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Winding 1,560 miles
across northern India, from the Himalaya Mountains to the
Indian Ocean, the Ganges River is not a sacred place: it is a
sacred entity. Known as Ganga Ma—Mother Ganges—the river is
revered as a goddess whose purity cleanses the sins of the
faithful and aids the dead on their path toward heaven. But
while her spiritual purity has remained unchallenged for
millennia, her physical purity has deteriorated as India’s
booming population imposes an ever-growing burden upon her.
The river is now sick with the pollution of human and
industrial waste, and water-borne illness is a terrible factor
of Indian life. But the threat posed by this pollution isn’t
just a matter of health—it’s a matter of faith. Veer Badra
Mishra, a Hindu priest and civil engineer who has worked for
decades to combat pollution in the Ganges, describes the
importance of protecting this sacred river:
“There is a
saying that the Ganges grants us salvation. This culture will
end if the people stop going to the river, and if the culture
dies the tradition dies, and the faith dies.”
History
In a country where practically everything in nature is
venerated, the Ganges is most holy. Considering the
magnitude of her life-sustaining force, it’s no wonder: her
mighty course from the mountains to the sea creates a river
basin 200 to 400 miles wide that supports nearly half a
billion people. According to Hindu mythology, the Ganges was
once a river of heaven that flowed across the sky. Long ago,
she agreed to fall to earth to aid a king named Bhagiratha,
whose ancestors had been burned to ash by the angry gaze of an
ascetic they had disturbed during meditation. Only the
purifying waters of Ganges, flowing over their ashes, could
free them from the earth and raise them up to live in peace in
heaven. So that the earth would not be shattered by the impact
of her descent, Lord Shiva caught Ganges in his hair as she
cascaded down from heaven to the Himalyas. Ganges then
followed Bhagiratha out of the mountains, across the plains to
the sea, where she restored his dead ancestors and lifted them
to paradise.
As the Ganges brought to life the ashes of Bhagiratha’s
ancestors, so all Hindus believe that if the ashes of their
dead are deposited in the river, they will be ensured a smooth
transition to the next life, or freed from the cycle of
death and rebirth. Hindus may travel great distances to
scatter the ashes of loved ones in the Ganges.
Hindus
also believe that the Ganges’ divine waters purify those
who immerse themselves in her. It is even said that a
single drop of Ganges water, carried by the wind over a great
distance, can cleanse a lifetime of sins. In cities
along the river, daily dips are an important ritual among the
faithful. Many cities are considered sacred and serve as
pilgrimage sites: Gangotri, where the river originates from a
glacial cave; Sagar Island, where the Ganges drains into the
sea and once restored the ancestors of Bhagiratha; Varanasi,
the holiest of cities along the river’s course and the most
auspicious place to die; and Allahbad, the site of the most
important festival in the Hindu religious calendar, Kumbh Mela.
In 2001, some 20 million people bathed in the Ganges at
Allahbad at the most auspicious moment of this festival. |
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