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"The Rishi crowned with success said, 'Those countries, those provinces, those retreats, and those mountains, should be |
regarded as the foremost in point of sanctity through which or by the side of which that foremost of all rivers, viz., Bhagirathi |
flows. That end which a creature is capable of attaining by penances, by Brahmacharyya, by sacrifices, or by practising |
renunciation, one is sure to attain by only living by the side of the Bhagirathi and bathing in its sacred waters. Those creatures |
whose bodies have been sprinkled with the sacred waters of Bhagirathi or whose bones have been laid in the channel of that |
sacred stream, have not to fall away--from heaven at any time.[237] Those men, O learned Brahmana, who use the waters of |
Bhagirathi in all their acts, surely ascend to heaven after departing from this world. Even those men who, having committed |
diverse kinds of sinful deeds in the first part of their lives, betake themselves in after years to a residing by the side of Ganga, |
succeed in attaining to a very superior end. Hundreds of sacrifices cannot produce that merit which men of restrained souls are |
capable of acquiring by bathing in the sacred waters of Ganga. A person is treated with respect and worshipped in heaven for |
as long a period as his bones lie in the channel of the Ganga. Even as the Sun, when he rises at the dawn of day, blazes forth in |
splendour, having dispelled the gloom of night, after the same manner the person that has bathed in the waters of Ganga is seen |
to shine in splendour, cleansed of all his sins. Those countries and those points of the compass that are destitute of the sacred |
waters of Ganga are like nights without the moon or like trees without flowers. Verily, a world without Ganga is like the |
different orders and modes of life when they are destitute of righteousness or like sacrifices without Soma. Without doubt, |
countries and points of the compass that are without Ganga are like the firmament without the Sun, or the Earth without |
mountains, or the welkin without air. The entire body of creatures in the three worlds, if served with the auspicious waters of |
Ganga, derive a pleasure, the like of which they are incapable of deriving from any other source. He who drinks Ganga water |
that has been heated by the Sun's rays derives merit much greater than that which attaches to the vow of subsisting upon the |
wheat or grains of other corn picked up from cowdung. It cannot be said whether the two are equal or not, viz., he who |
performs a thousand Chandrayana rites for purifying his body and he who drinks the water of Ganga. It cannot be said whether |
the two are equal or not, viz., one who stands for a thousand years on one foot and one who lives for only a month by the side |
of Ganga. One who lives permanently by the side of Ganga is superior in merit to one who stays for ten thousand Yugas with |
head hanging downwards. As cotton, when it comes into contact with fire, is burnt off without a remnant, even so the sins of |
the person that has bathed in Ganga become consumed without a remnant. There is no end superior to Ganga for those |
creatures who with hearts afflicted by sorrow, seek to attain to ends that may dispel that sorrow of theirs. As snakes become |
deprived of their poison at the very sight of Garuda, even so one becomes cleansed of all one's sins at the very sight of the |
sacred stream of Ganga. They that are without good name and that are addicted to deeds of sinfulness, have Ganga for their |
fame, their protection, their means of rescue, their refuge or cover. Many wretches among men who become afflicted with |
diverse sins of a heinous nature, when they are about to sink into hell, are rescued by Ganga in the next world (if, |
notwithstanding their sins, they seek the aid of Ganga in their after-years). They, O foremost of intelligent men, who plunge |
every day in the sacred waters of Ganga, become the equals of great Munis and the very deities with Vasava at their head. |
Those wretches among men that are destitute of humility or modesty of behaviour and that are exceedingly sinful, become |
righteous and good, O Brahmana, by betaking themselves to the side of Ganga. As Amrita is to the deities, as Swadha is to the |
Pritis, as Sudha is to the Nagas, even so is Ganga water to human beings. As children afflicted with hunger solicit their mothers |
for food, after the same manner do people desirous of their highest good pay court to Ganga. As the region of the self-born |
Brahma is said to be the foremost of all places, even so is Ganga said to be foremost of all rivers for those that desire to bathe. |
As the Earth and the cow are said to be the chief sustenance of the deities and other celestials, even so is Ganga the chief |
sustenance of all living creatures.[238] As the deities support themselves upon the Amrita that occurs in the Sun and the Moon |
and that is offered in diverse sacrifices, even so do human beings support themselves upon Ganga water. One besmeared with |
the sand taken from the shores of Ganga regards oneself as a denizen of heaven, adorned with celestial unguents. He who bears |
on his head the mud taken from the banks of Ganga presents an effulgent aspect equal to that of Sun himself bent on dispelling |
the surrounding darkness. When that wind which is moistened with the particles of Ganga-water touches one's person, it |
cleanses him immediately of every sin. A person afflicted by calamities and about to sink under their weight, finds all his |
calamities dispelled by the joy which springs up in his heart at sight of that sacred stream. By the melody of the swans and |
Kokas and other aquatic fowls that play on her breast, Ganga challenges the very Gandharvas and by her high banks the very |
mountains on the Earth. Beholding her surface teeming with swans and diverse other aquatic fowls, and having banks adorned |
with pasture lands with kine grazing on them. Heaven herself loses her pride. The high happiness which one enjoys by a |
residence on the banks of Ganga, can never be his who is residing even in heaven. I have no doubt in this that the person who is |
afflicted with sins perpetrated in speech and thought and overt act, becomes cleansed at the very sight of Ganga. By holding |
