In India,
a river is a mini-cosmos in concept. Every river is a mother deity who spawns
mythology, art, dance, music, architecture, history and spirituality. Each one
has a clear identity, appearance, value, style and spirit just like a beautiful
woman. In every age, diverse human communities have reinvented themselves on
river-banks with fascinating nuances….
“Her shimmering gold-and-white garments dazzle like a
thousand suns. The jewels in her crown shine like the crescent moon. Her
smiling face lights up the whole world. In her hands, she carries a pot of
nectar, a symbol of immortality. Her lotus-fresh presence brings a sense of
purity and joy to all beings….” At first glance, this reads like an
over-the-top flowery description of a beautiful woman coined by some besotted
lover. But to those conversant with the fascinating river-lore of India, this is the mythical portrayal of the
River Ganga, written by Sage Valmiki, author of India’s immortal epic Ramayan. It
describes the celestial Ganga as she descends
from the heavens to the earth to bring salvation to mankind. This story, known
as Gangāvataran, is such a
fundamental tenet of Indian culture that it has held countless generations of
Indians in awe for millenniums. The Ganga,
arguably the most picturised and written-about river in the world, has been
called the Mother of India’s Spirituality and has been immortalized in
sculpture, art, literature, poetry, music and dance.
Following her descent to the mortal world to sanctify
human efforts to attain salvation, the Ganga
is perceived as mokshdāyini, the
Mother Goddess whose waters bring relief from sin, sorrow and suffering. To
wit, through the millenniums, the river’s banks have been hallowed by a galaxy
of saints and seers who either meditated or built great institutions of
spiritual research and teachings on her embankments. Great poetic works,
including Tulsidas’s Ramcharit Manas,
which continues to run in the veins of Indians for centuries, were written
alongside her tranquil flow in Varanasi.
Great cities like Haridwar, Rishikesh, Prayag and Varanasi were built on her banks and these have
become famous centres of art, music, textile weaving, literature and every
other artistic endeavour apart from spiritual pursuits. Haridwar and Prayag are
the sites of gigantic Kumbh Melas, which celebrate the relentless search of
human beings for immortality through the mythical pot of nectar, a motif that
repeats itself constantly in Indian mythology. From India’s
prehistoric ages, the Ganga, with her myriad tributaries, has not only been the
harbinger of rich harvests in India’s
plains, but also the precious lifeline of India’s cultural heritage.
However, Ganga is not the only river in India
to be given pride of place in the hearts of its millions. For millenniums,
Indians have worshipped seven holy rivers that crisscross the sub-continent,
fertilising its sprawling plains and watering its misty mountains and lush
forests. These are the Ganga, the Yamuna, the invisible Saraswati, the Narmada,
the Godavari, the Kaveri and the Sindhu. Since
the Sindhu now flows through Pakistan,
the Krishna has been added to the list of the sacred rivers of India.
Each of these rivers has a unique persona and quality attached to it. While the
Ganga is shimmering white-and-gold and represents purity or salvation (Moksha),
the Yamuna is blue like Krishna, who was born in Mathura, a holy city on her banks. Like him,
she represents romance (Shringar). The legendary Saraswati, white and elegant
like a swan, is now extinct and is called the river of knowledge (Vidya), being
associated with Brahma, the creator of the universe. The dark and elusive
Narmada, rising in the Vindhya-Satpura range in Central India, meets the
Arabian Sea in Gujarat. With few, if any,
tributaries, the Narmada is often referred to
as the virgin river associated with the quality of detachment and surrender (Vairagya).
The Godavari, rising in Gangadwar near Nashik in Maharashtra, flows eastwards
to the Bay of Bengal. She is the saffron river
of devotion (Bhakti), sanctified by the presence of Ram, Sita and Lakshman, who
spent much of their exile years from Ayodhya in the forests along the river.
Kaveri, the silvery river of wisdom (Dnyan or Gyan), flows from the Sahyadri
Hills in Karnataka to the Bay of Bengal
through Tamil Nadu. The Krishna, flowing from the Sahyadri Hills in
Mahabaleshwar to the Bay of Bengal is green
and represents courage and valour (Shourya).
