Gangotri

Story of Ganga’s descent on Earth from heaven: Once upon a time there was a king named Sagara who performed Ashwamedha Yajnya, a horse sacrifice ceremony in which a horse is left to wander freely in the country followed by the soldiers of the king. Wherever the horse wanders that territory will be annexed to the king’s territory provided that the horse is not captured by any other king showing opposition to such a campaign. The horse wanders for one year and the horse used for this is a pure white stallion with black ears. This is so that the performer of the sacrifice can become the undisputed imperial sovereign of the land. In our story here the horse was accompanied by 60,000 other sons of king Sagara. Meanwhile the king of the heavens, Indra, the supreme ruler of Gods, became insecure and feared for his throne. So he stole the horse and tied it in the Ashram of Sage Kapila, who was in deep meditation.  The sons of the king found out and stormed into the Sage’s Ashram and verbally abused him. But it so happened that Sage Kapila’s meditation was disturbed and as he opened his eyes, the power from it destroyed all of them to ashes and their souls trapped midway.

Grief stricken, King Sagara wondered  how will he ever liberate the souls of his sons. Then another Sage, Narada, suggested the solution- that when Mother Ganga will come to the earth from the heavens, only then their souls will be liberated. Accordingly, King Sagara embarked in austerities but could not accomplish his wishes. All his descendants tried but again no avail. Then a king of the fifth generation named Bhagiratha achieved it. He did the tapas for 5500 years and mother Ganga pleased with his austerities agreed to come down on the Earth. But now there was another problem, the river Ganga had such rigorous force that if she landed directly on Earth, the Earth would not be able to bear her force and she would go right through, into the core of the Earth. So now the solution was with great Yogi Lord Shiva- his locks of hair were to act as gates of control and Ganga will flow through it.

Gangotri is the region where Bhagiratha did his tapas, that’s why the river is also called Bhagirathi. This is the region where she landed on earth – in Sanskrit ‘utri’ means landed and ‘Ganga + utri’ means place where ‘Ganga landed’. To conclude the story all those trapped souls were liberated as their ashes were poured into the river and the Earth got the divine boon of the Mother Ganga.

From the point of view of spirituality – the river Ganga flows through the locks of Lord Shiva. Shiva is considered as the Absolute. Therefore a devotee finds that connections with the Absolute when he is in contact with the river Ganga. In the science of Hatha Yoga the river Ganga symbolically represents the ida nadi, the negative channel (-), the moon or the feminine side in every human.

From practical and medical point of view – in Ayurveda, it is said that the best water is the rain water. Next best water is the glacier water i.e. water in rivers flowing from glaciers. The third best from lakes and fourth in preference is well water. Therefore the water in Ganga river also has certain medicinal properties. Like even now if the water is collected and kept, then it does not go bad or give a fouls smell (there is bacteriophage virus that kills bacteria is present in Ganga water).

From religious point of view, inspired by spiritual philosophy – if a person takes dips in the Ganga water, it is said that all his sins are washed away.  Minimum 3 dips are recommended or one can take 108 dips at length as well. Also it is said that if the ashes of the departed persons after their cremations are immersed in the river they then tend to achieve salvation.

Such is the glory and importance of the river Ganga which has been traditionally worshipped in India for millennia. Hail Mother Ganga! Ganga Maiyya ki Jai!

At Gangotri we will also have the opportunity to visit the Sivananda Gufa. This is the cave Swami Vishnudevananda used for his Sadhana. Often Swamiji would visit the cave to pursue his spiritual practices and have time time alone for contemplation. The cave has been kept but in 2017 heavy rains caused a flash flood that washed the compound around the cave, leaving only the inner cave alone. A contention wall has been rebuilt to maintain the small area around the cave and preserve this special place.

We suggest that the following items are taken:

• All our gear will be taken to the room
• Rain jacket as the weather in the mountains can change unexpectedly
• Winter gear – jacket, hat, inner layers
• Sleeping bag for the night. Temperatures can go down to zero easily