43 - The Procedure of Worship of the Gañgã

Vasishtha said:

1. O leading king, on hearing the words of Vasu indicating the greatness of the Gañgâ, Mohini once again asked her Brahmana priest.

Mohinî said:

O Brähmana, everything auspicious, like the gift of a cow etc. has been heard by me. Now I wish to hear the excellent Gañgävrata (holy observance pertaining to the Gañgâ).

O Brahmana, O omniscient one, tell me what is the benefit of the worship of the Gañgã, etc. or its installation there? I seek refuge in you.

4. You alone are the bestower of salvation to me who am abandoned by my kinsmen. O Prominent one among the knowers or the learned, I am bereaved of my husband, nor have I any son.

5. I have sought refuge in you giving full credence and weight to the words of my father. Hence, holy sir, kindly narrate to me the way of propitiation of the deity along with the glorification of the Gañgä on hearing which everyone is absolved of his sins. I have bowed down to you.

Vasishtha said

6. O king, on hearing the words of Mohini, Vasu, the dignified Brâhmana, the foremost among the knowers of the Vedas, honoured Mohinï and said

Vasu said:

7-8a. “O gentle, lady, you have asked me pertinently, with the desire for the benefit of all the worlds. (I shall tell you) the greatness of the Gañgä completely. It is destructive of great sins.

8b-9a. Formerly, while residing on the bank of the Gañgä this was narrated out of mercy by the bull-bannered god Shiva when he was lovingly asked by his consort goddess Pârvatï.

9b-10. Food offering is taken in the forenoon by the Devas and at midday by the sages; in the afternoon by the Pitris and at night by the Guhyakas and others. It is excellent to take food at night after going beyond all other periods of times.

11. Begging alms is more excellent than observing fast. Taking unsolicited food is better than begging for alms. Taking food at night* is better than taking unsolicited food. Hence, one shall take food at night (when stars appear in the sky).

*Nakta is mainly the time when the stars appear in the sky—Hemädri on Kala, p. 114.

12. The devotee regularly practising Nakta (acceptance of food after appearance of stars in the evening) shall observe six things viz. partaking of Havishya, ablution, truthfulness, lightness of deity, holy rites in the fire, and sleeping below* (on the bare ground).

*Cf. Linga P, 1.10-12. Hemädri on Vrata I. p. 333. Smruti-kaustubha, p. II quota Gd. P.

13-14. The man who regularly practises this observance of Nakta shall do so in the month of Mâgha on the bank of the Gañgä. If he takes it near a Shiva temple, he shall take Krušhara with ghee. He shall offer Krusharanna as Naivedya (food offering) to Shiva. Observing Kashtamauna (the silence of a log of wood), he shall take food and avoid over-indulgence of the tongue.

15. He shall take food in the leafy cups of Palâšha tree. Conquering the sense-organs, he shall remember Shiva. He shall offer separate balls of rice to Dharmaräja and the goddess (Pârvatï).

16-17. On the Chaturdašhi (fourteenth) day in both the fortnights, he should observe fast. On the full moon day, the ablution of Šhiva must be performed severally with scents, Gañgâ water, milk, honey, ghee and curds. So also he must offer a golden flower on the head of the Liñga.

18. Then he should offer to the extent of his capacity, baked pies cooked in ghee. Taking an Ädhaka measure of gingelly seeds, he should put it upon the Shvaliñga.

19. The devotee should worship the lord of all by means of blue lotuses and lilies. If they are not available, he should worship Hara with golden lotuses.

20-21. With devotion, one should offer to Mahešha, milk pudding soaked in honey, agallochum accompanied by ghee, lamp wherein ghee is burned and smear with sandal-paste, etc. He should offèr leaves and fruits and dedicate a pair of black cows of handsome appearance.

22. At the end of a month he should feed eight Brähmanas and give them monetary gifts. For the whole of that month, he should avoid honey (wine) and flesh. He shall observe celibacy for the whole of that month.

23-24a If a person performs this holy rite even for once in the manner mentioned before, with faith and devotion, maintaining all observances and restraints, attains all the pleasures here and after death, he attains excellent salvation.

24b-27. He goes to the beautiful city of Šhiva accompanied by the members of his family, in aerial chariots resembling sapphire gems, full of divine jewels. Peacocks shall be yoked to them. Means of all divine pleasures will be present there. He shall be accompanied by different friends. Until the dissolution of all living beings, he will enjoy different kinds of desired pleasures. Thereafter, he becomes the righteous-souled ruler of Jambüdvïpa. Free from all sins, he will enjoy all sorts of pleasures.