The quality and appearance associated each of these
seven rivers have such a strong influence on the Indian psyche, that history,
architecture, art, music and dance and even social movements show their impact.
Each river represents a specific colour and image and Indian scriptures weave
innumerable legends around them.
The Yamuna is deeply entrenched in the wonderful saga
of the birth and childhood of Krishna. Krishna
was born in Mathura,
a holy city on the banks of the Yamuna and taken across the raging river on a
rain-stormy night to Gokul, to be raised by his foster parents Nand and
Yashoda. Here, in the pastoral ambience of fragrant gardens and bowers, he grew
up as the divine child among cowherds and milkmaids. He romanced with the
milkmaids in his Raas Leela on moonlit nights on the banks of the Yamuna and
gamboled in her dark waters every day of his life. Yamuna, having touched the
blue-toned Krishna, herself became blue in
colour in all her portrayals. So also, Krishna
being the epitome of romance and love, Yamuna became the river of romance. She
was named as his “consort” in Madhurabhakti—a religious cult concurrent with
Sufism. Both philosophies decree that “a devotee has only to raise the veil of
ignorance to face divinity”. The veiled Yamuna, clad in blue and purple robes
and carrying lotuses in her hands, became the Maharani of Krishna, the beloved
devotee of his wondrous miracles in Gokul. Through the ages, the portrayals of
Yamuna, including a huge number of miniature paintings, showed a distinct Sufi
influence. As the Maharani of Krishna, she became the eternal bride. Even
today, thousands of years later, pilgrims and devotees who trek to Yamunotri—the
origin of the river in the Himalayas—offer her bridal fineries with chunris,
bangles, tikas and other ornaments.
As she descends into the plains in Himachal Pradesh,
Paonta Sahib, the Gurudwara built by Guru Gobind Singh, stands majestically on
her banks. Here, legend says, the 10th Guru of the Sikhs, lost his paonta or
anklet in the river while bathing. Nearby, the TonsRiver,
joining the Yamuna, creates the romantic spectacle of Sahasradhara, where a
thousand streams dance down the rocky landscape to create a visual wonder.
Further down her flow, the awesome Taj Mahal, the world’s most resplendent
monument, stands on the banks of the Yamuna as a testimony to her romantic
personality. The Yamuna merges into the Ganga
in Prayag.
The Saraswati, confluencing with the Ganga
and Yamuna in Prayag, has been extinct for ages, though she continues to live
in the hearts of Indians. Ever since India
attained Independence, teams of archeological
researchers have made relentless efforts to excavate several regions of India
to find its now-barren bed. Various experts have wagered the guess that she
flowed westward from the Himalayas and emptied into the Arabian Sea in Gujarat. Yet, those who wish to seek knowledge and find
her origin continue the search for the elusive river. Today, only a roaring
torrent named Saraswati can be seen in Mana village near Badrinath in the Himalayas, where she meets the Alaknanda at Keshav
Prayag.
The Ganga, the Yamuna
and the Saraswati represent the trinity of divinities in Indian culture.
Saraswati is Brahma, the creator; Yamuna is Vishnu, the sustainer, and Ganga is Shiva, the destroyer. But most important, this
divine trinity is seen as ‘one’ in the confluence of the three rivers at
Prayag.
The Narmada has been named the most beautiful river of India by Western travellers like Bill
Aitken in his book The Seven Sacred
Rivers. Deep, dark and mysterious, the Narmada flows from Amarkantak in the
central mountain ranges of India
to the Arabian Sea. The forests on her banks
are dotted with quaint temple-heritage cities and tribal villages. The river,
symbolizing detachment (Vairagya) and surrender, attracts devotees who do the Parikrama
or circumambulation of its flow from its origin to its emptying in the sea and
back—a distance of 917 kilometres. Pilgrims need more than a year to complete
this journey on foot. Describing the dense riverside landscape, they record
that on silent nights, as they lie down in the forest groves, they often hear
miraculous strains of flutes resonating in the stillness. This ‘music’ is
caused by the wind rushing through holes made by birds in the clumps of bamboos
which line the river in some areas. On the banks of the Narmada
are heritage cities like Mandu, where the tragic love story of the Hindu
dancing girl-turned-queen Rani Roopmati and her Muslim poet-emperor husband Baz
Bahadur unfolded. Legend says that Roopmati gave up her life by drinking poison
rather than be abducted by the king’s lustful enemies. On Narmada’s banks too,
stands Maheshwar, the beautiful city built by Rani Ahilayabai, the celebrated
Maharani of Indore, who repaired thousands of temples across India, giving up her royal wealth.
