#228 The Blessing and Glory of Ganga (Ganga Stotram)

(This is an audio excerpt of the full video – The Glory of Ganga) 

Gangaji is not an ordinary river, she is looked upon as a Devi.

Devi meaning Shakti power, much more than power. The beauty about Shakti is that Shakti flows, Shakti is never stagnant. As Devi flows in our lives, she energizes us, she nurtures us, she nourishes us, she strengthens us and the story is very interesting. She is also called Bhagirathi. About 60,000 of his granduncles had been reduced to ashes, bhasma and so this particular King decided to take on tapasya of 1000 years. He wanted the 60,000 uncles to get mukti to go forward on their onward journey, and so tapasya he did was not ordinary. He is referred to as Bhagiratha. Gangaji, Devi Shakti decided to come down and bless the 60,000 people who were stuck, their paapa was washed away.

Before Ganga Ji could come, she was concerned about the impact of her force on Bhumi Devi and so there is a small story but long story short when she comes Bhagavan Shiva is able to spread out his matted locks and she is able to flow. He is able to contain that Shakti and Bhagiratha was able to take off the curse of his uncles.

We can approach our own strength, the Devi shakti in many many ways. We can watch her from a distance. We may choose to not even go near or we may approach her and admire her closer or we may decide to take a sip and be blessed or we may actually have a dip in Gangaji. Gangaji is ever ready to bless us. The Shakti of the Devi is ever ready to bless us. And actually speaking the Shakti of the Devi blesses us every moment.

Every moment we have the power to desire and want, Iccha Shakti . Every moment we have the power to know, Jnana Shakti. And every moment we have the power to do, Kriya Shakti.

Devi as Shakti is a blessing that has been given to us every moment. Whether you want to go to the moon, or you want to have your startup or you want to make amends with your family members or you want to have good relations with your colleagues at work that Iccha Shakti is given to you.

How you may choose to go about it, the many ways the many methods the approaches to making your life better, to improve your health, to improve your wealth status, to actually be on a spiritual path, what is required is Jnana Shakti and that’s also given to you and then of course is Kriya shakti. So if you have the Shakti to do then pretty much there is alignment. So therefore we are blessed with this capacity to even actualize the many desires we have, to actualize the many things that we know and so Devi as a blessing is always with us.

When we approach Gangaji, she is not an ordinary river, she is devi, goddess incarnate and we see her grace.

We seek Gangaji’s is grace and there is a very beautiful stotram composed by Adi Shankaracharya. Beautiful and you will see how it goes,

देवि सुरेश्वरि भगवति गङ्गे त्रिभुवनतारिणि तरलतरङ्गे ।

शङ्करमौलिविहारिणि विमले मम मतिरास्तां तवपदकमले ॥ १॥

devi suresvari bhagavati gange tribhuvanatarini taralatarange,

Sankaramauliviharını vimale mama matirāstām tavapadakamale (1)

Tavapadakamale, your lotus feet. bhagavati gange as in Ganga, who is the goddess herself and what does she do? She is tribhuvanatarini, she helps us to cross over these worlds.  Sankaramauliviharını, the one who actually wandered through Shiva’s hair matted locks and to contain her Shakti to contain her force, Shiva just mat his locks and then allowed that force and momentum to be contained so that Bhumi was not disturbed by the force.

भागीरथि सुखदायिनि मातस्तव जलमहिमा निगमे ख्यातः ।

नाहं जाने तव महिमानं पाहि कृपामयि मामज्ञानम् ॥ २॥

bhagirathi sukhadayini mātas- tava jalamahima nigame khyātaḥ,

nähaṁ jāne tava mahimānaṁ pāhi krpāmayi māmajñānam (2)

So Gangaji, you are indeed Bhagirathi,  you are the mother. How can I understand you? Well, you are sukhadayini , you are the giver of sukha, of happiness of much pleasure as well.

tava mahimānaṁ ahaṁ na jāne, I don’t fully understand your greatness still I recognize that you are Shakti and I am requesting you to bless me.

So trāhi, may you protect me, may you nourish me, may you nurture me  and may you bless me because I need your krpā, I need your compassion and specially why do I need your compassion because I have ajnanam because I’m not sure about who I really am. Most of our conflicts in life are because we think we are just human beings and therefore being just a human being we are challenged by the limitations of our bodies. We are challenged by the limitations of our minds and we are so identified with the status of our bodies.

We are so identified with the status of our minds. I am angry, I am sad, I am frustrated, I’m not doing well, etc, etc. and that’s why this identification with the body and mind is causing me a lot of sorrow. I can’t help but have a lot of judgments about myself on the basis of the status of my body and mind. and why is that? That is because there is ajnanam, there is an ignorance of who I really am and so Devi may you take away my ajnanam, may you take away this conflict and you can do that because you are an embodiment of krpā, you are an embodiment of compassion.

हरिपदपाद्यतरङ्गिणि गङ्गे हिमविधुमुक्ताधवलतरङ्गे ।

दूरीकुरु मम दुष्कृतिभारं कुरु कृपया भवसागरपारम् ॥ ३॥

haripadapadyatarangini gange himavidhumuktadhavalatarange,

dūrīkuru mama duskṛtibhāram kuru krpayā bhavasāgarapāram. (3)

So Gangaji, I recognize that you are indeed flowing from the feet of Hari.  haripadapadyatarangini, your waves, your form is not an ordinary form. It’s even whiter than Hima, which is snow and also it is whiter than the moon basically referring to purity, basically referring to that which cleanses away all impurities and we know that our impurities are many. The Bhagavad Gita very very clearly talks about our impurities being raaga and dwesha. So raaga as in a craving for something and dwesha meaning an aversion of something.

