At this, Shiva intercepted, insisting that this would not happen if he were to catch her upon his head whereby she could flow safely through his tresses to Earth.[break]
It is easy to understand why such stories avail, for when paralleled to the earthly terrain upon which she does actually flow, such streams that stretch out like locks of hair may be seen in her upper reaches as she emerges from her various Himalayan sources to join her main path.
Her first, foremost and most prominent stream that corresponds to the well-known tale mentioned above, rises at Gaumukh from where she flows through Gangotri as Baghirathi. But, simultaneously from the same glacial deposits, she arises at Kedarnath, as Mandakini and also at Badrinath, as Alaknanda.
Her Kedarnath and Badrinath streams unite at Rudraprayag and flow on jointly as Alaknanda and her Baghirathi stream from Gaumukh and Alakananda streams join at Devprayag.
Albeit the most famous, this is the tale of just one of her mountain births. For all along her flow she is joined by a multitude of streams and large rivers that connect to her main flow.
The river Yamuna rises from the Yamnotri glacier and flows parallel to Ganga meeting her at Allahabad. And if we take a glance across the Himalayan range in Nepal, we could name a multitude of sources arising and joining to the Ghaghara, Gandak or Koshi and see how these large rivers eventually end up in Ganga’s flow.
Sources as far wide away as the peninsular uplands of western India are carried forth by rivers such as the Chambal, Betwa and Son.
Arising from semi arid areas, they have less water, but nevertheless eventually join Ganga. It is said that her entire basin is accountable to approximately half a billion people, which in itself makes her well worth looking after.
A ‘prayag’ is a Sanskrit word used to denote where two rivers meet and become one. This is a very important and symbolic place for spiritual practise, representing a place of coming together of parts that are separated, a place of union.
‘Two becoming one’ is an all-embracive important symbol on any spiritual path as we humans are ever searching a way to connect our constantly divided dualistic mind that works in opposites into its complete and whole aspect.
On route to Rishikesh, I was drawn to one of Ganga’s more famous prayags where Baghirathi’s turbulent flow and Alakananda’s peaceful flow meet.
All the major upper streams of her youthful form from her furthest reaching points in Uttaranchal have come together at Devprayag, a small town situated on the corner of their intersection.
As a ‘prayag’, it is a place representing union, oneness of being and wholeness. And significantly so, here she officially becomes Ganga.
Babas sit by the banks of the river in small cave like shelters carved into the rocks near the intersection and people from far and wide come here to bathe and feed the huge fish that swim near to the shore.
It is from this point that she is to flow out of the Shivaliks, which are the outer most range of the Himalayas, into the plains of North India.
Here her stream twists and turns around major bends that cruise through low mountains of up to 1100 metres high. Her waters become larger and more mature as she reaches Rishikesh, (around 70km below stream from Devprayag) where her main flow is more than 100 metres wide.
From here she continues to Haridwar (another 40km on) from where her major work of depositing the fertile alluvial muddy soils of her higher mountainous path onto the agricultural basin of north India, begins.
Lovely beaches line this route to Rishikesh and on way by road, I happen to stop at a wayside place, where I request permission to camp for the night. Having asked at the house nearest to the place, I pitch my tent on a small sandy area next to her fast flowing rapids.
The river is quite wide here and loud as her water flows across large boulders fixed for centuries in the way of her flow. As night falls, it grows cool and the local watchman from the house tells me to light a fire to safeguard against straying bears and wolves.
I think that this advice may be a little exaggerated, but I comply, if not just so as to enjoy a nice fire. Wood is plentiful and the large logs make a great light.
The next morning, I awake to the sound of shouting from the river and I can see rafts tackling the rapids in line, containing school kids screaming out of the sheer fun of it.
I wave back and tiptoe into an eddy of freezing cold and reasonably still water near the edge of the river that does not flow with the strong current of the central part.
People have been known to disappear in such rapids and the school kids are all well equipped with life saving vests.
I don’t swim too far away from the edge.The watchman appears later on in the morning and invites me to come to the local temple where he tells me the story of a self-appearing Shiva lingam here.
Many years ago, one cow that belonged to a village across the river used to swim across each day, laden with milk in her udder. However, when she returned at nightfall, she would have no milk left in her. This went on for years and years.
One day, the village people decided to investigate the reason why this occurred and found out that once she had crossed the river, she would deposit the milk on the Shiva lingam and thus nourishing it, it would grow.
Eventually they built a temple around it and today, the lingam is still in tact and is tended to by a pundit.
I parallel the Gangetic basin with the vast lineage basins of each and every one of us abiding on this planet.
If we stop to think about how things may have been just ten centuries ago from now and where each one of our ancestors were then, we could not even start to think in terms of who we think we are now in terms of cultural and racial definition.
Yet we believe ourselves part of one or another race and identify ourselves with one or another society according to where we were born. All sentient beings are so carefully, yet so precariously linked if you observe it closely like this.
Rivers easily cross borders and even though their names may change as they do so, they are intrinsically starting as tiny streams, or glacial melting points high up in the mountains, growing and adding, swelling and becoming mighty rivers, world famous, yet each of their parts are as intricately important as the other as they exist within the delicate balance, being both their individual section as well as the whole river at the same time.
For just as the source drips from the glacier at Gaumukh, so does the mighty Ganga meet the ocean at the Bay of Bengal. It is a simultaneous occurrence of events happening in the same instance of time.
And we too as humans are building up from a tiny being at birth, and fast and furious as in the mountain streams of youth and swelling more gently towards our final goal where we dissolve into the ocean as do all rivers eventually.
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