Ganga is always considered a sacred river. It is worshipped as “Mother Ganga” in Hindu Dharma. In Hinduism, it is believed that you can get rid of all your sins once you plunge in Ganga water. Why is it so much special? Let’s know about the story behind the most sacred river of Hindus. It is written in the holy books of Hinduism that the Ganga river was in heaven and was brought down to the earth.
Hence, it is called a holy river. The story behind River Ganga starts very long ago when King Sagara was ruling Ayodhya. He had two wives namely Kesini and Sumati. Kesini had a son, Asamanjas who was very cruel. Sumati had sixty thousand sons and they were very proud of themselves. People didn’t like them because of their attitude. However, Kesini’s grandson was kind.
River Ganga: An asset
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The River Ganga acts as an essential resource for the people living beside the Ganga basin. They all depend upon the river for irrigation, fishing, bathing, tourism, worshipping, and sometimes drinking. These days the water quality of the Ganga River is very worse. With increasing climate change the water level is also decreasing. However, the government is now working upon cleaning the river.
King Sagara had a very strong empire. Once he decided to make a boundary in his entire empire so that people get to know who’s the conqueror of the land. For that, he made up his mind to conduct “AswamedhaYagya”. It means the sacrifice of the horse. The finest horse from his stables was selected for the Yagya. The horse was set free to trot in the empire. No one was supposed to halt his journey.
The Story of River Ganga
Gods were never happy with the proud and cruel Sixty Thousand sons of King Sagara, hence they thought of making the world a better place by teaching them a lesson. God of Gods, Indra in the form of a demon came down to the earth and stopped the King’s horse also hid it. Hearing the news that his horse is missing, King became very angry. He ordered his sixty thousand sons to look for the horse. They all went looking for the horse but no one could find the horse.
Finally, the horse was found near a wise man named Kapila Muni. All the sixty thousand sons thought he was the thief but actually, he was a maharishi. Kapila Muni was deep into his prayers. At the same time, all sixty thousand sons started running towards him. Kapila Muni got disturbed and opened his eyes glaring at them as a result all the sixty thousand sons burnt into ashes.