28. Endowed with comely form and good fortune, exercising royal powers and free from all ailments, he too will enjoy this fruit.

29. Or on the fourteenth day, in the bright half of Vaishakha. he who with a concentrated mind observes the NaktaVrata should take at night food consisting of cóoked Shâli rice mixed with milk.

30-31. The devotee should worship Šhiva with flowers etc. and offer edibles as Naivedya. He should partake of the food with the silence of a log of wood. He should perform the rite of brushing the teeth silently with the twig of a banyan tree with purity of mind. He should sleep near the Šhivaliñga at night, on the banks of the river Gañgâ.

32. On the morning of the full-moon day (of Vaišhâkha) he should duly take bath in the Gañgä. He should perform the Samkalpa rite (formal declaration of the intention) for fast. On that night, he should keep awake.

33-34. He should perform ablution of the Liñga duly with ghee and worship it with flowers, scents, incense, lamps and food offerings. He should embellish a splendid bull with white flowers, cloths, etc. as well as powdered turmeric and sandal paste. He should duly dedicate it to Shiva.

35-36. He should feed Brähmanas with milk pudding in accordance with his capacity. He who performs thus with devotion and faith, even for once, undoubtedly obtains that merit which one gets after performing penance with due observances for one thousand seven hundred and fifty divine Yugas.

37-38a. He goes to Išhvara’s (god Shiva’s) palace along with his ancestors by means of aerial chariots that have the luster of swans and Kunda flowers that resemble the moon-chariots that are yoked with white bulls and embellished with clusters of pearls.

38b-39a. He enjoys different kinds of pleasures through beloved ladies of divine beauty, having the fragrance of blue lotuses. He will be surrounded by them.

39b-40. He will be blessed with prosperity and power for an indefinite period of time. He is born on the Earth as a king endowed with fame and prosperity. Under his single royal umbrella, he holds sway over the Earth.

41-42a. In the end, he gains detached outlook on life and regains the Gañgä. With that faith he courts death in the Gañgâ. He remembers the previous birth and certainly attains salvation.

42b-44. A man or a woman should observe the following holy rite with devotional feelings. On the tenth day in the bright half of the month of Jyishtha when associated with the constellation Hasta, the devotee should keep vigil at night on the banks of the river Gañgâ; with great faith he should worship the Gañgä with ten kinds of flowers and scents, ten varieties of fruits, ten different articles of Naivedyas and ten lights. He shall offer betel leaves too.

45-46a. After taking bath in the Gañgä with devotion the devotee should, w.th due formality, offer ten handfuls of black gingelly seeds with ghee into the water. He should also offer balls of ground flour of fried grains as well as those of Jaggery each being ten in number.

46b-49a. On the beautiful banks of the Gañgä, a mystic diagram of the lotus and Svastika should be drawn, over which a full water-pot should be placed. It must be covered with a cloth. Round the neck of the pot, a garland must be tied. An idol of the Gañgâ, in the form mentioned below, shall be made in gold or silver and placed over the pot. The devotee should worship the goddess (i.e. the divine Gañgä) thus. If gold or silver is not available, the image shall be made of clay. If the devotee is not able to make the clay idol, he shall draw the figure on the ground by means of flour dough.

49b-51. The form of the Gañgä for the idol as well as the picture is as follows: She has four arms. The eyes are beautiful. She has the lustre of ten thousand moons. She is being fanned with chowries. A white umbrella above her head embellishes her. She is delighted. Her innermost heart melts with pity. She is ready to grant boons. With nectarine juice, she has flooded the surface of the Earth. She is eulogised by the Devas and others. She is adorned with divine jewels. She has divine garlands and unguents.¹

1. Cf. Supra 41. 33-35.

52. After meditating on the goddess in the water in the manner mentioned before, the devotee should worship her in the objects used for worship (i.e. image or picture). He should observe a special worshipping rite with the following Mantra. (vide verse 66 below).

53. During the worship, the ablution of the deity with Pañchâmruta is specially recommended. Just in front of the image, the ground shall be scrubbed and smeared with cow-dung.

