THE GANGA: AN ELIXIR OF SPIRIT, MIND AND BODY

   There are certain places on the earth when you visit them, you feel your ego being crushed, your head bows down in reverence and you turn meditative. You are transported to an altogether different dimension of existence, from where you do not desire to come
back to the earthly existence again. The banks of the Ganges, before she enters the plains, is such exceptionally metaphysical territory, vibrant with spiritual verve.

  
   Most of the routine religious activities of Hindus are governed by the things starting with G: Ganesha, Gita, Gomata, Gayatri and Ganga (The Ganges, as called universally). The influence of each of these deities remains the same today, as it was thousands of years ago. It makes one smile when one reads about the government taking an initiative to cleanse Ganga. In fact, it is Ganga who came here to wash away the sins of her children and in the process, got polluted. This does not belittle the sanctity of the holy river by even a fraction, she continues to bless the life before and after the death of a soul, as well.

   An interesting tale is recounted in Hindu mythology which explains how Ganga descended on the earth.

   When Bhagiratha, the righteous King belonging to the Sun Dynasty, ascended the throne of the Kosla Empire, he found it very difficult to rule the kingdom due to the chain of disasters that followed one after another. He couldn't manage his duties as the situation turned chaotic. Upon tracing the reason, he found that the ominously baneful energies kept on multiplying as a result of the wretched sins performed by his ancestors and the only way to freedom from their sins was to bring Ganga on the earth from heaven. Bhagiratha set off to the Himalayan forests to perform an arduous penance for 1000 years to please Lord Brahma, the father of Ganga. At the end of his austerities, when Lord Brahma appeared and granted him the boon, he said that bringing mighty Ganga down to earth from heaven was not a problem, but who would keep the forceful tides of Ganga in check when she flows. If allowed to flow at her whims, she would sweep away everything that comes her way. He suggested Bhagiratha to entreat Lord Shiva to contain her force who agreed. So, when frivolous Ganga finally cascaded down to the earth roaring, gushing, sporting in mighty torrents, Lord Shiva trapped her in his matted locks of hair and allowed her to flow in a small stream. Gratified at the outcome of his fruitful efforts, King Bhagiratha lead the way for Ganga. He traveled in a Chariot and Ganga followed him. In her course, she washed away the sins and ashes of Bhagiratha’s ancestors who were burnt down due to the curse of sage Kapil. At last, his 60000 ancestors got liberated and ascended to heaven! Ganga is known by many beautiful names like Jahnavi, Mandakini, Bhagirathi, Alaknanda, Vaishnavi, etc.

    
   Ganga flows for eons nourishing the soul and soil of India. Witnessing battles and festivals, bestowing prosperity and at times swamping with floods, she flows incessantly. She is an entity of immense interest for both - the yogis who have renounced the world and politicians who cannot renounce the world! She emerges out of the Chaukhamba Summit of the Gangotri Glacier, 22480 feet above sea level and merges in the sea of Bengal after traveling a distance of 1550 miles nourishing 500 million children on its way.

   There is yet another reason why scientifically oriented people are drawn to Ganga. The Ganges water has been a source of numerous observations and experiments over the past two centuries. Officers from the East India Company used to carry barrels of Ganges water with them on their ships
during three-month-long voyages. According to them, it remained ‘ever fresh!’ The following view-box summarizes some interesting findings scientists from the world over have come across, so far.

THE GANGES WATER: EXPERIMENTAL OBSERVATIONS

• Ernst Hankin, a British bacteriologist, demonstrated the antibacterial properties of the Ganges water with evidence for the first time in 1896. He found that the cholera bacteria, when mixed with Ganges water, get killed within three hours and when mixed with other waters, they multiply! He demonstrated that they even survive for 48 hours in distilled water.

• In 1916, Hankin's studies were backed up by the discovery of non-pathogenic microorganisms called bacteriophages in the Ganges water by a Canadian microbiologist working at the Pasture Institute in France. Bacteriophages are the strain of viruses which multiply inside the harmful bacteria and kill them without harming a human being.
   Bacteriophages are being looked upon as a possible replacement for the resistant prone antibiotics.

• D.S. Bhargava, a retired professor of hydrology from Rurkee, spent years performing experiments on the water of the Ganges. He shares some interesting findings. He says that in all ordinary waters, organic substance putrefies (undergoes aerobic decomposition) and the oxygen level of the water drops. Ganges water is remarkable in this respect. In the Ganges water, the process of decomposition proceeds 10-15 times faster than the normal waters and above all, the oxygen level of the water, which is already 20-25 times higher than the other waters, doesn’t drop. He calls this factor which causes this anaerobic degradation of organic matter, as some ‘mystery factor’.

• The riddle of the above-mentioned ‘mystery factor’ seems to have been deciphered by the discovery of the scientists of IMTECH. They reported in the Indian Science Journal: The fresh water sediments of the Ganges water fosters many novel viruses, the kind of which have never been observed before. This solves the mystery of self-purifying properties of the Ganges water. They are also seen to be active against multiple pathogenic bacterial strains in the laboratory.

• Delhi based Malaria Research Center found that the Ganges water prevents the breeding of malarial mosquitoes.