bhagiratha, who after severe

austerities, propitiated the Goddess, and she agreed

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to come down to

earth. But it descended like a torrent frightening like Rudra making the three

worlds shiver. Thus Bhagiratha prayed to Lord Shiva again and the

Compassionate stood on the peak of Mount

Kailash like a

“Pralayayankara” (one who prevents catastrophe) and confined the

fretting and fuming ganges into His matted lock, and then to earth. This is the

presumed site of the present-day temple at Gangotri.

Mother ganges having waited for so long to be with her beloved retired

contently on the matted locks of Lord Shiva forever. Bhagiratha led the river

down to the sea from the Himalayas; 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. (From

then onwards it has become a belief that if the ashes of a deceased is

dissolved in Ganges, the soul would attain

salvation. And this belief is still practised by Hindus).

color:navy"> The island with which this incident is associated is referred to

as “Sagar

Island”, where a bathe at the confluence of

the river and the sea is considered to be sacred on Makara Sankaranti.

(Bhagirata's

penance and the descent of the Ganges are

portrayed in stone at the Pallava heritage site Mahabalipuram near Chennai.)

font-weight:bold">To be continued ……………

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font-weight:bold">Sai Ram

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font-weight:bold">Shivathmika

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