Each generation, it seems, leaves behind wisdom that those who come after them can explore or ignore. This wisdom is often woven into stories ~ possibly because we remember a story better than dry facts. The story of how Ganga came into being, is one such ~ and it has much wisdom contained in it.

 

Perhaps the very first thing that emerges when we study the story of the origin of Ganga is the power of patience! Gods, kings and sages are all involved as the story unfolds ~ along with tumultuous desires and emotions. It takes eons for Ganga to finally descend from her original creation in the heavens to her flow on earth. That descent promised redemption, but those who wished for it had to wait.

 

Ganga’s Origins

 

Two mighty forces; Himavan ~ embodied as the Himalayas, and Meru, embodied as a mighty mountain (possibly the northern polar ice-cap) ~ produced two daughters named Ganga and Uma. The gods begged that Ganga be given to them and Himavan agreed. The other daughter, Uma, was given to Siva as his celestial other half. 

 

The gods became concerned by the energy being unleashed by the coming together of Siva and Uma and asked for it to stop. Siva agreed and he and Uma returned to their austerities. However, the energy and power already unleashed needed to take form. The Creative Force, Brahma, advised that the sister of Uma ~ Ganga ~ deliver this energy as a protective force. Ganga, however, was not able to hold this divine force for long and released it into the side of the Himalayas. As this energy flowed it turned everything it touched into molten gold and copper ~ even its impurities became minerals like copper and lead. A boy who would become Kartikeya ~ the Protector ~ was born in this flow among the reeds and nursed by the grand constellation Krtikka (Pleiades). This was indeed a cosmic event ~ not just an earthly one!

 

In the meantime, a king on earth called Sagara, had a son, Asamanja (which means unfit, given to improprieties, to wickedness). One of Sagara’s wives also produced a gourd from which 60,000 sons emerged! Asamanja had a son, Amshuman (meaning radiant) who was the opposite of his father, embodying goodness.

 

Their grandfather, Sagara, decided to conduct a sacred horse-rite. Indra surreptitiously removed the horse and hid it ~ causing Sagara to unleash his 60,000 sons to find it. They immediately set about the task and began to tear up and destroy the earth in their search.

 

Brahma reminded everyone as they watched this destruction that earth itself is a form of the great Preserving Force, Vishnu, and therefore this destruction would not be allowed to continue. Indeed, Vishnu also lived as a great Sage called Kapila. The 60,000 sons descended on Kapila and, thinking him to be the horse-thief, rushed at him. The sage was meditating and simply uttered the mantra ‘hum’ and all 60,000 sons were reduced to ashes.

 

King Sagara, waiting for his sons to return with the horse, got impatient and instructed the young Amshuman to go and find them. He did, and surveying their ashes, wondered what to do. At that moment the sacred eagle Garuda appeared and revealed that these sons would rise from the ashes when the waters of Ganga flowed over them.

 

Amshuman returned to the halls of his grandfather with the horse for the ceremony, which was then completed. Sagara passed away without achieving redemption for his sons who still lay in ashes. Amshuman took the throne but no matter how hard he tried he could not bring down Ganga to redeem his uncles. On his death, when his son Bhagiratha assumed the throne, that redemption took place.

 

Bhagiratha went deep into the Himalayas and performed austerities to call on Ganga to emerge. However, there was a problem: the force of Ganga on earth would destroy the planet. The great Siva saved the day: he said he would take the force of Ganga’s waters on his head, and as it flowed through his matted locks, it would reduce its force and the earth would be able to hold it.

 

Bhagiratha actually rode his chariot ahead of the streams as they flowed to earth. He observed that, like life, it did not flow in a sweet and steady stream from beginning to end. In some places it raged, in others its flow turned gentle, before it became mighty waters crashing over rocks and then turning back on itself, only to be transformed into a gentle flow again.

 

As Ganga flowed, it went through the hermitage of Sage Jahnu, who swallowed the entire river so that he could get on with his meditation! The gods appealed to the sage and he released the mighty Ganga from his ear so that it could continue its journey. Very soon, it flowed over the ashes of the 60,000 sons of Sagara who were immediately redeemed.

 

Brahma congratulated Bhagiratha on the completion of his task. Part of Ganga was named Bhagirathi ~ ‘daughter of Bhagiratha’.

 

Unpacking the Story

 

What are we to make of this story? Was it really real? Was it a myth? 

 

We will never know. I would just say, before we dismiss it as myth, think of science’s theory of the Big Bang ~ i.e. we ourselves, all our relations, all our loved ones, all our homes, neighbourhoods, countries, world, oceans, solar system, galaxy, and the rest of the universe emerging from a point smaller than a subatomic particle. Is that not just as bewildering and fantastical? Even hard science speaks of ‘the big bang’ as a working hypothesis. Can we not treat these stories in the same way, i.e. they may actually have happened that way, or maybe not. Until we actually know, they make good working hypotheses.

 

Each of us will take meaning from this story embedded in the Ramayana. Each of us will interpret its lessons in our own way ~ that is a freedom our ancestors who recorded these scriptures gave us.

 

For example, the first lesson I took from this story when I first encountered it in my youth is a respect for time! In youth everything has a ‘right now’ sense about it. However, here were events that unfolded over thousands ~ maybe even millions ~ of years. The past suddenly became more than my gran and grandad.

 

Another thing that has unfolded for me as I read and re-read it, is the lesson that we cannot always see the origins of what we are experiencing in the now ~ and one thing does not necessarily emerge from another in the same or even a similar form. Sagara gives birth to a son who embodies wickedness, Asamanja. Asamanja, in turn gives birth to a son who embodies goodness, Amshuman. The past, that gave rise to the present, does not always explain it! Often, these days, we seek an explanation of ourselves in DNA testing ~ does it explain each of us? If my great, great, great, great grand-father was a king, do I have kingly attributes? Maybe. Maybe not. I have to explore what I am now ~ even if I carry the past with me. The past is not something I can control, it is only the present that I can deal with ~ and then I have a choice: do I become an Asamanja or an Amshuman?

 

I particularly loved the description of the flow of Ganga: starting with her descent through the locks of Siva. Could we really, honestly, give ourselves to graciously accept life as it comes ~ as something that a Greater Power has blessed and allowed? In that moment of acceptance lies the possibility of our redemption, because at that sacred moment each of us chooses how we will react/respond to it.

 

This first book of the Ramayana describes how in places Ganga is serene and in others a furious, deafening flow… and it likens it to life. Yes, life is like that ~ and it was affirmed a long time ago in this beautiful scripture that sought, from its beginnings, to help us understand that circumstances are not usually under our control. However, how we respond ~ and who we become in that response ~ is always our decision. The Ramayana tells us that to bathe in Ganga’s waters offers redemption. Maybe it is in this realisation of choice ~ originally articulated in The Katha Upanishad by the great God Beyond Death, Yama, and which Ganga reminds of again and again in her origins ~ that our redemption lies.

 

 

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©Swami Ambikananda, June 2025