Gaṅgā Devī

Gaṅgā Devī is the holiest of all rivers. The Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa calls her a primary aṃśa (part) of Mūla Prakṛti, the first Nature. She came to earth through the tapas of the great Bhagīratha, and she flowed first through the jaṭā (matted hair) of Bhagavān Śiva.

She is called Viṣṇupādī, “she who came out of the foot of Viṣṇu”. She is also the wife of Nārāyaṇa by the gāndharva rite. Her darśana (sight), sparśa (touch) and snāna (bath) give mokṣa (liberation).

Nature and origin

The Prakriti Khaṇḍa of the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa (Chapter 1) says that Gaṅgā Devī is among the foremost aṃśas of Mūla Prakṛti. She purifies all the worlds. She arose at the feet of Bhagavān Viṣṇu. She destroys the gathered pāpa (sin) of all who come to her.

Seeing her, touching her or bathing in her gives mokṣa. As a river (nadī) flowing in Bhāratavarṣa, she is the finest ladder (sopāna) for climbing to Goloka. Among all holy tīrthas and all rivers, Gaṅgā is supreme. On the head (śiras) of Bhagavān Śiva she looks like a string of pearls. She is the ornament (maṇḍana) of Śaṅkara.

Birth from Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa

The Prakriti Khaṇḍa (Chapter 10) tells of the night of Kārtika Pūrṇimā (the full moon of Kārtika) at the rāsa-maṇḍala in Goloka. Bhagavān Śiva sang in praise of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The music enchanted Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa and Rādhādevī, and both became liquid (drava-bhūta). Their divine forms melted into a liquid state of the highest bliss.

From the bodies of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa together, Gaṅgā arose as the adhidevī (ruling devī) of all liquid forms. She is not only a river. She is the śakti of Kṛṣṇa’s own form, shown as holy water.

At that first moment Brahmā gathered the divine water in his kamaṇḍalu (water pot), and Bhagavān Śiva carried it on his head. So Gaṅgā dwells at the same time in Goloka, in Brahmā’s vessel and in Śiva’s jaṭā. She is present in all the holy lokas (worlds) at once.

The quarrel in Vaikuṇṭha

Before Gaṅgā came down to earth, something happened in Vaikuṇṭha. The Prakriti Khaṇḍa (Chapter 6) says that Nārāyaṇa and Gaṅgā shared a loving glance. This made Sarasvatī, one of Nārāyaṇa’s three wives, very angry. A great quarrel (kalaha) rose among Lakṣmī, Gaṅgā and Sarasvatī.

• Sarasvatī gave a śāpa (curse) that Lakṣmī would become a tree (Tulasī) and a river (Padmāvatī) on earth.
• Gaṅgā gave a śāpa that Sarasvatī would go down to Bhārata as a river and carry the pāpa of those who bathed in her.
• Sarasvatī gave a śāpa in return that Gaṅgā too would become a river on earth.

Nārāyaṇa came back and settled the quarrel with kindness. He ruled that each devī would go down only as a partial aṃśa, and keep her place in the divine realms. He told Gaṅgā to go down to Bhāratavarṣa through the tapas of Bhagīratha, to flow into the ocean (Samudra) and to purify all who came to her. After five thousand years of Kaliyuga, she would return to Vaikuṇṭha.

Gaṅgā’s love for Kṛṣṇa and her refuge in his foot

In Goloka, Gaṅgā was still in her divine form. She fell deeply in love with Kṛṣṇa. The Prakriti Khaṇḍa (Chapters 11–12) says that at a gathering in the rāsa-maṇḍala, Rādhādevī came and saw Gaṅgā looking at Kṛṣṇa with longing eyes. Rādhā has power equal to Kṛṣṇa’s own. She began to drink all the water of Gaṅgā in her divine form.

Gaṅgā was afraid. She took refuge at Kṛṣṇa’s feet and melted into his lotus foot (pādāmbuja). With all the water gone, the whole universe began to dry up.

Brahmā, Śiva and all the devas hurried to Goloka to ask Kṛṣṇa for help. Brahmā spoke to Rādhādevī on Gaṅgā’s behalf. He praised Gaṅgā as the daughter born from the limbs of both Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, and so like a daughter to Rādhā herself. Rādhādevī gave way. Kṛṣṇa then let Gaṅgā go from his foot. She flowed out from his big toe (pādāṅguṣṭha), and the universe was restored. From this event she got the name Viṣṇupādī, “born from the foot of Viṣṇu”.