The Godavari, rising
in Gangadwar near Nashik, represents devotion and its traditional colour:
saffron. On her banks are several legendary monuments dedicated to Ram, Sita
and Lakshman in addition to the Jyotirlinga temple of Trimbakeshwar.
Nasik is also
the site of the Kumbha Mela, which has been named the biggest bathing festival
on earth! The Godavari brings fertility to the plains of peninsular India and
is worshipped as the symbol of single-minded devotion to divinity.
The silvery Kaveri flows through the scenic forested
slopes of the Sahyadri and Nilgiri ranges. The river of wisdom, she is referred
to as the Dakshina Ganga or the Ganga of the
South. Sanctified by presence of Adi Shankaracharya, the greatest
philosopher-seer of India,
the Kaveri is the blessing of South India as she originates in Talaikaveri and
flows through Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to empty into the Bay
of Bengal. Through the past ages, the banks of the Kaveri have
attracted great poets, writers, saints and philosophers who have sought to
interpret the many-splendoured culture and spiritual wisdom of India.
Finally, the River Krishna, symbolizing valour, rises
in the boulder-strewn, verdant hills of Mahabaleshwar, and flows through
Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, bringing plentitude to her basin, before
meeting the Bay of Bengal in the east.
Krishna, through the eyes of her undulating green waters, has witnessed many
epoch-making chapters of India’s
history. The earliest historical reference to this river is as Kannavenna, the
southern boundary of the Mauryan Samrat Ashoka’s vast empire in 236 B.C. With a
strategy of peace, non-violence and unparalleled valour, Ashoka ruled his great
empire to become one of the world’s tallest grand monarchs. The Vijayanagar
Empire flourished on her banks in the 13th century and unfolded a golden era of
India’s
history. From the 17th century, the Marathas, led by Chhatrapati Shivaji,
fought many a battle to free India
from the clutches of the Moghuls. The Peshwas of Maharashtra built grand
monuments and temples on her banks, which even today attract a procession of
Bollywood producers to exploit the locations!
Rivers have been the lifelines of India’s ancient, pulsating,
throbbing civilization. They have brought prosperity, culture, style, colour,
values, wisdom, devotion, knowledge, romance, wonder and above all, a priceless
spiritual heritage to the people of India for thousands of years!
In the modern era, should we worship highways which have taken over the ancient role played by rivers?
The subtle point I am trying to make is that other religions also propound this river worship tradition. In the light of Sri Aurobindo's teaching, how is the physical Ganga river relevant today? Does bathing in the Ganga really erase my sins?
Ancient Egypt
To define ancient Egyptian religion is not easy for, as Egyptologists have been at pains to point out, the religion incorporated a bewildering range of practices, from the worship of the Sun, the Moon and the stars, to Nile worship, animism, fetishism and magic.
The Euphrates river is "the river" and "the great river" of the Bible. it is named as one of the rivers of Eden. The root of the word "Euphrates" is "Pehrat" which means "to break forth and abound."
Rev 9:14-16 14 saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates." 15 So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. 16 Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. (NKJ)
Rev 16:12 "Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared." (NKJ)
The Prophet said: "What is the reward for reading the Chapter of Oneness?" The answer came: "The angels will give him to drink from the four heavenly rivers that are mentioned in the Holy Koran: the river of pure crystal water, the river of milk, the river of wine, and the river of honey."
I dont think the author is saying that rivers are important only to Indian culture or Hinduism. And I am not sure the links you have provided show in any substantial way that rivers were as important to others as they were to Indian spirituality and culture. The article seems to suggest not only that rivers were the basis of commerce and life but that they were the very life-blood and sap of Indian civilization. They were even seen as embodiments of gods and godesses. The Nile no doubt sustained the Egyptian civilization but was never so intrinsic, it seems to me, to all aspects of egyptian life, forklore, poetry, literature, romanticism, and spirituality as Indian rivers seems to have been. I could be wrong but I see nothing to contradict this possibility here.
