Why is the Ganga holy?
There are many pilgrimage sites, which most Hindus will attempt to visit at some time or other during their lives. The most famous example is the River Ganga (anglicised Ganges), which literally millions will attempt to visit and bathe in each year.
The practice of travelling to pilgrimages was something I could never understand. Hindu philosophy proclaims the whole world to be divine. So why are certain places granted a special status and considered especially holy?
March 27th, 2007 at 6:07 am
You have posed yourself the question of why do people go on pilgrimmage to particular places. And your answer is that it is traditional………
….so what caused this practise to start so that it later became a tradiition?
For 1000s of years Gurus have tried to explain the shastras. None of the explanations have received widespread acceptance; there is always another opinion.
Many religious traditions refer to God as “truth”. “Truth” is the correct explanation of phenomena / events. The shastras are the written record of the words of the ancient gurus when they explained “the truth” as they understood it. The shatras are about how peace / happiness is achieved, about how it happended and how it will happen.
The reason the the one who became known as “God” is so famous and is worshipped thought the entire world, is that this one called God explained the history of the world, the scriptures, in such a way that it became understood and accepted by all people, and as a result the pathway to peace and happiness became opened.
Since that time, Gurus have mis-interpreted this truth and misled the people. This is why Raven is shown with 10 heads - the many opinions that commence at Dwaperyug and bring duality and degradation into the world.
Many of the people and places mentioned in the scriptures were concocted by the Gurus. The remainder represent people and events.
Jim
March 27th, 2007 at 7:09 am
When Ved Vyas wrote the scriptures the places we call holy today were surely just places where they lived! Hence they would not be mentioned in the scriptures as places where one should make an annual visit.
However, did Ved Vyas mention places of pilgrimage in the Mahabharata?
If so what were they?
They also had greatest respect for Krishna and even during His lifetime considered visiting Krishnas home as a place of pilgramage.
March 27th, 2007 at 7:17 am
I’d like to know your sources for stating that Ma Ganga is not a pilgrimage site in the Shastras. The Upanishads contain the Shiv Parayana which explains how Ganga was taken in by Lord Shiva to sprout from his head. The Ramayana, both of Tulsidas and Valmiki relates how Lord Rama bathed in Ma Ganga and proclaimed it to be holy.
The principal pilgrimage sites have a religious significance that comes only from the shastras, i.e. where “God” is said to have been/visited. That is not, therefore, merely a cultural tradition, but a reason why a particular site is considered to be holy. There are some pilgrimage sites that are considered holy for other reasons, as mentioned in the article, where religious austerities have been practised. However, the point remains that the principal pilgrimage sites have a basis in the many scriptures.
March 27th, 2007 at 9:03 am
The Ganga is holy because at one time it had divine powers associated with it. This power was such that with all the pollution which was being caused, the water of the Ganges always remained pure. Even the scientists could not find the reason for this.
Now of course, Ram teri Ganga maili ho gayee, …..
March 27th, 2007 at 10:26 am
Sub: GAMGA- SREE TATVA
HARIH OM ! SAM NO MITRAH SAM VARUNAH SAM NO BHAVATI ARYAMA
SAM NA INDRO BRIHASPATIH..SAM NO VISHNUH URUKRAMAH…
RUTAM VADISHYAMI
SATYAM VADISHYAMI… The first statement
of TAT-TRAYA UPANISHAD provides ample evidence for COSMIC FLOW
SEQUENCE to INTELLECT- LINKS from EXTRA-GALACTIC SUN REGION-
IT is ADITYA REGION.
THE DIVINE MOTHER WHO RIDES or guides this COSMIC FLOW VARUNA is
GODDESS OF PROPSPERITY..SREE LAKSHMI.
Associated statement: ESWAREEGUM SRIYAM- GAMGA- that provides Direction -Uplinks to Humanity.
SREE TATVA declares NATURE”s Function in abundance for Science of
Philosophy and research.
