Ganga
The river Ganga was considered as the holy river in the Indralok. According to
the Puranas the Ganges is the holiest of all the shrines on this earth. Not only
the human being , but all the creatures get liberated and achieve salvation.
Ganges is also called Sansatarani.
There are many stories told regarding the origin of Ganges. According to the
Valmiki Ramayana, Ganges was the daughter of ‘Himalaya’ and ‘Maina’. The deities
took her to heaven. According to Kritivas Ramayana, the deities had taken
‘Ganga’ to Lord Shiva to get her married with him. When ‘Maina’ did not find her
in the house, she cursed to attain the form of water.
According to another legend, king Sagar , born in Surya vamsa performed a
‘Ashvamedh Yagya’ in which a horse was set free to go around the world. Indra,
stole that horse as e was in the motive of destroying the ‘Yagya . He kept the
horse outside the hermitage of the sage Kapila. The sixty thousand sons of Sagar
went in search of the horse to the place of Sage Kapila. They fought with the
sage. he got angry and cursed them. They were burnt to ashes. Anshuman another
son of king Sagar came to Kapila’s hermitage. After hearing the whole story, he
requested sage Kapila to tell the way to attain salvation. Kapila suggested to
sprinkle the water of River Ganges.
Hearing this, Anshuman started doing penance on the
Himalaya. But he was not successful in his attempt to bring Ganga to earth. Raja
Bhagiratha, the grandson of Anshuman decided to do penance to bring the holy
ganges to the earth. Due to his severe penance,
Ganges started
flowing towards the earth. The force, if not stopped would have affected the
earth. Hence to slow down the speed, Lord Shiva caught, the decented river in
his matted hair. As the force slowed down he slowely led the river to flow into
the earth to reach the sea.
Then Ganges was subivided into seven streams, namely Pavani, Dwadini, Nalini,
Vakshu, Sita, Sindhu and Bhagirathi. Ultimately all the sixty thousand sons of
Sagar were liberated by the sprinkle of the water of the Ganga.
The river Ganges is originated at the Tehri Garhwal, near Gangotri. Gangotri is
at 13,800 ft from the sea level. From here the ganga flows down the hills of the
Great Himalaya's. The areas wherever the Ganges flows is well flourished. Up to
‘Badrinath’ in the eastern region, the Ganges is known as ‘Vishnu Ganga’. The
river enters ‘Rishikesh’ after Rudraprayag’. After flowing along the mouth of
Himalays, the Ganges reaches the plain at Haridwar, the place which is
considered very sacred. Haridwar is at 924 ft from sea level. Haridwar with all
natural beauties looks like a heaven in the earth.
Haridwar is one of the seven sacred places in our
country. Haridwar is situated at the bottom of the hill "Sivali" in the right
side of the ganges. The ganges flowing in Haridwar is considered to be very pure
and holy. People who visit Kasi first come to this place, take a dip in river
Ganga and take the holy water with them.
During the Aarthi in the evenings, the force of the river
is too high. The Aarthi for the river Ganges take place daily both in the
morning and evening. Brahma Gund is the place which is considered to be very
sacred in the banks of river Ganges.
When there was a fight between the Asuras and Devas, some
drops of Amirdham fell in Brahma Gund at Haridwar. Devotees take the Ganga water
with them. The pilgrimage is said to be completed only when the sacred
Ganga water is taken from Haridwar and poured in the sea at Rameswaram.
Ganga Devi temples are situated at the banks of the river
Ganges in Haridwar.
At " Triveni Sangam" in Allahabad river ‘Yamuna’ and
Saraswathi merge with river Ganges.
Ganges reaches ‘Varanasi after Prayag. At last the holy river
Ganges merges into the "Bay of
Bengal".
The Ganges travels a distance of 1557 miles beginning from the point of origin
till she ultimately merge into the ocean.
