Across the Ganges

Guha and Sumanthra stood by the shore

Watching the boat drift away with the four

With his mind fixed on Rama, the oarsman oared

Proud on cradling Rama on her lap, the Ganges soared

Like a man trying to cross the Samsara ocean

The boat, like his body, was now in motion

Like the surrendered ego, the oarsman looked

Towards Rama, the conscience, his attention was hooked

Sita sat beside The Lord like the man’s devotion

Lakshman like efficiency stood to serve with passion

We learn from this that if our ego surrenders

The Lord enters our heart forgiving blunders

Along with Him come love and talent

Awakening within us our goodness latent

Once we manage to invite these three

We are, very soon, bound to be free

Her hands through the waves, Mother Sita swayed

Like a daughter to a Mother, Mother Sita prayed

Wishing their exile, at large, must benefit the world

Aromatic flowers to the river, in offering she hurled

She turned towards Her Lord with a whim

Story of Ganges, She wanted to hear from Him

The Lord narrated the story with a serene flow

Revealing the reasons for the river’s reverential glow

“This water was first born from Vishnu’s feet

And gifted to Brahma who sits on a lotus seat

In his kamandal, Brahma saved this water

And used it to worship Vishnu without falter

When Vishnu as Vikrama measured the sky

His feet entered Heaven, as He lifted it high

Seeing the Supreme Lord’s Feet appear before his eye

Brahma poured this water on it, leaving no part dry

The water that spilled flowed as a river through heaven

Sanctifying the upper worlds which are totally seven

The Devas rejoiced the birth of this water

By dancing for music accompanied with laughter”

Saying thus, Lord Rama paused for a moment

To see how His listeners had taken the event

For, a pot of water becoming a river was magical

He expected them to seek an explanation logical

He especially looked at the oarsman’s face

Which, did not show a doubtful trace

He then looked at Sita, who understood His mind

In picking up gestures, She was of the smartest kind

“Lord! How does a pot of water, small in size

To a river that is large, could give rise?”

In the oarsman’s view, this question was not right

On Mother Sita’s ignorance, he liked to throw some light

He came up with a beautiful example

To unquestioning faith, that was a sample

First, The Lord’s permission, he did seek

Then unto Mother Sita, he did speak

“The flame that we light, though tiny and small

Its light and heat throughout the room does fall

When a flame that we light can expand to that extend

Why must a drop, from the Lord’s feet, not expand?”

The oarsman’s faith, Lord Rama did appreciate

He also advised the former not to hate

The ones who seek logical reason

For curiosity is not a sinful passion

“Faith on one side is a matter of the heart

Brain on the other side, plays the rational part

Working as a team, they create wonders

Mocking each other, they commit blunders”

The oarsman realised Lord Rama’s words to be fair

And apologized to Mother Sita for mistaking Her

He then sought the answer for Mother Sita’s question

Lord Rama asked Lakshman to grant some vision

Mother Sita and the oarsman became eager to hear

Lakshman started to explain from Lord Rama’s rear

“I share with you what my Brother has taught

None of the following is my own thought

What, is a second in Brahma’s world

Is like a year in the heavenly world

What, is a year in the heavenly world

Is like a century in our human world

What, is a drop in Lord Brahma’s world

Is like a river in the heavenly world

What, is a river in the heavenly world

Is like an ocean in our own world”

The oarsman‘s eyes were now open wide

He turned with remorse towards Mother Sita’s side

“You are the Lord’s wife, how could you go wrong?

My Intellect like Yours is not very strong”

Mother Sita reassured him that he need not be sorry

Heated debates while learning are nothing to worry

Only that, one must not become angry or proud

From seeing the truth, these two would shroud

A lot from them, the oarsman learned

He felt grateful for the knowledge earned

Talks from Lord Rama, he wanted more

For his chance was only till the shore

“Lord! I want more of your voice that is melodic

The message that you convey to me is benefic

Mother! Ask the Lord about something interesting

Perhaps about scriptural verses, sometimes contrasting”

Mother Sita accepted, on his behalf, to enquire

She wanted the oarsman, some info, to acquire

“Lord, The Ganges that once belonged to heaven

How and why, to the earth, was it given?”

Lord Rama was delighted to continue Ganga’s story

Which also spoke of His great fore-fathers’ glory

The story that was His childhood fave

Great inspiration, to Him, it always gave

“King Sagara belonged to the Sun Dynasty

He ruled the earth with all honesty

He had two wives, like his right and left hands

Except for a child, they had no demands

So, King Sagara and his wives approached a sage

And expressed their grief after paying homage

The sage pitied them and decided to offer relief

He spoke words to wipe out their grief

“My power can give one son to one of your wives

The other wife must bear sixty thousand lives

The one son, for progeny, is blessed to be paternal

The sixty thousand sons will make your name eternal

The one son, for progeny, which queen would bear?

To mother sixty thousand sons, which queen would dare?

