to n_mallen and all about Swamiji asks a question to the group - GANGA

[Guest guest]

Dear n_mallan, and anyone else who wants to jump in,

 

First I must admit that Ganga is somewhat new to me. I know about the Ganges

of course, but until the story in the digest, I knew nothing about Ganga.

Shiva taking Ganga as His wife, after the discord among Saraswati, Laksmi and

Ganga as the wives of Narayana, gave me an explanation for the Ganges pouring

out of the top of Shiva's head in so many pictures, so there was one mystery

cleared up.

 

Last night I was reciting Chapter 3 of the Cosmic Puja (the "system of

worship with gayatri"), and part of that recitation was purifying the water. This

made me think of Swamiji's question, of course, and I came back to the idea

of puja as a way to help Ganga. For if Ganga is all water, inside and outside

of our body, then when we do a puja, even if it is not specifically a puja

for Ganga, then we are helping Her.

 

Well, those of you who do a lot of pujas will be very familiar with these

words, but for me, who has done recitation of pujas, but never at one sitting

(it usually takes me a few weeks), I don't always remember what I've read

before. So this particularly struck me.

 

(Instruction) Fill the pot with water while chanting the mantra:

 

om gange ca jamune caiva godavari saraswati

narmade sindhu kaveri jale-smin sannidhim kuru

 

Om the Ganges, Jumana, Godavar, Sarasvati Narmada, Sindhu, Kaveri, these

waters are mingled together.

 

And then what I believe is an explanation by Swamij follows:

 

The Ganges is the Ida, the Jamuna is the Pingala, the other five rivers are

the five senses. The land of the seven rivers is within the body as well as

outside. (I believe Steve mentioned something like this.)

 

Then the water is blessed with Tulasi leaves (basil?) and shortly thereafter

is another mantra whereby the 7 rivers are "mingled together." Then you

sprinkle some of the water on all of the items to be offered as well as over your

shoulder. (I love this part.)

 

Switching gears...

 

In the Swami Purana, right after "The Story of Ganga" is "Kapila Muni" who

curses Sagar's sons." So Ganga has to marry this guy, Sagar, because he wants

to counteract the curses on his sons. (She really got around.) Then Bramah

says Ganga will come to earth in the form of the ocean; the ashes of his sons

will be purified by Ganga's waters. Then Bhagiratha (a successor of Sagar)

stands on one foot reciting Ganga's mantras for thousands of years.

 

Then Brahma decides to send Ganga to earth once more, to "wash away the sins

of man." (However the force of Her coming would be so powerful that it would

destroy the earth, and hence, again, the marriage of Ganga to Shiva is

mentioned, and Shiva agrees to take the Ganga upon his head in order to mitigate

Her speed of falling. (Which explains all the pictures I mentioned.)

 

This is where Ganga mentions Her fear of becoming polluted and "foul" and an

object of "hatred and scorn" to all.. As n_mallen described, Bramah replied

that many sadhus and pure souls would come to Her banks and sing the names of

the Divine Mother or other Divine Names, and this would keep Ganga purified.

And then Brahma said: "In fact, no puja will be complete without the offering

of your waters. No matter where worship is being performed, our presence

will be invoked." So, everytime any of you do a puja, and I know there are quite

a few of you who are doing a great deal of puja, your are continuing this

process set in place by Brahma to keep the waters of Ganga purified (and so She

could, hence, purify us).

 

So back to my response to n_mallan's post ... the part I quoted above. The

more I learn, the more I realize that much of what I knew of Hinduism and

Eastern Spirituality, for most of my life, was just on the surface. However, the

one thing about it that comforted me (having come from a very disastrous and

negativite that included Catholicism) was the idea that all of us are

essentially good, and it is the uncovering or the recovering (discovering) of our

true nature, which was the key to understanding and being this goodness ... or

you could say "inherent intelligence." To me this "inherent intelligence"

seems to be the same thing as this essential goodness, and awakening to it, to

me, would be the same process of recovering I've described.

 

It is the second part I had difficulty with, for if it is truly our

"inherent intelligence" that we awaken to, to me, this would preclude selfishness and

delusions of grandeur, but in fact would be the opposite, awakening to our

true nature, something Ganga would welcome,

I believe.

