Goddess of the Week: Ganga Devi - The Legend

[Guest guest]

Mother Ganga, bringing life in the form of water. This image of Ganga

echoes throughout history, and many tales are told of Mother Ganga

generative powers : giving birth, restoring life, conferring

immortality. The most famous legend of Ganga Devi and Vasus,

elucidates her descent from heaven

 

One day a King named Shantanu was walking by the river when he saw a

lovely woman, ripe, with long dark hair, and skin like the inside of

a seashell. Unknown to him, she was the Goddess Ganga. Completely

enchanted, he asked her to be his wife, and she accepted, "But on

one

condition." She smiled. "you must not interfere with anything

I do,

no matter what. I will be your wife, but the moment you reproach me,

I will leave you"

 

The King gladly agreed and returned to the palace, where he was

greatly pleased by her beauty and her knowledge of love, by her

gentleness and dance and her devotion to his comforts. In this way,

years passed unnoticed. "And the King, while enjoying himself

with

his wife, had eight children born to him who in beauty were like

celestials themselves" But at birth each child was thrown into

the

rivers by Shantanu's wife. The King remained silent for fear of

losing her. Still, neither fate not human nature would counterance

such things. And with the birth of the eight child, Shantanu could

restrain himself no longer. "Why have you done these terrible

deeds,

murdering your own children?" he demanded

 

"There is no blame in what I do." She replied demurely. "

I am the

Goddess Gange. And these children I have borne to you, they are the

vasus, celestials who were cursed to appear in human form as

punishment for their misdeeds against the sage Vasishtha. It is a

terrible fate to live as a man once you have known immortality; and

out of compassion, I agreed to bear them here on earth and restore

them to paradise the moment they were born. And now, according to our

compact, I must leave you." She then disappeared, leaving

Shantanu

alone and miserable except for the eighth child, who remained with

him and was called Ganngadatte, for he was the son of Ganga.

 

Another legend is about Karttikeya or Skanda, the god of war and the

planet mars.

 

At one time, the gods were powerless against the demon Taraka, who it

seems, could be destroyed only by a child of shiva born without aid

of a woman. Acceding to their please, Shiva finally released his

sees, first to Agni. But even the God of Fire could not contain it

and cast it into the Ganges. From this union sprang Karttikeya,

sometimes called Gangaputra ( the son of Ganga )

 

 

In the Mahabharata, where at the end of the great war Vyasa, the

legendary author of the epic, calls the slain armied from the depts.

Of the river for the final reunion :

 

"Then Vyasa entered the sacred water of the Ganges, and summoned

all

the warriors … Immediately there was a deafening roar from within

the

waters, and the kings … with all their armies, arose in their

thousands from the waters of Ganges … free from all animosity and

pride, anger and jealously… and purged of every sin, the heros

met

with each other. All of them were happy of heart. Son met with father

or mother, wife with husband, brother with brother, and friend with

friend…. All the warriors .. reconciled with each other,

renouncing

enmity and becoming established in friendship. Thus they passed that

night in great happiness.

 

When the day dawned, they embraced each other and took their

respective places. Thereupon Vyasa, the foremost of ascetics,

dismissed them. Within the twinkling of an eye, they disappeared in

the very sight of all. Plunging into the sacred river Ganga, they

proceeded to their respective abodes"

 

 

Om ParaShaktiye Namaha