They must make their choices in agreement, mutual

If not, I cannot perform for them the needed ritual”

The first queen chose to prolong her husband’s glorious line

The second queen chose to make his name eternally shine

Thus was born Asamanjan who was very cruel

And his sixty thousand brothers, masters in duel

Asamanjan begot Ansuman a pious and beautiful child

But to other kids, in the kingdom, he was wild

Sadistic was he, throwing children into the river

He watched them drown, laughing out his liver

When King Sagara heard this, he was dejected

He ordered his son, out of the nation, to be ejected

Anyway, the King found solace in his grandson Ansuman

Who, grew up through years into a very good man

King Sagara started the Aswamedha yagna

Somehow overcoming the unpleasant stigma

Ashwameda involves a horse that is white

To travel all nations and return without fight

If it comes back safe, the yagna is completed

But if any king obstructs, he has to be defeated

In case the horse promptly doesn’t return

Endless misery would start to churn

So, the horse was sent out fully decked

Indra did not want it to go unchecked

He was jealous, King Sagara would succeed

He stole the horse and hid it, to impede

Sixty thousand sons of Sagara started to search

Around the world they started to angrily lurch

They dug up all land leaving it with dents

The world was terrified by those furious gents

They entered a cave that was dark on the way

Sage Kapila was meditating there night and day

Behind him, tied was the horse, well secluded

Sage Kapila to be the thief, they hastily concluded

Wanting to punish him for the act, forward they dashed

The sage opened his fire emitting eyes, and they got ashed

The Sage regretted the event that ended up nasty

But he knew, in defense, he had to be hasty

Their return from search, by the king, was eagerly expected

Seeing no sign of their imminent return, the king suspected

Something bad, to his beloved sons, must have happened

His sorrow of loosing the horse, further, got deepened

At his grandpa’s behest, for his uncles, Ansuman sought

He searched in all the places, where his uncles had fought

Finally he too entered the cave and saw the horse

Also his uncles’s ashes and wanted to know the cause

He waited in the cave, till the sage’s penance ended

The answer for his questions, Sage Kapila then rendered

The sage also said that his uncles, who are now ashes,

Will be liberated, only if, Ganga descends and washes!

Already old and now in pain, King Sagara breathed his last

The job of getting the Ganges, unto Ansuman’s shoulders was cast

Ansuman could not think of a way, till his end

It became his son Dilipa’s job to make amend

Dilipa was renowned in the world as a mighty warrior

Yet, to the job his predecessors left, he was just a carrier

To him was born King Bhagiratha the great

The compulsive one who wiped off his clan’s ill-fate

King Bhagiratha handed to his ministers, the kingship reigns

And went alone to the forest to take up pains

Determined to bring Ganges to the ground

Deep in his meditation he got drowned

Brahma appeared before him after centuries went

To Bhagiratha’s noble request, he accepted to relent

Anyway he warned of Ganga’s mighty force during descent

And only Shiva can bear it on his head that sports a crescent

Bhagiratha, towards success, wanted to advance

In order to propitiate Shiva, he started his penance

A few centuries again slowly went by

Until one day Shiva appeared to say hi

Shiva the splendid who is easily appeased

Accepted to dike the Ganges, once it is released

Brahma kept up his word and Ganga started to rush

Proud of her might, she thought, Shiva would crush

All knowing Shiva sensed her thought

Hence within his tresses she got caught

To teach her a lesson Shiva kept her there

Later, released her on seeing his devotee’s despair

Ganga now pure, with her pride humbled

Down from Kailash, she gradually tumbled

Like the happy tears that rolled down Bhagiratha’s cheek

She rolled down the hill like mercury with grace and sleek

On the way down she suddenly vanished

Leaving poor Bhagiratha fully astonished

When he went in search, his heart was about to burst

As he saw a sage named Jhanu, quenching his thirst

The sage collected all of Ganga in a pot

And drank to his content, the entire lot

The sage had done so since she became proud again

And spoiled a ritual he was doing for spiritual gain

Bhagiratha explained to the sage about his quest

The sage accepted to release The Ganges, lest

Bhagiratha’s tremendous effort will go in vain

And effort-taking habits, in future, will go drain

The sage released The Ganges through his ears

Bhagiratha at last succeeded after a legion of years

The Ganga now flowed unhindered with pomp

Dragging rocks and trees, in its playful stomp

Ganga roared into Kapila’s cave washing off the ashes

Liberating sixty thousand souls before a lightning flashes

It further went on to fill all the dents those warriors dug

After occupying two third of the world, it became smug

Thus were formed the seven oceans of the earth

Where fishes, sharks and whales play in mirth

It is popularly known as Sagar as per the sage’s word

The sixty thousand sons made the name always heard

Bhagirathi and Jhanavi are also Ganga’s names

To ever remind us of Bhagiratha’s and Jhanu’s fames

This is the story of Ganges, the holy

Which, cleanses sins, earned by folly"

Thus Lord Rama expounded the story of the Ganges

Whose roots are not exactly in the Himalayan ranges

Sita, Lakshman and the oarsman were delighted with Ram

Jai Shri Ram! Jai Jai Shri Ram!!