{"collection":"tantra","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/tantra/htg/htg36.htm","path":"tantra/htg/htg36.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/tantra/htg/htg36.htm","text":"Hymns to the Goddess, by John Woodroffe (Arthur Avalon), [1913]\n1\nO MOTHER GANG\u0100! co-wife\u00a02 with the daughter of Himalaya,\n Thou art the necklace on the dress of the Earth,\u00a03\n And the banner staff whereby one ascends to Heaven.\n O Bh\u0101g\u012brath\u012b!\u00a04 I pray to Thee.\n May my body perish after it has lived on Thy banks,\n After it has drunk Thy pure water And swung on Thy waves.\n And has remembered Thy name and cast looks on Thee.\n2\nO Mother Gang\u0101! O deliverer from Hell!\nEven a bird living in the hollow of a tree growing on Thy bank,\n Even a fish or a tortoise living in Thy waters\n Are greater than a King worshipped by his enemies' wives,\n Made afraid by the sound of the bells on the necks of his maddened elephants.\u00a01\n3\nNot even a bull or a bird or a horse,\n Nor a serpent nor an elephant,\n Suffer the pains of rebirth and redeath\n If they live at K\u0101\u015b\u012b\u00a02 on Thy holy banks.\n Better off are they than even a Raja living elsewhere,\n Fanned though he be with the couris\u00a03 of courtezans,\u00a04\n Whose ever moving golden wristlets sweetly tinkle.\n4\nO our Supreme Lady Bh\u0101g\u012brath\u012b!\u00a05\n O wanderer in the three regions!\u00a06\n When shall it be that I shall be fanned\n By the hands of heavenly women\u00a07 with their beautiful couris?\n When, too, shall I be happy enough to see my body\n Pecked by crows, devoured by dogs, drawn along the earth by jackals.\nCarried by Thy currents, tossed upon Thy banks,\n And borne by Thy waters to and fro!\n5\nMay the daughter of Jahnu\u00a01 be ever victorious and protect us,\n She who is like the fresh fibrous stem of the lotus-like feet of Vi\u1e63\u1e47u,\u00a02\n Like a garland of jasmine \u00a03 flowers on the head of \u015aiva,\n Like the banner of victory of Lak\u1e63m\u012b presiding over liberation,\n She\u00a04 who cleanses us of the stain of sin arising from the Kaliyuga.\u00a05\n6\nMay Thy sacred water be pure for my daily bathing,\n Thy water covered with leaves of palm and tam\u0101la,\u00a06\n Of S\u0101la\u00a07 and pine, with all their creepers\n On which play no rays of the Sun.\u00a07\n White and brilliant, like the conch, the Moon, and the water-lily,\n Stirred by the rising breasts of the wives of the Gandharvas,\nDevas, Siddhas, and Kinnaras,\u00a01\n What time they bathe therein.\n7\nMay the water of Gang\u0101, who ever charms, sanctify us;\n She who has fallen from the feet of the enemy of Mura,\u00a02\n Who wanders upon the head of the enemy of Tripur\u0101,\u00a03\n The Destructress of sins.\n8\nMay the auspicious water of Gang\u0101 ever purify us;\n The Destructress of sins, the great enemy of sins,\n Adorned with waves, wandering in the mountains,\n Piercing through the caverns of the Lord of mountains\u00a04\n With roaring sounds.\n Stealer of the dust from the feet of Lord Hari.\u00a05\n9\nWhosoever at early dawn,\n Having cleansed his body\n And purified his mind\nOf all uncleanliness arising from the sinful Kaliyuga,\u00a01\n Reads this hymn to Gang\u0101 composed of eight verses,\n Shall never fall into the ocean of the world again,\n But shall attain liberation.\n224:1 From the Brihatstotraratn\u0101kara, edited by Jagann\u0101tha Mehta (Benares).\n224:2 Sapatn\u012b. P\u0101rvat\u012b, the daughter of Him\u0101laya, is one wife and Gang\u0101 the other.\n224:3 The stream is compared to a necklace of pearls on the dress of a man or woman.\n224:4 So named as having been called down by Bhag\u012bratha. Vide ante, p. 188, note 7.\n225:1 When the bells are rubbed against the necks of the elephants. The picture is one of victory, pomp, and beauty.\n225:2 Benares.\n225:3 Whisks made of yak tails.\n225:4 V\u0101rastr\u012b.\n225:7 Divyastr\u012b.\n226:2 Gang\u0101 was born from the feet of Vi\u1e63\u1e47u.\n226:3 M\u0101lati. Gang\u0101, on Her fall from Heaven, touched the head of \u015aiva. There Her white encircling stream is compared to a wreath.\n226:4 That is, Gang\u0101.\n226:5 The fourth and worst of the ages.\n226:6 Names of trees. The reference to pine and palm show the descent of the stream from the Himalaya to the plains of Bengal.\n226:7 In the caverns of the Himalaya.\n227:1 Classes of minor divinities or Devayoni.\n227:2 That is, \u015ar\u012bk\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a (Vi\u1e63\u1e47u), who slew the Daitya Mura.\n227:3 That is, \u015aiva, who conquered the three cities made of gold, silver, and iron of the three Asuras Kamal\u0101k\u1e63a, T\u0101rakak\u1e63a, and Vidyunm\u0101li respectively.\n227:4 Him\u0101laya.\n227:5 Vi\u1e63\u1e47u, from whose feet She was born.\n228:1 Vide ante, p. 163, note 6.","title":"Hymns to the Goddess: From V\u0101lm\u012bki: Gang\u0101 (Gang\u0101stotra) by V\u0101lm\u012bki","type":"page"}