Ganga’s Connection with Three Gods

by Swami Krishnananda

(Spoken on April 27th, 1992.)

The Ganga is very holy because it comes from heaven. It is not coming from a mountain, as people say. The connection of this Earth to the Sun is very, very remote, very far. This Earth is not merely moving around the Sun; the Sun is the very soul of all the planets that move around it. Just as you feel that you are sitting here because of the soul permeating your body, and the soul pulls the body, all the planets that are going around the Sun are the body of the soul, which is the Sun. The Earth is connected to the Sun not connected mechanically by a chain but as the body is connected to the soul. They are one big mass of living entity.

This living entity, which is the whole mass of the solar system, is connected to the entire arrangement behind it, called the Milky Way. There is a large stellar organisation called the Milky Way which includes so many solar systems, and that Milky Way you can say is the soul of all the solar systems. The Milky Way is connected to the entire space and time, so nothing is coming from one place. As the Earth is connected to the central space and time beyond even the Milky Way, the whole space, which is so big, vibrates with a force that generates all the manifestations in the form of stars, suns, planets, including the Earth. Therefore, anything that you can see in this world can be said to have its origin somewhere beyond the world.

Our Indian scriptures say that Ganga has three forms: visible, invisible and intermediate. The invisible, the source of Ganga, is in the heavens. You may ask how Ganga has come from the heavens. As everything is connected to the centre, so invisibly, in the form of an energy or force, Ganga can be said to have its source in the highest heaven, where space and time manifest themselves.

It is said that when Narayana, Vishnu, took a Cosmic Form, his feet touched the heaven, and the celestial pot in which Ganga, in a heavenly form, which was contained in the Creator’s realm, toppled when the feet of the cosmic Vishnu touched that pot. It fell down, and it is so sacred because it washed the feet of Vishnu. It fell with great force on Siva’s head, so it is triply sacred. Firstly it was in Brahma’s pot, then it fell on Vishnu’s feet, then it fell on Siva’s head, so it has the purity and the sanctity of having touched the three great gods of the universe – Brahma, Vishnu, Siva – the Creator, Preserver, Destroyer of the universe. And then it descends into the Earth and it flows here in a visible, solid form which looks like water. Hydrogen and oxygen are not solid but they mix together and become what is called solid water, so even solid things have a liquefied and ethereal form at the back. Finally, everything is made up of space only, and the space-time-cause complex is the manifestation of consciousness, which is God Almighty.

All these things that I am telling you are only an illustration to show that everything is divine in this universe, and especially Ganga because of its connection with the three gods. Therefore it is very holy. Hindus believe that if you take bath in it or drink a drop of it, you are so much purified that you will never take another birth. You will attain God. When a person dies, the body is thrown into the Ganga so that the bones and flesh of the person who departed, which were connected to their soul, will have such repercussions upon the departed person’s soul that it will communicate a message. Like money that you send from bank to bank, a communication will be established with the mortal remains towards the soul which has departed. That’s why people who die are generally consigned to the Ganga, and people who are living all over India, when they become old, generally settle down on the Ganga bank. They want to pass away on the Ganga bank either in Benares, Kashi, Varanasi, or Rishikesh, Haridwar, somewhere. The desire of every Hindu is to go into the Ganga after death, the holiest of holies.

This is the story of Ganga with its God-oriented, divine force. It is not merely water. It is the energy of God flowing in front of you as a blessing come from Brahma, Vishnu, Siva – Creator, Preserver, Destroyer of the whole universe. Blessed you are sitting here on the bank of Ganga and breathing the vibrations coming from it, and drinking it. All blessing be upon you.