We dont have to worship rivers anymore (or start to worship highways) but we could know more about how they shaped India and continue to link ourselves in emotional and intellectual ways to them. These are some of the things that tie people to a Nation and evoke lofty emotions in them. Perfectly acceptable to me!
Well said, but let me add something about what Sri Aurobindo calls the subtle body or sukshma sharira of a country. When we talk of sujalam-suphalal, that is, a land with “hurrying streams and orchard gleams” we’ve a whole psychological history of the country in it. The rivers and mountains carry it, convey it:
Our personality, our constitution is made up of three parts. We have three types of body, gross, subtle-physical, and causal. In a similar way the nation has three bodies. According to our philosophy it is not just the outward appearance, of the gross body, that makes a complete man. All the three bodies have to be taken into account; only then can we get some understanding about him. As in the case of man, so in the case of a nation. To think about our nation is first to think about our motherland. Stretching from the Himalayas in the north to Kanyakumari in the south, its boundaries are formed by the seas in the East and the West. Ganga, Jamuna, Narmada, Krishna, Godavari flow here unceasingly; here we have ancient cities, tall and imposing temples as well as artistically constructed palatial houses. Such is the part of this earth, known as India. It is that picture, that figure which comes in front of us when we talk about our nation. This is the gross body of our nation. Bankimchandra’s song Bande Mataram describes this aspect very beautifully,—33 crores of peoples living on this land with their happinesses and afflictions, with their good and bad desires. All these are a part of its subtle-physical. These are the aspects which, though may undergo changes in the course of time, yet always remain in the body; in the seed state, as permanent as the atom. They are present there and, being the origin, it is out of them that the future takes shape. This is the causal body of the nation. But that is not enough. According to our scriptures when we think of man, we not only think of the present but also of the past and the future. The same is applicable to a country. When we speak of rivers, mountains, cities, etc. of our country we do not keep in mind solely the present, not at all. What we speak of is the history of 5000 years. Does not the figure of Emperor Akbar stand in front of us when we utter the names of our cities Delhi or Agra? That is why we must, while speaking about the nation, also recollect the great achievements of our ancient people.
Let us visit Hardwar for instance to experience the ancient richness of the Ganges.
I do not deny that Nature can provide inspiration and emotional upliftment for the human soul. (Thoreau's Walden pond or Twain's Life on the Mississippi). But the human constitution tends to place great religious stress on the cultural artifacts to which it has been exposed since childhood, even if their value is unproven or dubious. My fear is that weaker minds can succumb to this vital romanticism and do the unthinkable.
Since Sri Aurobindo has already been appropriated in this thread, I will use Tagore in my defense :-)
Isaiah Berlin summarizes well Tagore's complex position on Indian nationalism:
Tagore stood fast on the narrow causeway, and did not betray his vision of the difficult truth. He condemned romantic overattachment to the past, what he called the tying of India to the past "like a sacrificial goat tethered to a post," and he accused men who displayed it - they seemed to him reactionary - of not knowing what true political freedom was, pointing out that it is from English thinkers and English books that the very notion of political liberty was derived. But against cosmopolitanism he maintained that the English stood on their own feet, and so must Indians. In 1917 he once more denounced the danger of ‘leaving everything to the unalterable will of the Master,' be he brahmin or Englishman.
One more passage worth noting
We who often glorify our tendency to ignore reason, installing in its place blind faith, valuing it as spiritual, are ever paying for its cost with the obscuration of our mind and destiny. I blamed Mahatmaji for exploiting this irrational force of credulity in our people, which might have had a quick result [in creating] a superstructure, while sapping the foundation. Thus began my estimate of Mahatmaji, as the guide of our nation, and it is fortunate for me that it did not end there.
