Episode # 73 – Origin and flow of River Ganges – Sage Parashara’s beautiful accord!!!

In the previous episode, we had witnessed the continuation of the discussion as to how Priyavrata and his son, Aagneehtra split this world into many different parts. We’ve witnessed that Priyavrata had split the world into the seven “Dveepas” and we’re at the forefront of the Jambu-Dveepa. This Jambu-Dveepa was gifted by Priyavrata to Aagneetra, who in turn, splits the Jambu-Dveepa into different “Varshas”. We’re amidst the “Bhaarata-Varsha”, which is amongst the nine different “Varshas” according to Aagneetra’s split. Now, Aagneetra has the next generation after him, by name “Naabi”. Now Naabi splits the “Bhaarata Varsha” into various Kandas, and we’re at this Kanda by name “Bharata Kanda”. Thus, we’ve seen in the yesterday’s episode that our Bhaarata Desha (India) is situated amidst this “Bharata Kanda”. This is the reason why we often chant in our “Sankalpa Mantra” as “Bhaarata varshe. Bharata Kande.. Meroho.. Dakshine Paarshve…” 

Now that we’ve witnessed the entire world’s divisions, we’re now at the place where our Bhaarata Desha is situated. Since it was ruled by Bharata (Naabi) for a long time, we call this country as Bhaarata Desha. Now we have the famous and revered river in our Bhaarata Desha, by the name Ganges, isn’t it? We should understand here that the holy River Ganges descends down from the “Aakaasha” (Sky), splashes on to the “Meru Mountain” which we saw yesterday, and then comes down into India. We’ve seen how the Meru Mountain is uniquely structured in yesterday’s episode isn’t it? We’ve to now note that the bottom portion of this mountain is fully made of diamonds and the top portion of gold. Many of us might wonder where is this precious mountain! However, sadly, it is at a place wherein we cannot see it! The Meru mountain is totally invisible, and readers shouldn’t mistake the Meru Mountain to be the present day Himalayas. This is the reason why I’m explaining this point. Thus, we’ve seen that the River Ganges splashes over this Meru Mountain, and now, it splits into various streams of water, running into different directions. The stream that flows here towards the southern direction is the one which is called “Alakananda”. 

In fact, Sage Paraashara talks about the River Ganges flowing from the Meru Mountain in the four directions. He explains the names for each of the streams here – Sita, Alakananda, Chakshuhu and Bhadra. As we’ve seen, the stream that runs towards the southern direction is called “Alakananda”. Even today, if we go for the “Badrigaashrama” situated amidst the Himalayas, there is a place called “Deva-Prayag”. This place is the junction of River Ganges today, which actually flows from two different directions. One stream is referred to as the “Bhaageerathi” and the second is referred to as the “Alakanada”. Both these streams come and meet at the junction called “Deva-Prayag”. This is a beautiful and a scenic place that all of us should visit atleast once in our lifetime. If we see today, the Bhaageerati is a very ferocious stream of River Ganges that would come in full mightly force, whereas the Alakananda is a small little stream that comes slowly and steadily without any gush. Thus, both meet at this junction and flow together with a great force! This is the beauty of our great River Ganges. 

Thus, through this particular section, Sage Paraashara brings out the significance of the River Ganges. As we’ve seen here, the river comes down from the “Aakaasha”, gushes over the Meru Mountain, gets splashed and streams up in all the four directions. The southern stream is what we refer to as the “Alakananda” which flows through into our “Manushya Lokha” and this is what we see today as well. So for today, let us understand this clearly and we shall wait till the next episode to continue with the next point! Stay tuned! 🙂