54-55. In accordance with his capacity the devotee should worship Nâràyana, Mahešha, Brahma, Bhâskara the sun, Bhagïratha the king, and the king of mountains, Himavân, by means of scents, fragrant flowers etc. To ten Bràhmanas he shall distribute ten Prastha measures of gingelly seeds.

56-57. Similarly, he should distribute ten Prastha measures of barley-grains to ten persons after mixing them with milk products. In accordance with his capacity, the devotee should cause the replicas of aquatic animals such as fish, tortoise, frog, (crocodiles), etc. made in gold or silver. If it is not available, he should make them out of flour dough. After worshipping these with flowers etc., the knower of the Mantras shall cast them into the Gañgä reciting the Mantra (in verse 66 below) in the meanwhile.

58. On the day of Rathayäträ (chariot procession), the devotee should make a replica of the Gañgä facing the north and riding a chariot, if he has the required affluence and means there.

59. Rare indeed is the vision of the Gañgä going round in procession in the case of men of evil deeds. Just as there is the chariot procession of Durgã; this procession too should be conducted in the same manner.

60. After observing all the rites thus, in accordance with the injunction, the devotee should avoid stinginess in the matter of expense. Thereby he is immediately liberated from the ten kinds of sins mentioned below.

61-63. * Among them there are three types of physical sins viz. a) as taking away what is not voluntarily given, b) killing, etc. without scriptural sanction and c) enjoying another man’s wife carnally. There are four types of verbal sins viz. (i) harsh words (ii) false-hood (iii) back-biting in all its modes and (iv) irrelevant speech. There are three kinds of mental sins viz. a) wistful contemplation of another man’s wealth, b) thinking ill of others mentally and c) futile ardour and yearning.

*Quoted from Manu XII 5-7.

64. The devotee will be liberated from ten types of sins accumulated in the course of crores of births. There is no doubt about it so far as the utterance of Brahma goes.

65. (The Gañgä) worshipped with the following Mantra does redeem from worldly existence, forty earlier generations and forty subsequent generations.

66-67. The Mantra is “Om namo dašha-haräyai Näräyanyai Gañgäyai namah” — “Om obeisance to Dašhaharã (remover of tenfold ills), to Nãräyani, to Gañgã.” He who repeats this Mantra five thousand times within a day and a night, on the day of the chariot procession, shall attain the fruit of ten kinds of Dharmas (?). He shall redeem from the ocean of worldly existence ten earlier generations and ten subsequent generations.

68. The following hymn should be taken up for repetition on that day. The devotee should, thereafter, proceed ahead with the worship of Vishnu.

Hymn to Gañgä¹

1. Here Gangå is identified with the supreme Deity. Hence, many epithets of the river Gäñgä remind one of Vedäntic Hymns.

69. Om obeisance to Šhivä, the Gañgä, the bestower of auspicious things. Obeisance be to you. Hail be to the deity of the form of Vishnu. Obeisance, Obeisance be to you the Gañgä.

70.Bow to the deity, the embodiment of all Devas; obeisance to the deity of the form of medicine; Hail to you, O most excellent physician of all ailments of everyone.

71. Obeisance be to you; O queller of poisons originating from mobile and immobile beings; obeisance, obeisance to the destroyer of the poison of worldly existence; obeisance to the enlivener.

72. Repeated bows to the remover of the three types of miseries of human beings, to the Išhvari (controller) of vital breaths. Obeisance to you, the remover of distress, the bestower of calmness and peace; obeisance to you the omni formed one.

73. Hail to the purifier of all for liberation from sins; obeisance to the deity bestowing worldly pleasures and salvation. obeisance, obeisance to the deity possessing pleasures.

74. Bow to you, the Mandäkinï (i.e. heavenly Gañgä); obeisance, obeisance to the bestower of heavenly pleasures; obeisance to the embodied form of the set of the three worlds; obeisance, obeisance to the divine one.

75. Hail to you stationed in Šhukla (i.e. Shiva); obeisance, obeisance to the possessor of well-being; Bow to you the divinity stationed in the seats of the Devas. Hail to you the possessor of brilliance.

77. Salutations to the slow-moving river, to the bearer of the Liñga, to Närâyani. Obeisance to you who are friendly to the universe. Obeisance to you, O Revatï.

77. Obeisance always to you of huge size. Salutations to the support of all the worlds, Obeisance to you the chief one in the universe. Repeated bow to you Nandini (the delighter).

