Each nation has its own, individual and sincerely revered symbol, a religious amulet or even the very embodiment of a higher power. Among the Hindus, such a supreme and divine power that you can touch is the Ganges River. If a traveler who has fallen into the spicy lands of India calls the blessed reservoir by the name that we know from the lessons of geography and history - the Ganges, the Indians will correct him with irritation: "Not the Ganges, but the Ganges." Because they call the river in a feminine way, identifying it exclusively with the feminine principle of the divine essence of the god Vishnu.
Revered as the earthly embodiment of universal power, the Ganges River gathers millions of people on its banks. They aspire to the sacred waters with an irresistible desire to wash away all sins from themselves, to cleanse their mind and body. Hindus believe that the Ganges River has healing properties and is a kind of shepherd who forgives sins. When a Christian wants to repent, he goes to church. When a Hindu has a bad heart and wants to get rid of the oppression of sins, he plunges into the Ganges. It is thanks to India that the expression “wash away your sins” has become famous all over the world. The water of the river is considered sacred, the same can be saidabout the cities located on the banks of the Ganges. These include Allahabad, Rishikesh, Varanasi, Hardwar and many more.
The rivers of India are a huge number of reservoirs flowing both in the mountains of the Himalayas and winding through the expanses of valleys and lowlands. However, none of them is as revered and sacred to the Hindus as the Ganges. There are a huge number of legends associated with the appearance of this water sleeve. One of them reads as follows. A delightful river flowed in the heavenly paradise, the waters of which had healing and healing properties. Somehow, having learned about this, one Indian king Bagirat began to pray to the god Shiva (one of the incarnations of the god Vishnu) that he would give a piece of a magnificent reservoir to his children, the Hindus. The requests of the man were heard, and since then the inhabitants of the country have been enjoying the sacred waters that the Ganges River gave them.
The second legend sounds completely different. It is told to me by the brahmins at the Vaishno Devi temple in the Himalayas. Few people know that the wife of Shiva - Sati (Devi) - had several hypostases, one of which was the feminine, the symbol of the mother - the goddess Mata Rani. It is with her name that the emergence of the river is associated.
Once upon a time, in the high mountains of the Himalayas, there lived a shepherd who devoted his whole life to the service of Mata Rani. In the same village lived the evil Bhairon, who did not believe in any powerful force but his own. He dreamed of eradicating faith in the goddess and making all people believe only in themselves. Bhairon sought to find Mata Rani and kill her. To give a man a chancethink again, the goddess hid in a cave in the Himalayas, on the way to which she struck a staff on a mountain embankment. The earth split, and crystal-clear water poured from its bowels, which laid the foundation for the emergence of the Ganges River.
It is believed that the sacred waters not only wash away all sins, but also serve as a path to the new world for the departed - they are a guide to paradise. Therefore, it is not surprising that a huge number of dead Hindus seeking to get there are sheltered by the Ganges River. The corpses of the dead are burned on special funeral pyres. After burning, the ashes are collected in an urn, and relatives, sitting in a boat, scatter it over the sacred waters of the river.