NOTES: Absolute Purity of Water is essential for Life. Keep Ganga Flow clean. All other riuals need to be done away from this flow route
March 27th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
Sir, Without going into the rights and wrongs of why a certain place is holy and why it should attract pilgrimage. I am concerned her with the mother status of the holy river Ganga and the pollution that we Hindus have caused to it. I think all Hindus should collect fund and call a dredging firm of repute and have the pollution taken catre off. Devinder Thakur
March 27th, 2007 at 8:11 pm
Me myself dont believe that ganga is holy although im a hindu.I dont understand how a river which is so dirty, and full of ashes and industrial waste can be holy.It is said that if u bathe once in the ganga u will be relieved of all ur tensions and you will find a way to solve ur problems.How is that possible?If that was really try then all problems in the world would be solved. Many people believe to be relieved but who knows if Lord Rama really bathe in ganga and proclaimed it to be holy.
The finding of busy studies in the library is a good reason for the studiousness there but the holiness of ganga cant be so easy explained that it is believable.
March 28th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
The history behind the River Ganga is indeed a very ancient one where Raja Bhagirath, the ancestor of lord Ram, performed austere penances to bring her down from the heavens. Legend has it that it was Raja Bhagirath’s ancestors who even after their death required the river to absolve them of all sins. Ganga’s other name is also Bhagirathi who flows from the feet of Shri Vishnu. Perhaps this is why she is worshipped as holy and sacred.
March 29th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
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From one Hindu’s perspective:
Every place of creation is the expression of the divine. How dare does a finite being, having become aware of the infinite, fail to worship the totality (but for his/her ego)?
There is in every psychology a worship of the good. That good defines, to a large extent, the nature of the psychological animal: life, fertility, purity, joy… We find symbols of those goods in the material world: a plant, a baby, a color, a statues face… We are drawn to the material representations to re-mind us of that good.
The social construct in which we grow up allows us a convenient language to discourse on those goods. This discourse includes places and acts that are socially identified as symbols of the psychological - mindful - reality of goods we seek.
Thus we have sites of pilgrimage.
But, the pilgrimage is a journey, not a site. The devotion to travel to a far off place, to set aside time, wealth, pleasure, familiarity, etc is a statement of intent. And in that journey, we travel within ourselves to seek a more real understanding of those goods we hold. To reach into the ideal within. That is the real pilgrimage.
Spiritually, further, if you go where many people pray together, meditate together, etc. you will find a feeling that will enter you. It goes to your soul as a palpable event. This, in my experience, is something that stays at the place even beyond the presence of a person. A kind of geography where the supreme allows us to open. Now, if you can know this, you understand that another pilgrimage actually starts on reaching the pilgrimage site. A deeper, even more profound one because you have touched the sanatana.
Sometimes, that eternal comes to you. Sometimes, you go to it. Go to the Ganga. Perhaps you will feel it and thus understand it. Perhaps not. The Truth is ever and every present. But do at least try, make each day a pilgrimage, try to touch the eternal; use the psychology, the sociology, the constructs of humanity, the path of Karma… all of it. When you get there, keep going.
hariaum
April 4th, 2007 at 8:32 am
Is ganga holy, good question….
Is the pope catholic, can pigs fly? The holiness of the ganges is supreme dedication of faith ….Amitsar to sikhs , Lourdes to catholics , Mecca to Muslims.
Hinduism is wide and vary if you want you may go to Ganges although it is not compulsary…..the ganges is in our modern day world the only natural river that is worshipped by any faith…..Mt Sushi is worshipped by the shinto peoples, ayers rock by aboringes and valleys are worshpped by native americans. Please do not think that worship of natural world is rare it common throughout the world.
Hinduism allows devotees to bathe and fully encomapss the body in full baptism at choice , they may bathe and refresh , then bathe again …..christians only have started bathing recently with christian conversions and child baptisms.
The river plays an impotant part in everyday life ….it gives you water to drink…..you cannot drink from the sea……it can be used for cleaning, washing cooking and supplies a life form …….the Ganges is ultimalty a holy river , symbolically you can cleanse yourself…go see all the westerners that bathe there evevyday.
Please do not question but understand that people distroy these holy places and pullute them , not the religion .
Jai Ganga Ma
jai sri mata devi
April 9th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
The Ganga and its tributaries drain a large and fertile basin with an area of about one million square kilometres that supports one of the world’s highest density human populations.Every civilization that has ever existed has been based on the banks of a river. As the Egyptian society was formed on the banks of the river Nile, the Indus civilization was formed on the banks of Ganga, and Saraswati. Thus, rivers are the source of life for existing civilizations. Without these rivers we would cease to exist.
