She is born as a little stream... tumbling downhill from the icy slopes, changing course as boulders and rocks block her journey, with a lot of splashing and bubbling initially, like the innocent laughter of a young girl. She has all the enthusiasm born of inexperience until she grows out of her childhood into teenage and adulthood. On the lower slopes, she grows into deeper experience, wide, the swift current belied by the calm surface . She is young, strong, nurturing and given to flooding her banks when her destructive side manifests. She has been joined by many other streams, encountered innumerable obstacles, been thwarted, dammed, exploited, revered, loved, worshipped.....
Finally, the majestic, slow, deep Ganga, so wide that she looks like the sea. Thousands of pilgrims, day after day, come to her as she murmurs and laps along her tranquil banks, to wash off their sins in her purity. Since time immemorial, all rivers in India have been revered, but the Ganga holds a special place in the hearts of every Hindu; the holiest of holy rivers, she is loved deeply as a mother. She was the Goddess who consented to descend from heaven to quench the thirst of mankind for sustenance, both material and spiritual, but her power would have shattered the earth. Lord Shiva then asked her to flow down from His locks so as to slow her down and break the fall.
As Brahma, the Creator, washed the feet of Vishnu, the Preserver of the universe, the water of the Ganga fell on the mighty locks of Shiva, the lord of destruction. Thus the beautiful Ganga came to earth. She had compassionately consented to purify the sins of mankind. But what of her, she wondered? How would she deal with all the sins that she accumulated thus? So Shiva, the generous God, promised her that every twelve years, at the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati, at Prayag, among the hundreds of devotees gathered to bathe at the Kumbh, He would come to bathe, in the form of an ash-smeared ascetic in order to wash her sins away. So the tradition continues, every twelve years that on this one day, thousands of devotees bathe in the hope that they are touched by the same water as the Lord Himself. And each ascetic is revered as the form of the Lord.
Thousands of miles later, this enormous expanse of water merges into the sea; thousands of years ago, since she first found the sea and gave up her identity as the Ganga, every second since, she has been doing the same thing; The Ganga merged into the sea then, is merging still, will merge for all time to come.
So also is our journey in this human life. The only purpose of our lives is to become one with God. No other purpose associated with this transient world can bring any fulfillment, just as the water of a mirage cannot quench a traveller's thirst. As rivers merge into the sea, so do all souls ultimately merge into God. The journey of a river is downhill, on to the plains, then seaward. Our spiritual journey is inward, to introspect, rein in the senses from pursuing their outward objects, into the stillness beyond thought, until in that absolute tranquility we find the Truth.
The deepest truth is found in the silence beyond words. Those who realized the Self could not express that rapture, say the Vedas. Like a dumb man, who can taste the sweetness of sugar, and can only smile but cannot speak, so also, the Realized Ones live in the Self while still in this body, yet no words can suffice for the experience of becoming God; like the Ganga, softly merging into the sea, our souls can connect with this enormous body of spiritual treasure of the Bhagwat Dharma which nourishes and quenches the thirst of the thousands who seek sustenance and finally become one with God.
Like the Ganga, we have to overcome all manner of worldly obstacles; find the course which does not lead into the barren desert of worldly craving and greed to dry up therein; not be thwarted by the deep roots and thorny bushes of our passions; we have to join with other streams to find inspiration and strength in the devotion of saints; sustain, nurture and enable the good in us to manifest so completely as to wipe out all the evil in our own nature, of our accumulated karma over so many lives; finally purified thus, we will reach that infinite ocean of Joy.
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