78. Obeisance to the large one, the auspicious one and to the immoral one; salutations to the Pure one, devoid of dust (sin); obeisance to the deity whose access is both far and near. Obeisance, obeisance to the redeeming divinity.

79. Obeisance to you who abide in the heaven; salutations to the non-different, to the unsplit divinity. Obeisance to the quiescent one; bow to you the stable foundation; obeisance, obeisance to you the bestower of these boons.

80. Obeisance to the fierce one. Obeisance to one who prattles with her mouth (?); salutations to the enlivener; obeisance to one who goes to the Brahman; obeisance to one who bestows the Brahman; obeisance, obeisance to the destroyer of sins.

81. Bow to the queller of the anguish of those who bow down; salutations to the mother of the universe; obeisance to, Vilusha (one who injures (the wicked); obeisance to the remover of difficulties; repeated obeisance to the efficient one.

82-83. Obeisance to one who is antagonistic to all miseries; repeated obeisance to the auspicious deity. O greatest deity, greater than the greatest, obeisance to you, O bestower of salvation for ever. May Gañgâ be in front of me; may Gañgä be at my sides. May Gañgà be all round me; O Gañgä, may my existence be in you. You are at the beginning. You are in the end; you are in the middle, you are everything. O auspicious deity who have descended on the Earth.

84. You alone are the primordial Prakruti; you are lord Näräyana. O Gañgä, you are the great Ätman; you are Shiva. Obeisance, obeisance to you.”

85-87. He who recites this hymn every day with devotion or listens to this with faith, is liberated from the tenfold defects, physical and verbal. The patient will be liberated from the ailment and the unlucky from miseries and mishaps. He is liberated from the enemies, from the bondage and fears. He attains all desires. After death he gets absorbed into the Brahman.

88. There is no fear from arson, larceny or sinful activities in the house where this hymn is written down and is honoured.

89-90. A person who stands in the waters of the Gañgä and repeats this hymn ten times on the Dašhami (tenth) day whether he is indigent or incompetent, shall after worshipping the Gañgä with devotion, attain the benefit that is mentioned in case of the worship performed in accordance with the procedure laid down above.

91. Just as Gaurï, so also is the Gañgä. Hence the procedure laid down for the worship of Gaurï should be followed in the case of the worship of the Gañgä too.

92. Just as Shiva so also is Vishnu; Just as Vishnu so also Umä; just as Umä so also is the Gañgä. There is no difference and distinction among them.

93. He who advocates that there is difference between Vishnu and Rudra, that there is difference between Gañgä and Gaurï, and that there is difference between Lakshmî and Gauri, is a man of confounded intellect.¹

1. The NP, though a Vaishnava Puräna, always advocates the oneness between Shiva and Vishnu and other deities. He emphasizes ekam sat (Reality is one).

94. It is the blessed men on the Earth who cast off their body by the day-time in the bright half of a month in the Gañgä during the Uttarayana (during the transit of the sun in the northern hemisphere), while Janârdana is abiding in the heart meditate upon him as such.

95. O daughter of Brahma, those men who leave off their vital breaths by casting their bodies into the Gañgã go to the world of Vishnu eulogised by those who are domiciled in the heaven.

96. (?) He who dies partially due to observance of fast and partially due to being drowned in the Gañgä, is not reborn. He attains Sãyujya (identity) with the Brahman.

97. The embodied being that casts off its vital breaths (dies by throwing himself) in the Gañgä has the same salvation as that of an intelligent being endowed with Sattva guna and Yogic practice.

98. The man who takes up the vow of abstaining from taking food and dies on the banks of the Gañgà, attains in fact the greatest world along with the Pitris (his ancestors).

99-101a. (?) If an intelligent man desires to abandon his vital breath by dying in the Gañgã but many births pass by and he meets his deaths here and there and at different places but not in the Gañgä, or many days elapse as he goes here and there and does not reach it (it does not matter. He will have the benefit). Even if he dies two Yojanas away, it is as beneficial as dying nearby or in the Gañgä itself. No doubt need be entertained in this respect.

101b-102a. Whether with the perfect knowledge or without it, whether with desire or without desire, the man who dies in the Gañgä attains heavenly pleasures and salvation.

102b-103. Whilst dying, if a man remembers the Gañgâ or touches it, he attains the greatest salvation even if he is a habitual sinner.

104. Those intelligent men (self-possessed ones) by whom the physical body is cast off after going off to the Gañgã attain equality with the Devas. Hence, one shall reasoningly eschew all other means of bestowing liberation and resort to the Gañgâ till one’s body falls.