The link opens to Amartya Sen’s views. Considering Sen’s known antipathy to nationalism and the greater likelihood of Sen accepting Tagore (than say Sri Aurobindo) for obvious reasons, I am not sure if I can be totally guided by them in this matter especially since I have not researched Tagore views on the subject myself. I am also a little confused as to what Tagore is referring to (if that is indeed his quote) when he talks of “leaving everything to the unalterable will of the Master” in the same breath as nationalism. Sounds to me like he is talking of Karma and not nationalism since the nationalists act and don’t leave much to the will of the Master.
But I can see and fully agree with your point that there might be those who would get swept away by excessive sentiment and overattachment even if I don’t understand what the "unthinkable" is that we need to be so petrified of. At the same time, we can’t ignore all those who relate to the land and its rivers in an enlightened way and ask them to restrain themselves in the name of "reason" to the point of becoming unemotional and unfeeling (that too is a risk) and just to avoid triggering unbridled emotions in the weaker-minded. This would be how the US (and India too) operates in its society – by bringing everything down to the lowest common denominator in the name of freedom, intellect, democracy and equal rights. Instead of trying to raise people up to the highest ideals it lowers everything to the lower rungs. Little wonder, Sri Aurobindo is more appealing to them when he is brought down from the high perches where the unintellectual Indians put him!
I think though that even the so-called "weaker minds" help build (and defend) a young nation like India - not all things will be done in an enlightened way at first but people will ultimately become more conscious. India needs their passion and strength too to build, solidify, and define itself. A lot of mistakes will be made but that's evolution and time must be given to all. US liberals are extremely restless people and after having had almost an eternity for acquiring (!) and settling their own country do not wish to give India (and other countries) even a century to settle itself - that's very unfair and selfish. It's not as if their own people after many centuries are free of the raw passion that they have always possessed for their land, culture, and ideals.
Moreover, to get back, India's rivers are as important to the present and the future as they have been to the past. Tie-ing oneself to the past is not advisable if it only means getting lost in it. But keeping oneself aware and proud of one's history and culture, while actively working for the future, is in keeping with some of the highest ideals one can list. There is a huge difference in the passions that Gandhi evoked in his masses and the lofty emotions that Sri Aurobindo raised by his writings. For eg.
Love has a place in politics, but it is the love for one's country, for one's countrymen, for the glory, greatness and happiness of the race, the divine aananda of self-immolation for one's fellows, the ecstacy of relieving their sufferings, the joy of seeing one's blood flow for country and freedom, the bliss of union in death with the fathers of the race.
The feeling of almost physical delight in the touch of the mother soil, of the winds that blow from Indian seas, of the rivers that stream from Indian hills, in the sight of Indian surroundings, Indian men, Indian women, Indian children, in the hearing of Indian speech, music, poetry, in the familiar sights, sounds, habits, dress, manners of our Indian life, this is the physical root of that love [of Mother India]. The pride in our past, the pain of our present, the passion for the future are its trunk and branches.
Self-sacrifice, self-forgetfulness, great service and high endurance for the country are its fruit.
And the sap which keeps it alive is the realisation of the Motherhood of God in the country, the vision of the Mother, the knowledge of the Mother, the perpetual contemplation, adoration and service of the Mother.- Sri Aurobindo (On Nationalism, pp. 360-364)
. At the same time, we can’t ignore all those who relate to the land and its rivers in an enlightened way and ask them to restrain themselves in the name of "reason" to the point of becoming unemotional and unfeeling (that too is a risk) and just to avoid triggering unbridled emotions in the weaker-minded.
>>... Tagore condemned romantic over-attachment to the past, what he called the tying of India to the past "like a sacrificial goat tethered to a post"... >>
This is perfectly understandable from a certain point of view, although it sounds a bit simplistic if not reactionary and also cheap. But when the past is offered in the Yajna of the Future what shines out in its fire is the pure gold of the spirit. The dead mass that gets accumulated around it has got to be disposed of, and there cannot be a second view about it; but that does not mean that what is true and authentic in it should also be discarded. There is the decline, there is the glāni, and it is not that which should discolour our perspective of things. The values of the spirit are always enduring and they have to be always cherished. If we have to recover them we must re-live in their greatness which itself will show the way of the future. The Indian tradition is to create traditions in the dynamism of the spiritual possibilities which also derive to an extent their nourishment from the earlier traditions, not only Indian but also from elsewhere—because they are well-founded on the fundamentals of the life of the spirit.
