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 “Horse Sacrifice.”
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 tormented the 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 will help 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, but all 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.