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4 Brothers: Visions of Paradise
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Introduction Chapter 1 Chapter
2 Chapter
3 Chapter 4
Chapter One: The Coming of Ganga
RRRIIINNNGGG. The school bell rang
its final sound of the
day. It was time to go home. The four brothers, Alex, Ty,
Trey, and
Andy, gathered their belongings and prepared for the long walk.
"Excuse me, boys. May I walk with you?" asked Mr. Mahajan,
the teaching assistant from
"Sure, sir. We’d like that,"
replied Alex.
So the group walked in silence until reaching a creek. Trey,
the
adventurous one, started tip-toeing across rocks scattered haphazardly
along
the bank. "I liked your story about Ramayana, Mr. Mahajan,” he
said.
"I'm glad you liked it,” replied the teacher. “The
Ramayana is just one of the popular stories
from my country. There are others. Would you like to hear one?"
After a thoughtful
pause, he said: “Ah yes. This little
creek reminds me of a story that is told in the land of my birth. Long ago, even before King Rama roamed the
earth, there lived King Sagara. He wanted
children, especially a
boy, an heir to his throne. But neither
of his two wives could give him children. So, for years the King
prayed
to god Shiva for an heir. Finally, his prayers were
answered! One of his wives gave birth to
six thousand sons. And the other wife gave
birth
to another son,
but just one. The King was thrilled beyond words—until the god
Shiva revealed
to him that the six thousand sons would all die at the same time. Only the one child would live to rule his
kingdom."
"WOW!”
called Ty. “Six thousand children?”
Mr.
Majhan laughed. "Yes, six thousand. Things
were a
bit chaotic, but this story involves more than
chaos.
The one son to be left, Asamanjas, was not a very good person,
and the King had to
banish him from the kingdom. Luckily Asamanjas himself had a son,
Ansuman. And unlike his evil father, Ansuman was a good man. So, when word reached the King, he had
Ansuman taken from his father and brought to the castle.
King Sagara relished the boy’s quick thought,
grasp of information, and ability to connect with people. But
things were
about to change. King Sagara decided to
perform a horse ceremony."
"A
horse ceremony! What’s that?" asked
Alex.
"It
is an ancient ceremony long performed by the kings of my country.
The
king releases a horse from the castle stables and lets it go free, but soldiers follow the horse and keep it
under constant surveillance. If another kingdom tries to capture
the
horse, the king wages war on that kingdom.”
"That’s
a weird practice. Why release the horse if it’s going to lead to
war?”
asked Alex.
"It’s
a challenge to neighboring kingdoms. By
releasing the horse, King Sagara was testing the resolve of his
neighbors. And for a while, things were
calm. The horse roamed freely and
untouched. Then,
it was gone. The soldiers, who just happened to be the six
thousand sons,
looked
everywhere. And finally, they found
it—under guard in the underworld of the sage Kapila. When the
King’s sons
tried to retake the horse, Kapila captured and turned all six thousand
of
them to ash at
once."
"Oh
my gosh," said Andy. "Just
like that Lord Shiva guy said.”
"That's
right Andy. And that isn’t all.
Kapila kept the six thousand souls in the darkest depths of the
underworld.
King Sagara was gripped with grief, for in my culture—as in many
others—the souls
of our bodies must be freed to enter heaven, but the souls of
the King’s
sons were trapped."
"That was
mean,” said Ty.
"Yes,
it is,” the teacher replied. “And though
the King tried desperately to free them, he could find no way—not until
he sent
his beloved grandson to Kapila, that is.
That worked, for Kapila liked Ansuman and agreed to release the
souls—but
only into the river
"What’s
the river
"
"Man,
that’s a lot of praying," mused Andy.
Mr.
Rajaman laughed, then closed his eyes and started muttering words under
his
breath, as if he too was praying.
The
boys looked away and into the water, trying to imagine what he was
doing while
watching their reflection in the water.
And suddenly, that reflection changed. All four felt
themselves
being pulled away from the creek, being transported through time and
space. They felt dizzy, stunned, immobile. The forest and
the creek
were gone. The place was now desolate
ugly and uninviting, an arid desert.
"My gosh! What’s happening? Where are we?” the
boys asked.
"SShhh," replied the teacher.
“Turn your eyes to the bush in the distance." And as they
looked, Mr Majahan announced: "We are here.
"So who is that standing over there?” Trey asked carefully.
"That is Bhagiratha," said Mr. Majahan.
"What is he doing? Is he okay?"
"He is praying to the god Shiva.
Suddenly
the sky opened, and the Lord Shiva, a glowing presence, descended on a
cloud.
A crash of thunder echoed across the sky, and a huge gush of water
plunged
toward the earth from the back of Lord Shiva's hair, forming a
beautiful
oasis around Bhagiratha. As
suddenly as Lord Shiva had appeared, he was gone, transported back to
heaven on
a ray of light so bright the boys were forced to close their
eyes. When
they opened their eyes, they were back on the bank of the creek,
sitting
with
their teacher.
"Wow! What...just...happened?"
Mr.
Majahan smiled. "This is where I
must leave you. See you tomorrow." And with that, he
walked away. The boys went home—thoughtfully.
Author's Note: For my first story , I decided to start
with the Ganges River coming to earth. From a geographical point
of view, the Ganges River originates in the Himalayan mountains of
India and flows over 1500 miles in an easterly direction into the
country of
Bangladesh. From a religious and mythical stand
point, the Ganges River is considered to be one of the holiest places
in the Hindu religion. Some believe it to be so sacred that their
lives cannot be completed without bathing in its water.
I found the original story of Ganges River to be full of excitement and
adventure, as did my children. I
also tried to make sure I stuck to the traditional details of the
story. There was a lot of
background information
leading up to the actual coming , or you could say birth- of the
river. Although some might find this to be unimportant to the
"birth," I believe the back story to be an intricate piece of the
story. The goddess Ganga
would not have needed to come to earth without the horse ceremony
taking place. It is a cause and effect
relationship. I tried to include as much detail as I could
in the word space allowed. I was able, however,
to use my imagination a little in describing where Ganges came to
earth, and how the four brothers envisioned it which I enjoyed.
Bibliography
1. "Ganga" Websource: Wikipedia
2. "The Ganga Basin."
Websource: University of Albany:
College of Computing and Information
Image "Shiva
Ganga Divi" provided by Saytha Sai Baba
Background Image Provided by Flickr