So what are these raaga and dweshas? The way I want people to behave. The way I want my family members to behave with me.The way I want the world to be the way I want the political system to be. These are all natural desires. But when things don’t go my way, I get very upset. That is a raga. That you crave for something to be in a particular way so that you are happy so that you are fulfilled and if you have a raga, dwesha is not far behind, you cannot tolerate the opposite of it being there.

So these raaga-dweshas, our cravings and our aversions for people, for situations, they don’t just sit in our heads like some ideas, they affect the reality that I experience. My raaga and my dwesha, my desires and aversions, they affect me very deeply because I am deeply in conflict. I want my partner to behave in a particular way he doesn’t. And no matter what I have done, I’ve threatened,  I’ve cajoled, I’ve persuaded, I’ve blackmailed, all sorts of things I’ve done it doesn’t work. So here the raga, craving is that this person has to be in a particular way for me to be happy, and for me to be accepting in this world and whatever be our raaga-dweshas, whatever we our cravings and aversions, for money, for wealth, for the way in which certain things need to be, may you take away the impurities because you are whiter than all of the things that we consider as the embodiment of whiteness.

The many actions that I have done which have resulted in papa, duskṛti. Some of the actions I have done have not been favorable. They have not been in line with dharma and as a result of which I have bhāram, big burden. duskṛtibhāram.  So I am requesting your Gangaji that may you lighten my load. You know even when you step into the waters, you find that you are lighter and we believe and understand from our Puranas that you dip into Gangaji, she takes away your impurities in the sense that she offers lot of punya because she blesses all the way.

When you have a dip there is not one place that is not touched by Gangaji because she fully embraces you. She fully blesses you and so I’m requesting Gangaji, I’m praying to Gangaji that my duskṛtibhāram dūrīkuru, may you please remove that because it is a very big weight on my shoulders and to be able to cross over bhavasāgara. So bhavasāgara as in this ocean of becoming.

We experience a lot of dissatisfaction and discontentment because of not being satisfied with where we are in our lives. Our bodies are not good enough. Families are not good enough. Political system is not good enough. The people around us are not good enough. The opportunities I got are not good enough and therefore my whole struggle is about becoming better and healthier and wiser and more successful. Nothing wrong with this. In fact, ambition is very good. And we seek Gangaji’s blessings for it. But what is being highlighted here is that by becoming more intelligent, by becoming more wiser, more and more and more, you know, dil maange more (the heart desires more), so living a life of dil maange more in the name of  – Contentment is not good. Don’t be content. Just keep striving. You know, be hungry, be foolish and go for it, keep desiring, keep wanting. While it is helpful for our maturity for a certain stage of life, in time, we discover that this becoming orientation makes us feel very frustrated, very discontent and very unsatisfied. So if you’re at work, you’re thinking about family. If you’re at family, you’re thinking, Oh well! let me just open my laptop and finish the last bit on my to do list.

We can’t be in one place at one time because the mind is always racing and that is the classical symptom of this ‘becoming’ orientation. That’s what Shankara is saying that this bhavasāgara that I wanted to become wiser and better and all of that so that I may be fulfilled. Well, actually, I am wiser, I have more experience, but I don’t feel fulfilled. Something has gone wrong along the way and only in the understanding that if I discover myself to be full and complete, then all the becomings drops away.

The being in the becoming is what is to be discovered and that is what I pray to Gangaji that may she show her krpa, may she be compassionate to me, Ganga Ji as jnana Ganga may that knowledge bless me that I may discover who I really am and while I may still strive to do a lot for myself and for society, it’s no longer about me being a wanting person. It is more about me being a contributing person. So I move from being a consumer to a contributer.

तव जलममलं येन निपीतं परमपदं खलु तेन गृहीतम् ।

मातर्गङ्गे त्वयि यो भक्तः किल तं द्रष्टुं न यमश्शक्तः॥ ४॥

tava jalamamalam yena nipitam paramapadam khalu tena grhitam,

matargange tvayi yo bhaktaḥ kila tam arastum na yamaśśaktah. (4)

So the one who has drunk of your waters tava jala and what kind of waters they are so refreshing, they are so cold. What about them? the ones who have tasted your waters, the one who has tasted knowledge, who has tested even a glimpse of wisdom, what happens to that person? paramapadam grhitam, that person gains the highest and what is the highest? The highest is the discovery that you are the limitless. The highest is the discovery that you are indeed, the fullness that you seek and the worshiper, the one who is bhaktaḥ, what happens to that person? Yama is our dear lord of death among all the deities. Yama is the most feared and the most not welcomed.

Nobody wants death to knock on their doors. Everybody will say no, no few hours more few days more and what is being said here is that the one who gets a glimpse of this wisdom of Gangaji, of the knowledge that all that is here is one, that person, that being, that bhaktaḥ is not touched by death.

So does that mean that that person is not going to die? That’s true, the body will die. But the consciousness that you are is not touched by any event.

Because who you are, what is intrinsic to you, who you are is consciousness is not a property of your body. Consciousness that you are is not a part of you. But the consciousness that you are is limitless, because consciousness is not limited by any condition. What is limitless does not have a condition that conditions it and so here Adi Shankara is saying that, Devi as goddess, you please bless me and bless me with what? Here Shankara is referring to the bhaktaḥ, the one who is a devotee, the one who wants to know more about Devi, the one who wants to understand God even in a glimpse of that understanding the person is liberated. Why? Because the person recognizes that the person was never a doer. The person was never an experiencer, the person was not karta, not a bhokta.

The person is atma, really speaking, a pure spiritual being having a human experience and that’s what he’s saying that even the one who just has a few sips of water of this is liberated from death, and therefore has no fear of loss. Whatever happens to the body, that’s fine, I can handle it. Whatever happens to the mind, I can handle it because I am more than the status of my body and mind.