 

On the other hand, perhaps we get a glimpse of this awakening, a glimpse of

our "inherent intelligence," and think we have arrived. Then in comes ego and

selfishness and all that n_mallen describes. But this isn't a true

awakening, it is only a false one. Since this might classify as one of the "sins of

man," then this would be something Ganga would have feared, although in the

story, Her fear seems more generally related to Her purpose in coming to earth

to wash away the sins of man and thereby becoming polluted and an object of

revulsion.

 

Wow, so I just wrote a lot of stuff, and why did I do that? Because it is so

exciting to me to discover Ganga as more than a river, albeit a Sacred One,

and to know that everytime anyone offers a puja, not only is Ganga being

invoked, but She is being purified and She is purifying. And then, of course,

there's the whole Shiva with the water coming out of His locks thing. This is

just way cool. : ) Jai Ganga Ma! ~ Linda

 

 

n_mallen wrote:

 

I understand it as follows, when through sadhana of our ancestors,

wisdom decided to awaken in us...

 

But Ganga or 'the energy which awakens intelligence in us' still has a

problem, the problem is the moment we awaken to our inherent

intelligence we become more selfish rather than less, we are filled

with dreams of grandeur, as this wisdom is nothing but our awkening to

our infinite potential and till this potential is completely

understood we are dangerous and Ganga was afraid of this. But she was

given a boon which would solve this problem - the boon being that

Masters with Complete Understanding will bathe in Her thereby making

our understanding complete and Ganga pure again, that is when we awken

to ourselves, Men of Wisdom will seek us and direct us towards the

complete understanding of our potential and we become 'Ganga'.

 

What actions can we take to make Ganga clean - just try to understand

ourselves and more we do more clean She becomes, and we can hasten the

process by letting our incomplete understanding wash the feet of the

Masters, so that we can come away with better understanding and little

more closer to completely understanding Ganga.

[Guest guest]

Linda, thank you for your sharing. Jai Maa!

 

, nierika wrote:

>

>

>

> Dear n_mallan, and anyone else who wants to jump in,

>

> First I must admit that Ganga is somewhat new to me. I know about

the Ganges

> of course, but until the story in the digest, I knew nothing about

Ganga.

> Shiva taking Ganga as His wife, after the discord among Saraswati,

Laksmi and

> Ganga as the wives of Narayana, gave me an explanation for the

Ganges pouring

> out of the top of Shiva's head in so many pictures, so there was one

mystery

> cleared up.

>

> Last night I was reciting Chapter 3 of the Cosmic Puja (the "system of

> worship with gayatri"), and part of that recitation was purifying

the water. This

> made me think of Swamiji's question, of course, and I came back to

the idea

> of puja as a way to help Ganga. For if Ganga is all water, inside

and outside

> of our body, then when we do a puja, even if it is not specifically

a puja

> for Ganga, then we are helping Her.

>

> Well, those of you who do a lot of pujas will be very familiar with

these

> words, but for me, who has done recitation of pujas, but never at

one sitting

> (it usually takes me a few weeks), I don't always remember what I've

read

> before. So this particularly struck me.

>

> (Instruction) Fill the pot with water while chanting the mantra:

>

> om gange ca jamune caiva godavari saraswati

> narmade sindhu kaveri jale-smin sannidhim kuru

>

> Om the Ganges, Jumana, Godavar, Sarasvati Narmada, Sindhu, Kaveri,

these

> waters are mingled together.

>

> And then what I believe is an explanation by Swamij follows:

>

> The Ganges is the Ida, the Jamuna is the Pingala, the other five

rivers are

> the five senses. The land of the seven rivers is within the body as

well as

> outside. (I believe Steve mentioned something like this.)

>

> Then the water is blessed with Tulasi leaves (basil?) and shortly

thereafter

> is another mantra whereby the 7 rivers are "mingled together." Then

you

> sprinkle some of the water on all of the items to be offered as well

as over your

> shoulder. (I love this part.)

>

> Switching gears...