Brahmā then gave Gaṅgā the Rādhikā-mantra, the stotra (hymn of praise), the kavaca (protective prayer), the pūjā-vidhi (rules of pūjā) and the method of dhyāna (meditation). Gaṅgā did ārādhanā of Rādhādevī with this mantra and reached Vaikuṇṭha. There Nārāyaṇa married Gaṅgā by the gāndharva rite.

Marriage to Nārāyaṇa

The Prakriti Khaṇḍa (Chapter 12) says that Brahmā himself performed the marriage in Vaikuṇṭha. He explained that Gaṅgā came out of Kṛṣṇa’s right side, while Rādhā came out of the left. Nārāyaṇa is the four-armed (catur-bhuja) form of that same Kṛṣṇa, whose right side is the two-armed (dvi-bhuja) form. So Gaṅgā is, in essence, born from Nārāyaṇa’s own body. Brahmā declared, “Prakṛti and Puruṣa are not separate.”

Nārāyaṇa then had three wives in his household: Lakṣmī, Sarasvatī and Gaṅgā. Tulasī joined later as the fourth.

Sarasvatī looked at Gaṅgā with the jealousy of a co-wife (sapatnī-asūyā). Gaṅgā had no such jealousy toward her.

The line of Sagara and the tapas of Bhagīratha

The Prakriti Khaṇḍa (Chapter 10) tells how Gaṅgā was brought to earth. In the Sūryavaṃśa (the solar line), the great cakravartī (emperor) Sagara had two wives, Vaidarbhī and Śaibya. Śaibya bore him Asamañjas.

Vaidarbhī wanted children and did tapas to Bhagavān Śiva for one hundred years. A lump of flesh was born. Śiva came as a brāhmaṇa and divided it into sixty thousand pieces. He breathed life into each one. These sixty thousand sons became mighty warriors. But they were burned to ash by the anger of Kapila Mahārṣi when they showed him disrespect. Sagara died of grief.

Asamañjas wanted to save his burned brothers by bringing Gaṅgā to earth. He did tapas for one lakh (one hundred thousand) years and died without success. His son Dilīpa also did tapas for one lakh years and passed away. Dilīpa’s son Aṃśumān also did tapas for one lakh years and passed on.

Then came Bhagīratha, a great devotee of Viṣṇu and a jñānī (one with knowledge). He did tapas for one lakh years. Śrī Kṛṣṇa himself appeared to him as the Parabrahman, in the form of a youth (kiśora-mūrti) dressed in kośara robes, a cowherd youth. Brahmā and all the devas stood around him and served him.

Bhagīratha bowed to the ground in daṇḍavat praṇāma and told Kṛṣṇa his prayer. Kṛṣṇa called Gaṅgā, and she appeared before him with folded hands. Kṛṣṇa told Gaṅgā to go to Bhāratavarṣa, as Sarasvatī’s śāpa had said. She was to purify the sixty thousand sons of Sagara and give them all Vaikuṇṭha. He then described in detail the matchless glory of bathing in Gaṅgā.

The descent to Bhāratavarṣa

The Prakriti Khaṇḍa (Chapters 10–11) says that Gaṅgā went down to Bhāratavarṣa in her partial form (aṃśa-rūpa) as Bhāgīrathī. Her flow was so fast that the earth could not bear her. Paramaśiva took her on his head.

She purified the sixty thousand sons of Sagara. By the touch of her air (vāyu) alone, they were freed from their suffering. They rose to Nārāyaṇa’s loka in divine forms, in divine chariots.

After five thousand years of Kaliyuga, the śāpa was to end. Gaṅgā, Sarasvatī and Lakṣmī would then return to Vaikuṇṭha.

The glory of Gaṅgā-snāna

In the Prakriti Khaṇḍa (Chapter 10), Kṛṣṇa himself declared the glory (māhātmya) of Gaṅgā. Even an ordinary bath (mausala bath) on a common day removes the pāpa of a koṭi (ten million) births. A bath in Gaṅgā on an auspicious day gives results that even the Vedas cannot fully describe. The glory grows with the holy occasion.

