Ganga Goddess
"There once
was a beautiful goddess named Ganga who lived in the heavens. She fell
in love with a handsome man who lived here on earth and wanted so
badly to be with him."
Atmaja's sunk down into her covers and wandered off to sleep....
Ganga bowed
her head in sorrow,
shaking uncontrollably while drowning yet her seventh child in the
river. "I cannot believe I ever agreed to this. This is much harder
than I ever thought it could be. I have carried these children for nine
months."
Atmaja appeared before her, mortified that this woman was
drowning these infants- but then a thought crossed her mind. She
remembered
what her grandmother Vibha sometimes said. "There is always a reason
for everything, and sometimes things are not what they seem."
Atmaja placed her hand on
Ganga's shoulder, startling her. Atmaja
asked her why she would do such a thing.
Ganga's eyes were inflamed
and filled with tears."I told my husband never to ask me questions
like you just have, but I will tell you, only because my intuition
tells me you are here to learn a most valuable lesson."
Atmaja stared patiently at Ganga while she explained her actions.
"You see, I am not an evil women. I am really a goddess come down from
the heavens because of love. I fell deeply in love with a man named
Santanu and wanted nothing more than to spend a lifetime with him, but
before I left the heavens my friends, the eight Vasu gods, asked for my
help. They had gotten in severe trouble for stealing from a Brahmin
named
Vasishtha."
"What did they do?"
"Never mind what they did, they were cursed by Vasishtha to be born as
humans on earth. To carry out their punishments I have come here to
birth them and kill them one after the other in order to return them
back to the heavens. It has been a dreadful task being with child year
after year, and then disposing of each one of them."
Atmaja looked at her with doubtful eyes "When will all of this be
over?"
" I have one more child to deliver, but he must spend his entire life
here on earth because he was the instigator of the entire plot."
"Though in my eyes this appears to be a shocking situation, I truly
understand. Sometimes things are not as they seem. Ganga, you are a
wonderful friend to these Vasus. They needed your help and you were
glad to oblige them. Hopefully I will see you in the heavens one day."
Atmaja disappeared once again into the forest along the river and
returned to her room in her cozy bed.
Author's Note:
The story once again starts
with Grandma Vihba tucking her granddaughter into bed and beginning
another magical tale about the Ganga goddess. I wanted to once again
have a moral in the story for the little girl, Atmaja, and let Ganga
herself describe the feelings she felt after drowning all of her
children. I didn't want to go into too much detail explaining the story
of Vasishtha's cow and why the Vasus stole it. I just wanted Atmaja to
understand that there was a good reason for Ganga's actions. As her
grandmother had told her before, sometimes, though something
may appear to be wrong, it might be the right thing to do for a greater
good.
I also tried to tap into Ganga's feelings a bit. There was not any
detail given in the original story about whether Ganga felt sad about
the connections she may have felt with her unborn children before
murdering them. The Mahabharata explains how every year marked another
murdered infant, so we know she carried each of these children full
term. It seems that although she was helping the Vasus with their
curse, it had to have been extremely difficult drowning a small
baby.
Ganges Image Link
Ganges
Image Link II.
