Week 3 Story

Bhagiratha sat staring at the ground beneath his feet. He could hear his ancestors calling up to him, in agony and suspended in time. How could he free them? The sun was high in the sky but the wind was calm. The forest canopy shielded Bhagiratha and cooled off his burnt skin. He had a long journey to arrive at the forest of Mother Earth. Bhagiratha had heard that this forest, called Shiva, was the epicenter of Mother Earth. He felt the energy of life vibrating from the ground and the breath of the earth. Mostly, Bhagiratha heard the cry of his trapped ancestors. He could no longer bear the agony of their neverending screams and carried them with him like long chains dragging from his shoulders and back.
Trickles of sweat dripped down Bhagiratha's back and he understood what he had to do. He had to send the great waters of Mount Ganga deep through the earth to wash his ancestors out of eternal suspension. This, he knew, would devour the earth, for the power of the Ganga would be too much for the stagnant Mother Earth below his feet.
But he was underestimating Mother Earth. She could feel his desperation and recognized it from the infinite other suffering souls she had witnessed. Every day she did her duty to teach her children how to find happiness, for this was her only goal. Today she would practice this task.
Bhagiratha broke a large branch from a tree and spent the next three days carving it do a sharp point. His knife cut off shaving after shaving from the branch and Mother Earth felt the drop of each shaving like a tear falling from Bhagiratha's cheek.
Meanwhile, the peaceful forest of Shiva had felt the broken energy of Bhagiratha. The animals were afraid of his rage and had all left the forest, the trees had stopped producing fruit, and the flower on the ground grew away from where he sat on the forest floor carving his weapon.
Then, Bhagiratha began his journey to the top of Mount Ganga. This was no ordinary mountain. The top was not visible from the forest of Shiva and cut into the clouds above. As Bhagiratha climbed up the mountain, the soft grass turned to hard rock and, eventually, into cold ice. The ice covering Mount Ganga was so thick entire worlds could fit inside.
Bhagiratha climbed for three years up Mount Ganga. he was a hollow man at this point. Skin and bones, he could hardly move his legs on his own. His hair had long ago turned course and lifeless. His memories of green had disappeared and his whole body was broken and chipped from frostbite. When Bhagiratha reached the top of the mountain, he found a weak point in the ice and stuck his spear into its depths.
A deafening crack split through the sky as the ice broke apart and began shattering down the mountain. Bhagiratha soured down the mountain on a block of ice and watched as, halfway down the mountain, it began to turn into the most beautiful, crystal clear water he had ever seen.
When the water reached the earth, Bhagiratha expected it to crush through the earth and set his ancestors free. Instead, everything went black and when Bhagiratha awoke, he was floating in a calm river and Mount Ganga was nowhere to be seen. Bhagiratha could not believe it and asked Mother Earth, "How did you tame the Ganga? Mount Ganga is the most powerful entity in the universe!"
"My dear one, I was simply still," replied Mother Earth.

Mountain by Free-Photos on Pixabay

Authors Note: This story is based on Ganga's story in The Ramayana. In this story, a King was attempted to do a horse sacrifice. On the way, he and his relations found a meditating saint. They tormented the saint and were reduced to ashes with only one man spared. This man had a grandson, Bhagiratha, who made it his mission to allow his ancestors to find salvation. He did this by praying to Shiva to let down Ganga in order to wash his ancestor's bones in holy water and cleanse them. In order to prevent Ganga from destorying the earth, Shiva absorbed all the water in his head. Then, he allowed some to trickle from his hair to cleanse Bhagiratha's ancestors. This one trickled turned into the oceans of today. This story is from The Ramayana by R. K. Narayan.