• A bath at sūrya-saṃkramaṇa (the sun’s change of sign) gives thirty times the result of a bath on a common day.
• A bath on amāvāsyā (new moon day) equals a bath at sūrya-saṃkramaṇa.
• A bath at uttarāyaṇa is ten times better than a bath at dakṣiṇāyana.
• A bath on cāturmāsya pūrṇimā gives endless puṇya (ananta-puṇya).
• A bath on akṣaya tṛtīyā gives a result that even the Vedas cannot state.
• A bath at the time of a manvantara gives a hundredfold result.

A person who says “Gaṅgā, Gaṅgā” even from one hundred yojanas away is freed from all pāpa and reaches Viṣṇu-loka. A person who dies in Gaṅgā’s waters, or whose bones rest in her waters, stays in Vaikuṇṭha as long as those bones are there.

The devotees of Viṣṇu do not seek even these fruits. They bathe in Gaṅgā only as an act of devotion to Śrī Hari. They want nothing but his bhakti.

Dhyāna of Gaṅgā

The Prakriti Khaṇḍa (Chapter 10) gives the dhyāna in the kauthuma tradition. It describes Gaṅgā in this way.

• She is white as the campaka flower and born from Kṛṣṇa.
• She wears golden garments and ornaments of jewels (ratna-bhūṣaṇa).
• She is white as the full moon and is dear to Nārāyaṇa.
• She has all good fortune (sat-saubhāgya).
• Her hair-knot is woven with mālatī flowers.
• Her forehead has marks of sandal paste (candana) and sindūra.
• Her cheeks have kastūrī-patra designs.
• Her lips are red as the doṇḍa-phala, and her teeth are white as pearls.
• Her face is beautiful, and her lotus feet are adorned with jewelled ornaments.

The devas bow to those feet. Their mandāra garlands redden the feet with divine nectar.

Gaṅgā in the lokas and the yugas

The Prakriti Khaṇḍa (Chapter 10) says that Gaṅgā flows through every loka in a different size.

Her look changes in each yuga.

• In Satyayuga she is white as milk.
• In Tretā she has the brightness of the full moon.
• In Dvāpara she shines like sandal paste.
• In Kaliyuga she has the ordinary brightness of water.

The account in the Śrī Kṛṣṇa Janana Khaṇḍa

Chapter 34 of the Śrī Kṛṣṇa Janana Khaṇḍa of the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa gives another account of Gaṅgā’s origin. Śaṅkara played his divine instrument (jantra) in Vaikuṇṭhaloka. All the beings present took Rudra forms on their own, in an overwhelming bliss of devotion. The tears of divine bliss that flowed from Śaṅkara himself, in his joy of devotion at Vaikuṇṭha, became a divine river. That river was Gaṅgā. So she arose from Śiva’s own tears of bliss at Vaikuṇṭhaloka.

The Prakriti Khaṇḍa tells that Gaṅgā arose from Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa at Goloka. Both accounts are in the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa.

Five names of Gaṅgā

Chapter 34 gives five main names of Gaṅgā and what each name means.

1. Bhāgīrathī: she who was brought to earth by King Bhagīratha through his great tapas.
2. Gaṅgā: she who came from Vaikuṇṭhaloka, the home of Viṣṇu. The name means she who flows toward the divine realm.
3. Jāhnavī: the ṛṣi Jahnu drank her whole flow in anger. He let her out through his knee (jānu), so she is Jāhnavī.
4. Bhīṣmasuhṛ: she is the dear friend (suhṛ) of Bhīṣma. In some traditions she is his mother.
5. Tripathagāminī: she who flows through three worlds, which are svarga (the world above), mṛtyu (the earth) and pātāla (the world below).

Power to free, by nearness

Chapter 34 lists a growing power to free from pāpa, by how close one comes to Gaṅgā.

• Darśana (seeing Gaṅgā) removes the pāpa of many lives.
• Sparśa (touching her waters) removes the pāpa of seven lives.
• Snāna (bathing in her) removes the pāpa of one hundred lives.
• Pāna (drinking her water) removes the pāpa of one thousand lives.

Gaṅgā in Kali Yuga

Chapter 34 gives time limits for Gaṅgā in Kali Yuga. Her full māhātmya (glory that frees) lasts 5,000 years in Kali Yuga. The power of vigrahas (mūrtis in temples) and of the Purāṇas lasts 10,000 years in Kali Yuga.

The three Gaṅgās of the worlds

Chapter 34 names the three forms of this one river in the three realms.

