4.GANGA’S STORY

Every inch of ground on earth, as you may have realized by now,

has a divine association. Mother Earth has been there

since the beginning of creation, being one of the five

primeval elements. She has seen countless pairs of feet

running about on thousands of aims and pursuits, both evil

and good, and will continue until Time ("Kala") swallows and

digests everything. Even after the participants have

vanished, every inch of earth still retains the impress of all

that has gone before. We attain a full understanding only

when we are aware of the divine and other associations of

every piece of ground we tread on. Otherwise it would be

like the passage of a blind man through illuminated halls and

gardens. That is the reason why I have explained to you the

story of every place we have passed through. You see that

river now. It is Ganga flowing along the valley, coming down

from the Himalayas, carrying within her the essence of rare

herbs and elements found on her way. She courses through

many a kingdom, and every inch of the ground she touches

becomes holy; Ganga cleanses and transforms; the dying

person with a sip of that water or with the ashes of his bones

dissolved therein attains salvation. Now you find the river

serene and beautiful. But Ganga had to be tamed and

controlled before she could touch this earth; her story

involves the fate of your ancestors, very early ones.

Sakara, one of your ancestors, ruled the earth with great

distinction at one time. He had numerous sons, all valorous

and devoted to their father. At the proper time in his career,

he planned to perform a very important sacrifice—the "HorseSacrifice."

In preparation for this ceremony a resplendent horse fully

caparisoned and decorated is set free and trots along at will

through the frontiers of many kingdoms, and every country

that lets the horse pass through is considered to have

accepted the suzerainty of the horse's owner. But if at any

point anyone attempts to hold up the horse, it is taken as a

challenge and causes a war; the original owner of the horse

attacks the country where the horse is held and sets it free

again, and again and again until it gets through and returns

home. Then all the countries through which it has passed

become vassals of the king, and the king celebrates his

victory with the great "Horse Sacrifice" which makes him

supreme lord of the earth. Those who embark on such a plan

are confident of victory and could eventually aspire to extend

their empire and challenge Indra himself. Hence Indra and all

the gods are very watchful and nervous whenever a sacrifice

is planned, and do their best to defeat it.

When Sakara's horse started out Indra abducted it and

kept it out of view in the deepest world underground, behind

Sage Kapila, who had earlier sought this seclusion far away

from the earth for his spiritual practices. When it became

known that the horse was lost underground, Sakara's sons

started digging wide and deep and went down into the

bowels of the earth. They found their horse tethered behind

the man in meditation; they seized the horse and tormentedthe saint,

assuming that he had stolen it; whereupon the saint

with an angry glare reduced them to ashes. One of the party

survived this expedition, a grandson of the emperor; he

apologized to the sage and came home and helped the old

king to complete his "Horse Sacrifice." Later, King Sakara

renounced the world in favour of his grandson, whose son

was Bhagiratha, responsible for bringing the Ganges down

to earth.

When Bhagiratha grew up and learnt of the fate of his

ancestors, he made it his mission in life to help them attain

salvation, instead of leaving their spirits dangling in mid-air

without proper disposal of their remains. He prayed intensely

for ten thousand years to Brahma, the creator, who advised

him to seek the help of Shiva to bring down Ganga from high

heaven and to wash their bones in the holy water. He prayed

to Shiva for ten thousand years and he appeared and

promised to grant his wishes if he could somehow persuade

Ganga to descend. And then he prayed to Ganga for five

thousand years. Ganga appeared to him in the guise of an

elegant little girl and said, "Shiva has promised you his help,

no doubt, but if Ganga descends in her full force, the earth

will not bear it; nothing can ever bear the force of her

descent. Shiva agreed to help you—but find out what his

intentions are. Pray to him again."

After further meditations, by Bhagiratha, Shiva again

appeared and said to him, "Let Ganga come down, I willhelp you. I will see that no drop of that water is wasted or

allowed to trouble anyone." This was developing into a

series of challenges between Shiva and Ganga, and

Bhagiratha began to feel that he was being tossed between

challenging gods. But undaunted (his name is a byword for

indefatigable effort), he had prayed for thirty thousand years

in all, undergoing severe austerities—such as living on dry

fallen leaves, then on air, then on sun's rays, and in the last

stages he gave up even these and survived on practically

nothing, conscious of nothing but his own purpose and faith

in his cause.

At the end of Bhagiratha's penance, Ganga, whose origin

was in the far-off world of Brahma, the creator, started her

descent in a roaring deluge. As promised, Shiva appeared

on the scene just when the deluge was about to hit and

pulverize the earth. Shiva took his stance, planted his feet

firmly, arms akimbo, and received the impact of the descent

on his head, and the threatened deluge just vanished into his

tangled, matted locks. For all the uproar and conceit that

Ganga had displayed this was a tame end—so tame and

quiet indeed that Bhagiratha began to feel uneasy. It

seemed as if this was the end of Ganga and that all his

prayers and penances had produced nothing in the end.

Shiva understood his fears and let a trickle out of his hair

which Bhagiratha led on carefully and anxiously underground

over his ancestors' ashes and helped their souls attain

salvation. Thus Bhagiratha helped not only his ancestors, butall mankind, as the Ganges bears a countless number of

holy shrines on its banks, and nourishes millions of acres of

land and people along its course. The pit dug by Sakara's

sons while searching for their horse also filled up and

became the oceans of today.

They arrived within sight of Mithila City. While passing over

slightly raised ground beside the walls of the fort, Rama

noticed a shapeless slab of stone, half buried vertically in the

ground; when he brushed past, the dust of his feet fell on it,

and transformed it, that very instant, into a beautiful woman.

As the woman did obeisance and stood aside respectfully,

Viswamithra introduced her to Rama. "If you have heard of

Sage Gautama, whose curse resulted in great Indra's body

being studded with a thousand eyes, all over … This lady

was his wife, and her name is Ahalya." And he told Rama

her story.