>>Does bathing in the Ganga really erase my sins?>>
You take a dip mid-stream in the Ganga chanting the sacred mantras, and all your sins are washed out. But, as Ramakrishna said, when you come back to the shore they are already there waiting your arrival! When you surrender to the Guru completely, he wipes away all your past karmas. That is grace indeed, grace that runs like the crystal stream of the Ganges in the lower Himalayas. However, there is a responsibility also on you, an onus that you do not pick up fresh karmas; these are more difficult to get rid of. When you move out of the protection of the Guru he also becomes kind of helpless—because he would not impose himself on you in any way.
>>The Godavari, rising in Gangadwar near Nashik, represents devotion and its traditional colour: saffron. On her banks are several legendary monuments dedicated to Ram, Sita and Lakshman in addition to the Jyotirlinga temple of Trimbakeshwar. Nasik is also the site of the Kumbha Mela, which has been named the biggest bathing festival on earth! The Godavari brings fertility to the plains of peninsular India and is worshipped as the symbol of single-minded devotion to divinity. >>
Rivers of India are not masses of waters flowing from the source to the sink. They carry not only cultural-occult-spiritual powers with them; they are living embodiments of the higher powers of life, of the spirit. Many of these might sound mythologies to the stiff modern mind; but that is its problem. Just to give one example. Ekanath the Marathi saint (1533-99) who lived at Paiţhan on the banks of the Godavari, and who had prepared the critical edition of Jnaneshwar’s magnum opus, Jnaneshewari, used to give religious discourses at the temple in the town there. There used to be regular attendance of the local devotees when they noticed also among them one young and fair lady present with them. They got more and more curious about her and asked the saint regarding that new comer. In the beginning he refused to speak anything, but with their insistence he later revealed that it was the Spirit of the Godavari River who used to be present for the discourses.
Such are the things which make the rivers and temples of India something different generally from such places elsewhere; or maybe they also have a history charged with such presences, which I don’t know if we can associate with corporate establishments for whom the Freeways run. Can we say anything similar to that about, say, Freeway one-o-one running from North to South on the Western coast of the US? I got a feeling of the Rocky Mountains being “hollow” in spite of their great perfection and beauty and massiveness—hollow because no tapas has been done there, where no genuine spirituality is practised. Maybe this is one extreme view, but perhaps in it is also the element of truth which is pretty obvious.
Regarding the spirit of rivers, I found Sujata's experience in the Agenda April 22 1970
And you (to Sujata), do you have something to say?
Very often, afterwards when I am in front of you, I feel...
I can't hear.
After Satprem leaves, I come and do my pranam. [[Generally, when Satprem leaves at the end of the conversation, Sujata remains alone with Mother for a few moments. ]] Then, in front of your gaze, my true inner being seems to come to the front.
Yes.
And curiously, I have the sensation of a force of... Do you know the Ganges, the goddess Ganga? I feel an affinity with her.
With the river?
With that goddess.
Well, that's strange!
(silence)
This identification [with the Ganges] is the power of vital plasticity. ... Probably there are in that way families of beings.
Also Words of the Mother Vol 14 Devotion-And-Self-Giving
Sincere devotion is much more effective than the Ganges water.
Not directly related to rivers but connected to it. This is from November 22, 1958 Agenda.
There are places that are favorable for occult experiences. Benares is one of these places, the atmosphere there is filled with vibrations of occult forces, and if one has the slightest capacity, it spontaneously develops there, in the same way that a spiritual aspiration develops very strongly and spontaneously as soon as one lands in India. These are Graces. Graces, because it is the destiny of the country, it has been so throughout its history, and because India has always been turned much more towards the heights and the inner depths than towards the outer world. Now, it is in the process of losing all that and wallowing in the mud, but that's another story ... it was like that and it is still like that. And in fact, when you returned from Rameswaram with your robes, I saw with much satisfaction that there was still a GREAT dignity and a GREAT sincerity in this endeavor of the Sannyasis towards the higher life and in the self-giving of a certain number of people to realize this higher life.
