River Ganga

I recently traveled over 8,000 miles to the country of India.  It had been a lifetime dream of mine to visit this land that I found oddly familiar and life affirming.  I visited many places while in the country and the place I found to be the most spiritual and remarkable is the city of Rishikesh in India's northern state of Uttarakhand in the Himalayan foothills by the Ganges River.  The river is considered holy, and the city is renowned as a center for studying yoga and meditation.  Walking around the foothills and near the river is this raw spiritual energy that I found healing and tangible.

Electric even.

Chanting from a temple across the river Ganga was ringing with familiar music I've been listening to for years.  All the years of reading books about it are true.  One must be there to experience it.  Perhaps only a earnest spiritual student comes in contact with it.  

"Hindus consider the waters of the Ganga to be both pure and purifying.  Nothing reclaims order from disorder more than the waters of the Ganga.  Moving water, as in a river, is considered purifying in the Hindu culture because it is thought to both absorb impurities and take them away.  What the Ganga removes, however is not necessarily physical dirt, but symbolic dirt; it wipes away the sins of the bather, not just of the present, but of a lifetime."

I had the wonderful opportunity to get into the Ganga via a raft.  Halfway down we jumped into the river.  This part is really hard to explain in simple words of what happened when my body was full immersed in it.  

Joy.

Freedom.

Love.

The water caressed my body and I could feel like I was flying/floating in the air.  It was cold and comfortable.  Cloudy yet clear and tasted wonderful.  

Home.

A seventeenth century poet Jagannatha came to the Ganga in despair and wrote:

"I come as an orphan to you, moist with love.

 I come without refuge to you, giver of sacred rest.

 I come a fallen man to you, uplifter of all.

 I come undone by disease to you, the perfect physician.

 I come, my heart dry with thirst, to you, ocean of sweet wine.

 Do with me whatever you will."

I remember standing up after getting out of the raft and I could feel this strong energy lifting me up and centering my chakras.  

Yes, "A river moist with love."

I am grateful and filled with Grace.

 

Comments

[Joan]

I am so full of happiness for you. Your life will continue to be full of that awareness and love as you will always be able to go back to those moments in time. Joanie

[Gopal Prashad]

Ganga is depicted as mother in Indian mythology.
Many holy chantings are written for Maa Ganga.
After the holy dip in Rishikesh I could feel why.