{"collection":"tantra","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/tantra/htg/htg28.htm","path":"tantra/htg/htg28.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/tantra/htg/htg28.htm","text":"Hymns to the Goddess, by John Woodroffe (Arthur Avalon), [1913]\n1\nO BHAGAVAT\u012a GANG\u0100!\u00a01\n Thou art the playful garland on the head of Hara;\u00a02\n Such as but touch a drop of the spray of Thy waters\n Recline on the lap of the fan-holding women of the city of the immortals,\u00a03\n Freed of the fear arising from the sinful K\u0101l\u012b age.\u00a04\n2\n(O Dev\u012b Gang\u0101!) may you purify us,\n Thou who separateth the earth from Heaven,\u00a05\n Gladdening the creeper-like matted hair on the head of Hara,\u00a06\n Descending from the region of heaven,\n Oozing from out the cave of the golden mountain,\u00a07\n Falling upon the surface of the earth,\nPurifier (as the River Mand\u0101kin\u012b) of the city of the Devas,\n Who art the powerful Destructress of the multitude of men's sins.\n3\nThe trunks of elephants and their young make play with Thy waters,\n Fragrant with ichor-maddened swarms of bees,\n Trickling from the temples of elephants bathing therein.\n Thy stream is browned with the sandal paste\n Dropping from the breasts of Siddha women\u00a01 who bathe therein.\n And nigh the river bank Thy water is strewn with Ku\u015ba\u00a02 grass and flowers,\n There thrown by sages\u00a03 at morn and even.\u00a04\n May the water of the Ganges protect us!\n4\nThis divine sin-destroying Bh\u0101g\u012brath\u012b\u00a05 now on earth\n Was in the beginning water in the vessel\u00a06 of the Primeval Grandfather.\u00a07\n Then it was pure water from the feet of the Lord (Vi\u1e63\u1e47u),\nWho sleeps on the serpent.\u00a01\n Again it was the gem adorning the matted hair of \u015aiva,\u00a02\n And, lastly, the daughter of the great sage Jahnu.\u00a03\n5\nMay the entrancing\u00a04 Gang\u0101 falling on the matted hair\u00a05 of Hara,\u00a06\n Descending from the Lord of Mountains,\n Moving sinuously like a serpent to the ocean,\n Flowing by the city of K\u0101\u015b\u012b,\u00a07\n Dispeller of countless worldly fears,\u00a08\n Saviour of those who bathe in Her waters,\n Be ever victorious.\n6\nHow can he who has seen Thy wave be bound by illusion?\nTo him who has drunk of Thy water thou givest a dwelling in the city of the yellow-clad Deva.\u00a01\n O Gang\u0101! what time the bodies of those who assume body\u00a02 fall on Thy lap,\u00a03\n For such, O Mother,\u00a04 even Shatakr\u012bta's\u00a05 grandeur\u00a06 is but a small thing.\n7\nO Bhagavat\u012b!\u00a07 on Thy bank I drink Thy water only.\n I worship K\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a, all thirst for worldly enjoyment having gone.\n Destroyer of all sin, Whose companionship is the stairway to Heaven,\u00a08\n O Dev\u012b! Gang\u0101 of lightsome, tremulous wave,\n Be gracious to me.\n8\nO Mother! O Spouse of \u015aambhu!\u00a09\n Who art ever associated with \u015aambhu\n At death, upon Thy banks, with my hands folded upon my head,\nRemembering Thy name and the feet of N\u0101r\u0101ya\u1e47a,\u00a01\n May my devotion to Hara and Hari\u00a02 ever endure\n At the time of the festival of life's departure!\u00a03\n He who of pure mind reads this sacred eight-versed hymn to Gang\u0101\n Will be wholly released of all sin\n And will go the region of Vi\u1e63\u1e47u.\u00a04\n175:1 The River Ganges, in whom the Dev\u012b manifests.\n175:2 \u015aiva. The Ganges in its descent from heaven at the call of Bhag\u012bratha was caught in the matted hair of \u015aiva.\n175:3 Amar\u0101vat\u012b. The city of India.\n175:4 Kaliyuga. The fourth, and, according to orthodox views, the present age, marked by the prevalence of sin.\n175:5 By the celestial Ganges called Mand\u0101kin\u012b.\n175:6 See note 2 ante.\n175:7 Sumeru.\n176:1 Siddhas are celestial spirit (devayoni) of great purity.\n176:2 A species of grass used in worship.\n176:3 Munis.\n176:4 The flower and grass is thrown by them when they worship the Ganges in the morning and evening.\n176:5 Gang\u0101 is called Bhagirathi, because She was brought down from heaven by the prayer of Bhag\u012bratha, son of the solar race, in order to secure heavenly bliss for his kinsmen.\n176:6 Kama\u1e47\u1e0dalu, a gourd-shaped vessel used by ascetics.\n176:7 Pit\u0101maha. Brahm\u0101 is so called.\n177:1 The thousand-headed serpent Ananta Deva (see Vi\u1e63\u1e47u Pur\u0101\u1e47\u0101).\n177:3 Hence the river is called J\u0101hnav\u012b. The verse speaks of the stages of the descent of the heavenly stream. \u1e5a\u1e63i Jahnu swallowed the Ganges, and then, at the prayer of Bhag\u012bratha, he let it issue from his thigh. The Ganges is called his daughter as She issued from him.\n177:4 Manoh\u0101rin\u012b (\"mind stealer\").\n177:5 \u015aiva, like the ascetics, wears a coil of matted hair (Ja\u1e6da)\n177:6 \u015aiva.\n177:7 Benares, through which the Ganges flows.\n177:8 Fearlessness is the special gift of the Dev\u012b. The M\u0101rka\u1e47\u1e0deya Pur\u0101\u1e47\u0101 says: \"When You are remembered in times of difficulty, You take away all fear of all beings.\" She is Bhay\u0101pah\u0101 (remover of fear); for \u015aruti says (\"Tai Up.\" ii. 9, 1): \"By knowing the bliss of that Brahman none fear anything.\"\n178:1 That is, Vi\u1e63\u1e47u, who is clad in yellow, and whose city is His heaven (Vaiku\u1e47\u1e6dha).\n178:2 Men.\n178:3 That is, when on death, they are thrown into the Ganges.\n178:4 The Dev\u012b is the Holy Mother (\u015ar\u012bm\u0101t\u0101), the first of Her names.\n178:5 Indra, King of the celestials.\n178:6 Pada or portion.\n178:7 Feminine of Bhagav\u0101n, a term applied to God, and which means He who possesses Bhaga.\n178:8 Svarga.\n178:9 \u015aiva.\n179:1 Vi\u1e63\u1e47u.\n179:2 Vi\u1e63\u1e47u and \u015aiva.\n179:3 Death (pr\u0101\u1e47apray\u0101\u1e47otsava), for it is the entrance to heavenly bliss.\n179:4 Vaiku\u1e47\u1e6dha (see p. 178. n. 1).","title":"Hymns to the Goddess: From \u015aankar\u0101c\u0101rya: Gang\u0101 (Gang\u0101\u1e63\u1e6dakam)","type":"page"}