As regards to basis for pilgrimage, ALL Hindu scriptures mention the Ganga and the river Ganga is not merely associated with ‘practising holy austerites’.
The Hindu scriptures mention that the water of Ganges carries the blessings of Lord Vishnu’s feet; hence Mother Ganges is also known as Vishnupadi, which means “Emanating from the Lotus feet of Supreme Lord Sri Vishnu.” The Ganga is mentioned in the Rig-Veda, the earliest of the Hindu scriptures. The Ganga is mentioned in the nadistuti (Rig Veda 10.75), which lists the rivers from east to west. In fact, Ganga is a major character in the Mahabharata, where she’s the mother of Bhishma.
The importance and significance of the river Ganga, portrayed in all Hindu scriptures is the reason why the Ganga is a holy river and is considered a site of pilgrimage for all.
Regarding the pollution of our holy river, The Ganga Action Plan has been set up under the Indian government bureaucracy and is attempting to build a number of waste treatment facilities, under Dutch and British support, and to collaborate with a number of voluntary organizations. India’s government has already spent over $33 million to address the overwhelming sewage problem. In December 1984, an action plan was prepared for the immediate reduction of pollution load on the river Ganga. The Cabinet approved the GAP (Ganga Action Plan)in April 1985 as a 100 per cent centrally sponsored scheme.
Also, a well-known self-purificatory characteristic of Ganga water is mentioned in connection with the discovery of bacteriophages.
Mother Ganga is a Holy river.
April 9th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
Hindus beleive in pilgrimage to come closer to God - visit the diety’s abode - acquire darshan and see the places which enforce belief that the diety was at some point in time present at that place. The site chosen by the diety must therefore be ultra special - bearing special qualities for the diety to choose it. Hndus go on pilgrimage to these lands to experience the nostalgia of that presence.
Ganga is Maa Ganga for those who have the wisdom of recognising her as thus. Just in the same way as Charioteer Sanjay was granted divine vision to view the Viraat Swaroop and understand what was being viewed, Hindus have been granted the wisdom to recognise the difference between ordinary water and the Holy waters of the Ganga.
Our puranas - Shiv Puran (to be more specific) - narrate the reasons for Ganga’s decent to earth - to grant eternal freedom to Sagar’s 100 sons - as well as those souls who wish to break from the cycle of life and death.
Hindus come from a culture where we refer to our rivers as Maa. However, Ganga is special because she is the only Maa who will enable a living being to break from the cycle of life and death.
Why then, would Ganga not be Holy?
April 10th, 2007 at 8:52 am
You are very right Jyoti. An excellent write-up.
To those who call Ganga dirty and impure, I would say: It is not Ganga which us impure. She is ‘Deva-Sarita’ (Divine River) and its Water is‘Amrit’; not ‘Jal’. ‘Amrit’ is that which takes one beyond the cycle of birth and death. Not only the body, but it cleanses and purifies the mind and soul as well. If one disbelieves in the above, he should go and live leading a life like a faithful Hindu by its banks at a place of pilgrimage for some time and feel the difference himself.
If human excreta, town and industrial waste is being poured into it in volumes by the so called Hindus: the very anti-thesis of Hinduism in thought, action and belief; it is no fault of Mother Ganga or its Waters. Scriptures have ruled, one should not even rub one’s body while bathing in it. He should just take a dip i.e. do a ‘Nimajjan’ only.
Waste poured into it is impure, no doubt; but not the Water. Divinity can only be stained, not exterminated. Can God be made impure?
One cannot throw even a piece of paper or a cigarette stub in the Thames. But the same Britishers introduced the practice of pouring industrial and city waste into our sacred rivers, which has been made a thousand-fold more by the Secularist anti-Hindu regimes of independent, but in fact Western dependent India’. We should see to it that this is stopped forthwith – not decrease our faith and belief in the divinity of our holy rivers, Peeths and sites.
April 10th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
Would a Muslim ever spit in the Aab-e-Zam Zam of Mecca, or a Sikh in the Ram Sarowar of Golden Temple? No; never. How can a Hindu then throw his own waste and that of his bath, town and industries into the Ganges? Obviously, these people are not Hindus and have no belief in Hinduism – not even poor caricatures of it - but are its anti-thesis.