18FEB21THU

The Descent of the Ganga to the Earth

The Ganga was originally a river in the sky. It was called Akash Ganga.

Now, let's see why and how the Ganga came to the earth.

Once upon a time, there was a king called Sagara.

He had 60,000 sons.

One day they went to the forest hunting.

They happened to make a sage angry by their arrogant behaviour.

He turned them to ashes.

They died because of a sage's anger.

So their souls could not reach the heaven.

Many hundreds of years later, a descendant of them decided to send his forefathers' souls to the heaven.

His name was Bhageerath.

He asked many wise men what he should do to be able to send his forefathers' souls to the heaven.

They said if the Akash Ganga flowed along the land where their ashes spread, their souls could go to the heaven.

So he prayed to the Ganga to come to the earth and flow along the land where his forefathers' ashes lay.

The Ganga accepted his prayer but she warned that if she descended to the earth directly, the earth would break due to her great force.

She suggested a solution to this problem.

There is only one who can bear her weight and it is Shiva.

Now Bhagirath prayed to Shiva to take the load of the Ganga.

Shiva agreed.

Then the Akash Ganga descended on Shiva's head.

He locked the Ganga in the tresses of his hair.

Later he released the water slowly to the earth.

As Bhagirath wanted, the water flowed along the land of his forefathers' ashes and they finally were able to reach the heaven.

The Ganga came to the earth because of the effort of Bhagirath, so the Ganga got the name BHAAGEERATHI.