The GangA kAVeri
Debate
adiyEan's recent visit to the Holy
Badrinath Shrine took me along the ganges at Haridhwar, Rishikesh, Devaprayag,
Rudraparayag, karnaprayag, Nandaprayag , VishNuprayag.
One thing we could not miss was the
reverence the gAnges commanded and the temples dedicated to her. The evening
Harathi at Rishikesh and Haridwar, paying obesience to the river is indeed a
scene to be watched. It reflects the dedication of the people and the emotional
attachment.
The picture of people thronging the
haridwar and Rishikesh during the evening hArathi:
Every DeepAvali invariably some of my
relatives ring up early long before sunrise and wake me up and shoot the typical
question "GangA snAnam AchA?'
Did you have bath in the sacred Ganges?
Though, we all are away from the Ganges, the fact that Ganges cleanses us from
all the sins is the emphasis here.
Even the word Ganges is effective to
obliterate the bad effects says PeriyAzvAr
"Gangai -Gangai enRa
vAsagathAlEa kadu vinai kaLaindhigiRkum .." 4-7-1 of PeriyAzvAr
Thirumozhi;
Why is it so?
The very origin of Ganges itself elevates
her to this esteemed position. When the Lord Thrivikraman measured the
Worlds with His divine feet, BrahmA cleansed the feet -the divine pAdha pUjAi-
with water which flowed down and was happily taken by ShivA on his head. No cock
and bull story.
Here is periyAzvAr narrating this event
precisely and bringing the scene to our front
' chadumugan kayil
-chaduppuyan thALil -sankaran sadayinil thangi
kadhir muga mani koNDizhi
punal gangai.." 4-7-3;
Sri PeriyAzvAr had talked high of Gangai
all along the pAsuram-s dedicated to kaNDam ennum kadi nagar at Devap
Prayagai.
Sri KUlasEkarazvAr who underlines the fact
that Gangai bathing is a goal in itself can be equated only with the bhAgavatha
thiruvadi
'gangai nEr
kudaindhAdum VEATkai ennAvadhEa" This is PerumAL ThiruMozhi
2-2;
Thirumangai Aazhwar is no exception. He
reiterates the fact that the ganges which was in the heavens came down with the
great efforts of bageerathan
'thavam
purindhuyarndha mAmuni koNarndha gangayin karai mEal vadhari
AsramthuLLAnEa" Periya Thirumozhi 1-4-8 and stresses the importance of
Gangai in each and every pAsuram of this thriumozhi
'vAnavar vaNangum gangaiyin
karai mEal'
The picture of the ganges
flowing at the footsteps of the Holy Badrinath Shrine
'mandhirathizhindha
gangaiyin karai mEal and so on.
That Ganges does not represent us just
conceputally but also begot issue and commenced the great lineage of bhEshmA is
no secret.
No doubt the Ganges is being revered and
considered very sacred -the source being the Lord's divine feet. What else can
one ask for?
NOthing else can be at par then with the
ganges, is it not so?
I hear somebody is murmuring the word
'kAveri-thiru-kAveri'
that we shall discuss in the ensuing
part
adiyean
vanamamalai
padmanabhan
Azhvar EmberumAnAr JeeyAr ThiruvadigalE Saranam http://www.vedics.net
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