that sacred stream, touching it, and bathing in its waters, one rescues one's ancestors to the seventh generation, one's |
descendants to the seventh generation, as also other ancestors and descendant. By hearing of Ganga, by wishing to repair to |
that river, by drinking its waters, by touching its waters, and by bathing in them a person rescues both his paternal and maternal |
races. By seeing, touching, and drinking the waters of Ganga, or even by applauding Ganga, hundreds and thousands of sinful |
men became cleansed of all their sins. They who wish to make their birth, life and learning fruitful, should repair to Ganga and |
gratify the Pitris and the deities by offering them oblations of water. The merit that one earns by bathing in Ganga is such that |
the like of it is incapable of being earned through the acquisition of sons or wealth or the performance of meritorious acts. |
Those who, although possessed of the physical ability, do not seek to have a sight of the auspicious Ganga of sacred current, |
are, without doubt, to be likened to persons afflicted with congenital blindness or those that are dead or those that are destitute |
of the power of locomotion through palsy or lameness. What man is there that would not reverence this sacred stream that is |
adored by great Rishis conversant with the Present, the Past, and the Future, as also by the very deities with Indra at their head. |
What man is there that would not seek the protection of Ganga whose protection is sought for by forest recluses and |
householders, and by Yatis and Brahmacharins alike? The man of righteous conduct who, with rapt soul, thinks of Ganga at the |
time when his life-breaths are about to leave his body, succeeds in attaining to the highest end. That man who dwells by the |
side of Ganga up to the time of his death, adoring her with reverence, becomes freed from the fear of every kind of calamity, of |
sin, and of kings. When that highly sacred stream fell from the firmament. Maheswara held it on his head. It is that very stream |
which is adored in heaven.[239] The three regions, viz., (Earth, Heaven, and the nether place called Patala) are adorned by the |
three courses of this sacred stream. The man who uses the waters of that stream becomes certainly crowned with success. As |
the solar ray is to the deities in heaven, as Chandramas is to the Pitris, as the king is to human beings, even such is Ganga unto |
all streams.[240] One who becomes bereaved of mother or father or sons or spouses or wealth does not fell that grief which |
becomes one's, when one becomes bereaved of Ganga. One does not obtain that joy through acts that lead to the region of |
Brahma, or through such sacrifices and rites that lead to heaven, or through children or wealth, which one obtain from a sight |
of Ganga.[241] The pleasures that men derive from a sight of Ganga is equal to what they derive from a sight of the full moon. |
That man becomes dear to Ganga who adores her with deep devotion, with mind wholly fixed upon her, with a reverence that |
refuses to take any other object within its sphere, with a feeling that there is nothing else to the universe worthy of similar |
adoration, and with a steadiness that knows no failing away. Creatures that live on Earth, in the welkin, or in Heaven, indeed, |
even beings that are very superior,--should always bathe in Ganga. Verily, this is the foremost of all duties with those that are |
righteous. The fame of Ganga for sanctity has spread over the entire universe, since she bore all the sons of Sagara, who had |
been reduced to ashes, from here to Heaven.[242] Men who are washed by the bright, beautiful, high, and rapidly moving |
waves, raised by the wind, of Ganga, became cleansed of all their sins and resemble in splendour the Sun with his thousand |
rays. Those men of tranquil souls that have cast off their bodies in the waters of Ganga whose sanctity is as great as that of the |
butter and other liquids poured in sacrifices and which are capable of conferring merits equal to those of the greatest of |
sacrifices, have certainly attained to a station equal to that of the very deities. Verily, Ganga, possessed of fame and vast extent |
and identical with the entire universe and reverenced by the deities with Indra at their head, the Munis and human beings, is |
competent to bestow the fruition of all their wishes upon them that are blind, them that are idiots, and them that are destitute of |
all things.[243] They that sought the refuge of Ganga, that protectress of all the universe, that flows in three streams, that is |
filled with water at once highly sacred and sweet as honey and productive of every kind of good, have succeeded in attaining to |
the beatitude of Heaven.[244] That mortal who dwells by the side of Ganga and beholds her every day, becomes cleansed by |
her sight and touch. Unto him the deities give every kind of happiness here and a high end hereafter. Ganga is regarded as |
competent to rescue every creature from sin and lead him to the felicity of Heaven. She is held to be identical with Prisni, the |
mother of Vishnu. She is identical with the Word or Speech. She is very remote, being incapable of easy attainment. She is the |
embodiment of auspiciousness and prosperity. She is capable of bestowing the six well-known attributes beginning with |
lordship or puissance. She is always inclined to extend her grace. She is the displayer of all things in the universe, and she is |
the high refuge of all creatures. Those who have sought her protection in this life have surely attained heaven. The fame of |
Ganga has spread all over the welkin, and Heaven, and Earth, and all the points, cardinal and subsidiary, of the compass. |
Mortal creatures, by using the waters of that foremost of streams, always become crowned with high success. That person who |
himself beholding Ganga, points her out to others, finds that Ganga rescues him from rebirth and confers Emancipation on him. |
Ganga held Guha, the generalissimo of the celestial forces, in her womb. She bears the most precious of all metals, viz., gold, |
also in that womb of hers. They who bathe in her waters every day in the morning, succeed in obtaining the aggregate of three, |
viz., Righteousness, Wealth and Pleasure. Those waters are, again, equal in point of sanctity to the butter that is poured with |
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