The Ganges is a river whose waters are sacred to the people of India. It is an object of the cultural and religious heritage of this country.
In Hinduism, any water is, in fact, sacred. Bathing for adherents of this religion is considered not just a hygienic procedure, but a real ritual designed to cleanse your body and soul from earthly suffering and sins. At the same time, the magical properties of water increase many times over if it moves. Thus, for Hindus, the most sacred embodiment of a water resource is the river, and the Ganges is considered the mother of all rivers.
Unfortunately, every year the glaciers feeding the river are shrinking, and the river's waters are getting dirtier.
Geography
The Ganges is one of the longest rivers in South Asia, its length is more than 2.5 thousand km. The river originates from the Himalayan glaciers and ends in the Bay of Bengal. The texts of ancient Hindu scriptures say that many centuries ago the Ganges did not flow over the earth's surface, but over the heavens. Its waters descended to Earth through the hair of the god Shiva, answering the prayers of believers asking to cleanse the souls of their dead from sins.
At the top of the mountain near the Himalayan glaciers is the Gamuk cave, from which milky white waters flow. The most devoted pilgrims bathe in these inaccessible waters to prove their unshakable faith.
The place of landing of the headwaters of the river is considered to be the first city through which the river flows - Gangotri, located 3000 km above sea level. In the warm season, millions of pilgrims from all over the world flock to this place to perform ritual ablutions. On the banks of the river in this settlement there is a temple, which, according to legend, was built on the place where Shiva sat, helping the river to descend to Earth.
After Gangotri, the river flows to the city of Haridwar, the name of which literally translates as "the gateway to God." Here the mountain river descends from the hills to the plains. In this city, the current is especially strong, so dozens of people die in it every year. But this does not stop believers, because such a fast moving water can wash away the most terrible sins. In addition, the transport network of this city makes it quite easy to get to the Ganges, which only attracts the attention of pilgrims from all over the world.
Downstream is Kanpur, one of the most populous cities in India, a developing center for the textile and chemical industries. Next comes Allahabat - the city of the confluence of the Ganges and Jamna rivers. According to legends, a few drops of the elixir of immortality fell into the water at this place, therefore, bathing in the Ganges in this city, in the minds of believers, heals all diseases. Below along the banks of the Mother Ganges is Varanasi. It is a city recognized as the home of all gods existing in Hinduism. The river delta is located in the Bay of Bengal.
Use of river waters
The influence of the Ganges River on the people of India is difficult to overestimate, because it provides water resources for more than 500 million people, and another 200 million believers come to it from all over the country. It is closely associated with many domestic and cultural events of the inhabitants of India, because it is the only source of fresh water for a very large part of the population. In addition, the river is considered sacred for the representatives of Hinduism, and it is called the Mother of the Ganges. People bathe in it, wash clothes, drink water, water cattle and water plants. Moreover, the waters of the river are used for many sacred rituals: shaved hair, ashes from burning bodies and the bodies of the deceased are thrown into it.
Trade also flourishes on the banks of the river. The most popular souvenir is Gangajala, water from the river in various containers, usually in iron cans. It is believed that a drop of water from the river for a whole bath will cleanse the body from diseases, and the soul from sins, therefore, for Hindus, water from the Ganges is considered the most expensive and valuable gift.
Ecological situation
Unfortunately, the sacred river is currently in an extremely disastrous ecological situation. This is due to the fact that daily water rivers are used for domestic and religious purposes by more than half of the citizens of India. The glaciers that give rise to the Mother of the Rivers are thinning by 25 meters every year. According to forecasts, glaciers may completely disappear in the next 15 years. This will be a real disaster for believers. Of the 700 million people who bathe in the river and drink dirty water from it, about 3.5 million die annually, and most of the dead are children.
The city of Kanpur is famous for the manufacture of leather goods of cattle, but all production waste (animal bodies and chemicals) is discharged into the Ganges. Often, dead fish accumulate in heaps on the banks of the river, exuding a terrible smell. Many children and adults are sick because of poor-quality water. But, unfortunately, there is no other source of fresh water in the city. In addition, even in such a polluted place, the water is considered sacred and capable of purification. Due to the ritual of ablution, many people become infected with parasites, viruses and infections.
In the rivers of the Ganges in Allahabad, there are mountains of garbage left after rituals and dumping industrial waste into the waters. This provokes protests of pilgrims towards the authorities, who do nothing with the ecology of the river. The government responded to the call of the believers and opened a dam upriver to somehow clean it up. But the ecological situation of the water is still deplorable. But the most destructive city for water is Varanasi, because the inhabitants of this city dump the bodies of dead people into the river. In spite of everything, believers continue ritual ablutions in water full of dead bodies and sewage.
Despite the fact that water is endowed with clearly supernatural powers, some of its beneficial properties have been explained with the help of science. The oxygen concentration in it is much higher than in ordinary fresh water. This prevents the rapid growth of bacteria, which really makes the river more useful and cleaner at its source near the Himalayan glaciers. However, mosquitoes and other parasites can still reproduce in the waters of the sacred river, despite the beliefs of the believers. In addition, the concentration of fecal bacteria in densely populated cities is thousands of times higher than the norm, because oxygen saturation does not save you from pollution.
Rituals
Visiting Mother Ganges and bathing in her waters is a religious obligation for all Hindus. At least once in the life of truly believers, a person should make a pilgrimage to the river. For supporters of Hinduism, she is considered the embodiment of the goddess Ganges in earthly guise. She gives believers eternal salvation in life and after death.
On the banks of the Ganges, priests often work who help believers to carry out the correct rituals and rituals of ablution. One of the most common rituals is Mundan, the process of shaving the head on a bald head at the age of 1-3 years of a child's life, in order to get rid of the severity of the sins of a past life. Shaved hair is thrown into the Ganges. In addition, a similar ritual is performed at the burial ceremony of the body of the deceased: his closest relative is shaved off his hair as a sign of grief. Old people and terminally ill people from different parts of India come to the city of Varanasi to die. Often the bodies are given over to ritual burning and the ashes are sent to the Ganges, but the dead pregnant women and young children are given to the river without being burned.
Unfortunately, such attention to the river cannot but affect its ecological status. The waters of the Ganges are becoming more polluted and environmentally hazardous every year. Thousands of children die from the use of dirty ones. The government and the people of India are faced with a serious question - how can the river, which was created to cleanse the soul of people, be cleansed? There is currently no answer to this question. It remains to believe that the people of India will be more attentive to the sacred river, not dumping garbage into it and cleaning it after the rituals.