1. Mandākinī: the Gaṅgā of svarga.
2. Gaṅgā or Alakānandā: the Gaṅgā of Bhūloka (the earth).
3. Bhogāvatī: the Gaṅgā of pātāla.

The first, celestial river at Vaikuṇṭhaloka, from which Gaṅgā came, is called the Ākāśagaṅgā. It is 1,000 yojanas deep and one lakh yojanas long.

Gaṅgā in the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa

The Bāla Kāṇḍa of the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa (Chapters 36–44) tells the Gaṅgāvatāraṇa, the coming down of Gaṅgā to earth. Viśvāmitra tells it to Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa on their journey through the northern lands.

Viśvāmitra says that Gaṅgā first flowed only in the divine realms above. She was the daughter of the great Himavān. When Bhagavān Śiva was doing tapas with Pārvatī on the Himālaya, Gaṅgā lived in the celestial realm.

Her coming down is joined with the great tapas of Bhagīratha. He did it to save the sixty thousand sons of Sagara, who had been burned to ash by the fire of the yoga-śakti of Kapila Maharṣi. Through Bhagīratha’s thousand years of tapas, Brahmā let Gaṅgā go from svarga. Bhagavān Śiva held her in his jaṭā to soften the earth-shaking force of her fall. Bhagīratha led her south on his chariot to the ocean, and from there to pātāla. Her holy waters touched the ash and freed all sixty thousand sons.

The Bāla Kāṇḍa also tells how she got the name Jāhnavī. Gaṅgā’s rushing stream flooded the yajña grounds of Jahnu Maharṣi. Jahnu drank all her waters in anger. The devas and Bhagīratha pleased Jahnu, and he gave way. He let Gaṅgā go from his ears. So she is also the daughter of Jahnu, and therefore Jāhnavī.

The Bāla Kāṇḍa also says that Gaṅgā flows through three worlds: as Mandākinī in svarga, as Gaṅgā on earth, and as Bhogavatī in pātāla. So she has the name Tripathagā, she who flows by three paths.

Gaṅgā’s grief for Bhīṣma

The Anuśāsana Parva of the Mahābhārata (Bhīṣma Svargārohaṇa Parva, Chapter 168) shows Gaṅgā as a mother. She grieves at the death of Bhīṣma, the son she bore to Śāntanu. Some traditions read the name Bhīṣmasuhṛ, “dear friend of Bhīṣma”, as a sign of this motherhood.

Bhīṣma left his body by yoga at Kurukṣetra, fifty-eight nights after he fell on the battlefield. The Pāṇḍavas burned his body. Then Gaṅgā Devī rose weeping from her own waters, full of grief (śoka). She spoke to the Kauravas who had gathered on her bank.

In a mother’s sorrow, she told of her son’s virtues. She spoke of his kṣatriya-dharma, his great devotion (bhakti) to his father, and his unbroken vows. She spoke of his fight with Paraśurāma, which ended with no defeat on either side. She spoke of how he alone defeated every king gathered at the svayaṃvara at Kāśī, and so won brides for his brothers. She cried that so mighty a hero had died at the hands of Śikhaṇḍī. She wondered that her own heart had not broken like glass when she heard it. She said her heart must be “made of vajra” (diamond) to have lived through the news.

Kṛṣṇa, called Dāmodara, comforted her. He said that Bhīṣma had gone, beyond doubt, to the best of worlds. Bhīṣma was one of the eight Vasus who had taken birth as a mortal under a śāpa, and he had now simply returned to his true nature. It was not a loss but a completion.

Kṛṣṇa also made a clear point for Gaṅgā. It was truly Arjuna (Dhanañjaya), not Śikhaṇḍī, whose arrows gave the deadly blows. Śikhaṇḍī’s presence only made Bhīṣma lower his bow, because his vow forbade him to fight one born female. The arrows that struck him down, shot from behind that shield, were Arjuna’s own. Not even Devendra could have felled him while he held his weapon. Kṛṣṇa also said that Bhīṣma went to svarga entirely by his own will (icchā).

Kṛṣṇa and Vyāsa together comforted Gaṅgā. She put her grief aside and went back into her own waters.

Sources

• Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Prakriti Khaṇḍa, Chapters 1, 6, 10, 11, 12
• Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛṣṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, Chapter 34
• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Bāla Kāṇḍa, Chapters 36–45
• Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, Sambhava Parva, Chapters 93–101
• Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīṣma Svargārohaṇa Parva, Chapter 168