Why is Ganges considered holy?
A king named Sagara had sixty thousand sons.
One day, he performed a ritual for the prosperity of the kingdom. One of the integral parts of the ritual was a decorated horse, which was stolen. Sagara sent all his sons all over the earth to search for the horse. They found it in near a praying sage. This was a mischievous plan by Lord Indra. Thinking that the sage stole the horse, they hurled insults at him and disturbed his meditation. The sage opened his eyes for the first time and burned them to ashes.
The souls of Sagara’s children wandered around the earth, so their nephew began to pray to Brahma to bring Ganges to Earth. (Brahma is the creator in Hindu mythology.) Brahma agreed and ordered Ganga to go to Earth. Ganga did not want to descend from heaven, but since she had to, she decided to wash the whole earth. Then Shiva intervened – he took the Ganges in his hair and sanctified it. Ganga went down to the dungeon, but she left a small stream on Earth. That’s why the Ganges is now flowing in three locations – on Earth, under and above it. Ganga purifies unfortunate souls in Indian mythology.
Why is Ganges considered holy?
Ganga has a bad reputation abroad for being dirty. It is true to a major extent. Ganga has been contaminated with non-discriminatory human use. Throwing dead bodies and human waste is common practice. People who are awaiting death in India receive water from the Ganges to drink because they believe that they will reach salvation. It is even said that drowning in a Ganga is holy. Ganga water is also used for other sacred purposes.
Through this post i wanted to inform people why Ganga is holy in Indian culture and not defame it. Unfortunately due to miseducation Ganges has been polluted. Maybe in the future people in India will save this river from further contamination