105. He who dies in the firmament on the Earth or in the water, attains the everlasting region worthy of being honoured by Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.

106. He who is righteous, is alive, who is pure and honoured by good men and who mentally thinks of the Gañgä, attains the greatest salvation.

107.Wherever one may die, if one devoutly remembers the Gañgã when death is imminent, one goes to the city pertaining to Shiva or to Vishnu.

108. The Gañgã came out of the cluster of the matted hair of Šhambhu, that is very rough and hard. It flowed over the sons of Sagara who were sinners and led them to the heaven.

109. A man is honoured in the heavenly world as many thousands of years as the number of his bones that are cast in the Gañgã.¹

1. The same as Matsya 106.52, Kürma I. 37.32; NP supra 1. 15.163.

110. A man’s stay in the heavenly world begins from the moment when his bones are cast off into the waters of the Gañgâ by other men.

111. If the bones of any one of auspicious rites are taken to the Gañgâ water, he does not at all return from the world of Brahma.

112. If any one’s bones are cast off into the Gañgä water within the ten days (from his death), he attains a benefit similar to that of the death within the Gañgà.

113-115. The son (or others who perform the obsequies) should take bath and sprinkle Pañchagavya on the bones. He should then place them in a basket or casket along with the gold, honey, ghee and gingelly seeds. Facing the quarter frequented by the groups of ghosts (i.e. the south) he shall repeat this— “Obeisance be to Dharma”. Thereafter he, should enter the water and saying “He was dear to me,” cast off the bones. He should take bath once again and visit the Akshayavata (the everlasting holy banyan tree). Then he should give away the religious monetary gifts. When this is done the dead man detained in the city of the dead, shall go to the heaven and have a position similar to Indra (the king of gods).²

2. This is the procedure of costing-off bones of the deceased relative in the Gañgä. Cf. the procedure described in the Brahma P. and quoted in Tïrtha-Chintämani, pp. 265-266.

116. Nârâyana is the lord of the place by the current of water on the one hand and a place of four Hastas away on the other hand. No one else can ever be the lord of that place.

117-118. No one shall accept Pratigraha (monetary gift) in that region (where Nãräyana is the lord) even if the vital breaths have reached the throat i.e. even when death is imminent.). The water level reached on the fourteenth day in the bright half of the month of Bhàdrapada is called Garbha.

The distance covered by Garbha is called Tira (bank, shore). “The distance of hundred and fifty Hastas is called Garbha (or the bed of the river). Beyond that is the Tira.”¹

1. Quoted by Tïrtha-Chintamani, p. 266.

119-121, O gentle lady, this is the opinion of some and it is approved of in the Šhrutis and Smrutis. The distance of a Gavyüti (six kms) around the Tira is called Kshetra (sacred area or field). One should eschew the Tira and reside in the kshetra. Residence in the Tira is not advisable. The limiting boundary of the Kshetra extends to one Yojana from either bank. All the sins never transgress the boundary of the Gañgä. On seeing it, the sins run away like the forest-dwellers (or the animals) on seeing the lion.

122. O excessively blessed lady, the space of three Yojanas on either side of the Gañgä should be known as Siddhakshetra. It was here that Rama and Shambhu had their penance groves.

123. No man shall accept Pratigraha (monetary gift) in a holy centre or in the sacred temples. A man shall abstain from it under all circumstances (i.e. even when there are justifiable reasons).

124. The holy centre is of no avail (i.e. ceases to be so) to one who accepts Pratigraha in the holy centre or in sacred temples as long as that money is retained by him.

125. O gentle lady, by selling the Gañgä, one becomes (guilty) of selling (god) Vishnu. When Janârdana is sold, all the three worlds are sold.

126. He who applies the clay taken up from the banks of the Gañgä on his head assumes the form of the sun for the destruction of darkness.

125. A man shall spread the dust particles taken from the banks of the Gañgâ and place the balls of rice for his Pitris. He shall thus propitiate them and lead them to heaven.

128. O gentle lady, thus the excellent greatness of the Gañgä has been recounted to you. A man who reads this or listens to this attains the greatest region of Vishnu.

129. O daughter of Brahmä, this section is to be repeated every day with devotion by persons who are pure, endowed with faith and who wish for salvation leading to the region of Vishnu or Shiva.