Ganga River: Sacrificing Purity
By Markandeya Mark
It's said that a beautiful maiden once trickled down Shivas hair, onto the Earth. She came on a request to wash the wandering souls to heaven. The souls, who wrongly accused a sage of thieving their father's horse, were all burnt by the sage and left on the Earth, until this maiden liberated them. Having touched Brahma and Vishnu, two of the three members of the Trimurti, she became very holy. Fair in color, she charges down the Himalayas, flows across the large plains of North India, and empties into the Bay of Bengal. She rests on a crocodile, wearing a white crown, and holding a water lily in her right hand, and a flute in her left. This virtuous, yet mischievous maiden is none other than Maa Ganga (Mother Ganga), who flows both in the Heavens, and on the Earth.
 Gange Ca Yamune Caiva...In this water, I invoke the presence of holy waters from the rivers Ganga, Yamuna... Hindus worship rivers as mother, because they bring water inland. They are also believed to have spiritual qualities. |
The Ganga's delta was once densely forested and acquainted with many wild animals. After our early morning chant of Aditya Hridayam (prayer to Sun God), the Ganga was the place to go to shed off our sins. It was where we would part 
with Grandmas ashes, and watch mom cry tears of joy. It was where the sages would conveniently bathe, after listening to the sounds of Aum resonate within them for hours. It was an added bonus to the making the long trip to the Maha Kumbh Mela. Also, let us remember that Hinduism is like a science. Though the people dipped in the waters for spiritual purity, the great sages who wrote our scriptures knew that along with this also came physical and mental purity. By submerging into the Ganga river, we become physically and mentally relaxed, concentrated (on our spiritual as well as worldly objectives), healthy, and happy.
Unfortunately, all this seems to be no longer true. Yes, the Ganga Riveris still there, and thus, it should still be able to cleanse us of our sins and help our souls to reach God. But, in certain places, it would be self-inflicting to dip into the Gangawaters. This is because there are large amounts of human pollutants in highly populated areas of the Ganga. In India today, the leather industry is a booming money maker. Since the economic benefits are certainly more important than maintaining the very environment we live in, chromium and other chemicals used by the leather industry find a place in this holy river, along with 1,000,000,000 liters, or 264,172,051gallons, of untreated raw
sewage. Ineffective cremation procedures leave partly burned corpses floating down Maa Ganga.Taking a dip in these waters can lead to water-borne diseases including cholera, hepatitis, typhoid and amoebic dysentery. An estimated 80% of all health problems and one-third of deaths in India are attributable to water-borne diseases.
According to Hindu Dharma, physical and spiritual purity are intimately related. How can one expect to become spiritually pure when even the basic health is in danger? If we look closely enough, in this whole state of affairs, were sacrificing physical as well as spiritual purity for trifling material gains, because of lack of any foresight. It is the time to realize that physical purity is as important, if not more, than spiritual purity. But at the same time, in this quest for physical purity, let us not blindly follow the West, leaving behind our utmost devotion for Maa Prakiti (mother nature), for that indeed is the soul of our motherland.