Vyas | December, 2002

"A man's life should be as fresh as a river. It should be the same channel but a new water every instant." - Henry David Thoreau

I

	Ram, Sita and Laxman offering salutations to ganga

In Adhyatma Ramayana, Sita the wife of epic hero Rama is shown to have deep regard for the Ganga. She accompanied Rama upon his banishment into the forest. While crossing the river, she says:
"O Goddess Ganga, I offer my salutations to you. On my completing the term of banishment of 14 years, I along with Lord Rama and his younger brother Prince Lakshmana shall pay obeisance to you."

The promise made by Sita is being continually observed by modern day Sitas, for a deeply felt promise is as fresh as a river.


II
Kalidasa, one of the greatest poets of India, describes the water of Ganga at the confluence at Prayag as moonlight compared to Yamuna, another river that mingles with it at Prayag, as a patch of darkness.

	Kalidasa, one of the greatest poets of India

In his Meghadoot (Cloud Messenger), he addresses the cloud thusly -
"If like some insubstantial elephant of the sky
You would tumble down from heaven
And taste the crystal stream
So would your darkened shadow swell here
As the Yamuna does at Prayag
Lending substance to a dream
Like moonlight mixed with darkness."

The dark cloud is compared to an elephant which when settled on the Yamuna of dark hue is likely to swell up the effect of darkness.

It seems Kalidasa's imageries are as fresh as the water flowing through the river.


III
Rama Prasad, a Bengali poet was a staunch devotee of Goddess Kali. It is said that on the last day of Goddess Kali's annual festival, when the ghats were swarmed by the clay idols of Goddess Kali, Rama Prasad singing in praise of her was so much in ecstasy that with the clay images being immersed around him he fell into the Ganga and drowned.

It seems Rama Prasad's ecstasy was as fresh as a river.


IV
Bhupen Hazarika - a contemporary Ahamiya poet singer - interrogates the Ganga in one of his famous songs thus:
"Why do you keep shamelessly flowing, O Ganga
When all around you there is degradation of human values."
The poet is intrigued by the lack of concern shown by the river to all that is happening around and continuing to flow.In the poet's heightened imagination, the Ganga no longer has any reason to flow.

Although the song enumerates various kinds of injustices perpetrated by man on man, it is enigmatically silent about the injustice unashamedly meted out to the Ganga. How can the river which is coerced to become the ultimate receptacle of all that is unwanted and filthy remain intact, let alone act as the moral sentinel and the conscience keeper of all times?


Epilogue
Left to her own devices, the so-called 'shamelessly flowing Ganga', emulating the anthropomorphism of its worshippers who have become her detractors might perhaps answer thusly -

I no longer need the promises of for better worship
Nor the hyper-sensitive imagination of Kalidasa in distinguishing hues between my streams
Let Rama Prasad and his clay idols find different venue for their termination
I do not care whether I cleanse the sins of the believers
But never before as now I am tired of being called a Goddess by those
Who are robbing me of my very identity -
The right of being a freely flowing river
Enough of this role-play of having to act as Timeless Bridge
Founded on man's greed and callousness

If only Sitas could stem the inflow of filth
Kalidasas could mobilize words into action
And Rama Prasads could refrain from immersing themselves and clay idols
And instead make efforts to clean me, I will feel I have been taken care of.



For more information, you may visit the following sites:

Henry David Thoreau http://eserver.org/thoreau/
Adhyatma Ramayana http://adaniel.tripod.com/ramayana.htm
Sita http://adaniel.tripod.com/ramayana.htm
Rama http://adaniel.tripod.com/ramayana.htm
Ganga http://www.cs.albany.edu/~amit/ganges.html
Lakshmana http://adaniel.tripod.com/ramayana.htm
Kalidasa http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/clsc60.html
Prayag http://www.shubhyatra.com/htm/uttarpradesh/prayag.htm
Yamuna http://www.teriin.org/energy/yamuna.htm
Meghadoot http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/clsc60.html