Bhagiratha Jayanthi

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Namaskar,

 

 

Today is Bhagiratha Jayanthi.

 

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Celebrated as the day Mother Ganga came down to earth.

 

The

Ganga has an exalted position in the Hindu ethos. It is repeatedly

invoked in the Vedas, the Puranas, and the two Indian epics, the

Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Ganga is a goddess, Ganga devi, one of

two daughters of Meru (the Himalayas), the other being Uma, consort of

Shiva. In her youth, Indra had asked for Ganga to be given to heaven to

soothe the Gods with its cool waters. The story of its descent to earth

appears in slightly different forms in Ramayana (Bala Kanda:

Vishwamitra narrates it to the child Rama), Mahabharata (Aranya Parba:

Agastya narrates it to Rama), and in the Puranas.

 

The general outline of the story is:

The

king Sagara had two wives. By a favour of the lord Shiva, one wife bore

him sixty thousand sons, all of whom were to die simultaneously, and

the other bore him one son, Asamanjas, who would continue the dynasty.

The sixty thousand sons grew to be great warriors, while the mighty

Asamanjas caused so much misery to the populace that his father the

king had to expel his own son, though a grandson, Ansuman, was left

behind. King Sagara once performed the horse ceremony, in which a horse

is allowed to roam at will, and is followed by warriors. Stopping the

horse is a challenge to war; not stopping it is a compact of obeisance.

In this instance, the sixty thousand sons were following the horse, but

surprisingly, the horse was lost. After much recrimination, they dug up

the entire earth and the underworld, the oceans, searching for the

horse. Eventually it was found in a deep cavern, loitering close to

where the sage Kapila sat in radiant meditation. The sons gathered the

horse but they disturbed the great Kapila (Vasudeva), who was very

annoyed, and instantly burnt them to ash with his fiery gaze.

 

Sagara

heard of this fate through Narada, the heavenly wanderer, and sent the

grandson Ansuman to undo the harm. Ansuman descended to the underworld

and met Kapila, who was much pleased with the youth's bearing and

conversation. He granted that the soulse of the sons of Sagara may be

released by the waters of Ganga, then resident in heaven. Despite much

austerity and prayer, neither Sagara, nor Ansuman after him, nor his

son Dilipa, could get Ganga to appear on earth. Finally it was Dilipa's

son Bhagiratha, who after severe austerities, propitiated the Goddess,

and she agreed to come down to earth. However, the impact of her fall

would be so severe, that it could be borne by none less than Shiva

himself. Therefore Bhagiratha went into meditation again and obtained

Shiva's consent after many more austerities. Finally, the river came

down and fell into Shiva's matted hair, and thence to earth. This is

the presumed site of the present-day temple at Gangotri. Bhagiratha led

the way on horse back and the river followed. In this manner they

reached the spot where lay the ashes of the six thousand sons. They

were thus liberated, and an ocean formed from the waters there. This is

the Sagar Island of today, where the Ganges flows into the Bay of

Bengal ( " Sagara' is also Sanskrit for ocean).

 

 

Today atleast if everybody can drop two drops of tears what u done the sins in

the past, god will bless u.

 

Thanks

 

Lokasamastha sukhinau bhavatu sanmangalani bhavatu

 

kumar

 

 

 

 

 

 

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