>

> In the Swami Purana, right after "The Story of Ganga" is "Kapila

Muni" who

> curses Sagar's sons." So Ganga has to marry this guy, Sagar,

because he wants

> to counteract the curses on his sons. (She really got around.) Then

Bramah

> says Ganga will come to earth in the form of the ocean; the ashes of

his sons

> will be purified by Ganga's waters. Then Bhagiratha (a successor of

Sagar)

> stands on one foot reciting Ganga's mantras for thousands of years.

>

> Then Brahma decides to send Ganga to earth once more, to "wash away

the sins

> of man." (However the force of Her coming would be so powerful that

it would

> destroy the earth, and hence, again, the marriage of Ganga to Shiva is

> mentioned, and Shiva agrees to take the Ganga upon his head in order

to mitigate

> Her speed of falling. (Which explains all the pictures I mentioned.)

>

> This is where Ganga mentions Her fear of becoming polluted and

"foul" and an

> object of "hatred and scorn" to all.. As n_mallen described, Bramah

replied

> that many sadhus and pure souls would come to Her banks and sing the

names of

> the Divine Mother or other Divine Names, and this would keep Ganga

purified.

> And then Brahma said: "In fact, no puja will be complete without

the offering

> of your waters. No matter where worship is being performed, our

presence

> will be invoked." So, everytime any of you do a puja, and I know

there are quite

> a few of you who are doing a great deal of puja, your are

continuing this

> process set in place by Brahma to keep the waters of Ganga purified

(and so She

> could, hence, purify us).

>

> So back to my response to n_mallan's post ... the part I quoted

above. The

> more I learn, the more I realize that much of what I knew of

Hinduism and

> Eastern Spirituality, for most of my life, was just on the surface.

However, the

> one thing about it that comforted me (having come from a very

disastrous and

> negativite that included Catholicism) was the idea that all of us are

> essentially good, and it is the uncovering or the recovering

(discovering) of our

> true nature, which was the key to understanding and being this

goodness ... or

> you could say "inherent intelligence." To me this "inherent

intelligence"

> seems to be the same thing as this essential goodness, and

awakening to it, to

> me, would be the same process of recovering I've described.

>

> It is the second part I had difficulty with, for if it is truly our

> "inherent intelligence" that we awaken to, to me, this would

preclude selfishness and

> delusions of grandeur, but in fact would be the opposite, awakening

to our

> true nature, something Ganga would welcome,

> I believe.

>

> On the other hand, perhaps we get a glimpse of this awakening, a

glimpse of

> our "inherent intelligence," and think we have arrived. Then in

comes ego and

> selfishness and all that n_mallen describes. But this isn't a true

> awakening, it is only a false one. Since this might classify as one

of the "sins of

> man," then this would be something Ganga would have feared, although

in the

> story, Her fear seems more generally related to Her purpose in

coming to earth

> to wash away the sins of man and thereby becoming polluted and an

object of

> revulsion.

>

> Wow, so I just wrote a lot of stuff, and why did I do that? Because

it is so

> exciting to me to discover Ganga as more than a river, albeit a

Sacred One,

> and to know that everytime anyone offers a puja, not only is Ganga

being

> invoked, but She is being purified and She is purifying. And then,

of course,

> there's the whole Shiva with the water coming out of His locks

thing. This is

> just way cool. : ) Jai Ganga Ma! ~ Linda

>

>

> n_mallen wrote:

>

> I understand it as follows, when through sadhana of our ancestors,

> wisdom decided to awaken in us...

>

> But Ganga or 'the energy which awakens intelligence in us' still has a

> problem, the problem is the moment we awaken to our inherent

> intelligence we become more selfish rather than less, we are filled

> with dreams of grandeur, as this wisdom is nothing but our awkening to

> our infinite potential and till this potential is completely

> understood we are dangerous and Ganga was afraid of this. But she was

> given a boon which would solve this problem - the boon being that

> Masters with Complete Understanding will bathe in Her thereby making

> our understanding complete and Ganga pure again, that is when we awken

> to ourselves, Men of Wisdom will seek us and direct us towards the

> complete understanding of our potential and we become 'Ganga'.

>

> What actions can we take to make Ganga clean - just try to understand

> ourselves and more we do more clean She becomes, and we can hasten the

> process by letting our incomplete understanding wash the feet of the

> Masters, so that we can come away with better understanding and little

> more closer to completely understanding Ganga.

>