The Story of How the River Ganges came to Earth from Heaven
Lord Shri Ram's ancestor was Suryavanshi King Sagar, he was a very religious and just king. King Sagar had two wives, whose names were Keshani and Sumati. King Sagar had all kinds of luxuries, but he was worried about only one thing that he had no children. King Sagar decided to do penance of Lord Shiva to get children. King Sagar took his two wives Keshani and Sumati along and went to the forest to do penance. In the forest, all three of them together did severe penance of Lord Shiva. Pleased with their penance, Lord Shiva appeared before them. Lord Shiva blessed Queen Keshani that she would get a son who would carry forward the lineage of King Sagar. And Lord Shiva blessed Queen Sumati that she would get sixty thousand sons.
After receiving the boon from Lord Shiva, King Sagar returned to his capital Ayodhya with his two wives. After some time, Queen Keshani gave birth to a son. This son was named Asamanjas. At the same time, instead of a son, a lump appeared from the womb of Queen Sumati. This lump had the seeds of sixty thousand sons. This lump was augmented in a pot filled with ghee, which produced sixty thousand sons. King Sagar became very happy on the birth of sixty thousand sons. He announced to celebrate the festival in the whole kingdom. A grand festival was celebrated in the whole kingdom on the occasion of the birth of princes.
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Gradually all the princes started growing up, all of them became proficient in one subject after another and became brave warriors. Queen Keshani's son Asamanjas was wicked by nature, he started oppressing the subjects. King Sagar used to be very unhappy with his son Asamanjas, King Sagar got Prince Asamanjas married thinking that maybe he will improve after marriage, but this did not happen. Asamanjas did not give up his nature and he started troubling the subjects like before, saddened by this, King Sagar exiled Prince Asamanjas from his kingdom.
With time, King Sagar's sixty thousand sons hoisted the flag of their valor in all ten directions, no one had the courage to fight with them. King Sagar's sixty thousand sons were like a huge and powerful army in themselves. King Sagar started feeling happy seeing his powerful sons. On the other hand, after being exiled from the kingdom, Prince Asamanjas got a son from his wife who was named Anshuman. When Asamanjas's son Anshuman grew up, he became virtuous and brave.
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One day King Sagar thought of performing Ashwamedha Yagya to expand his kingdom. After this, King Sagar built a grand Yagya Mandap, where he organized Ashwamedha Yagya. On one side King Sagar was performing Yagya, on the other side the Yagya horse was sent with the army. The Yagya horse passed through the borders of many states, none of the kings of those states dared to stop the Yagya horse, because stopping the Yagya horse meant fighting with the powerful army of Ayodhya. No king wanted to fight with the army of Ayodhya, so almost all the kings accepted the friendship of King Sagar of Ayodhya.
When King Sagar's Ashwamedha Yagya was about to be completed, the King of Heaven Indra started fearing the danger of losing his throne. To stop King Sagar's Ashwamedha Yagya from being completed, Indra hid the Yagya horse in Kapil Muni's ashram in the darkness of the night. The next morning when the Yagya horse was not seen, its search was started. To search for the horse, troops were sent in all directions. Even after a lot of searching, when the yagya horse was not found, King Sagar sent his sixty thousand sons in search of the sacrificial horse. King Sagar's sons also searched for the horse in all directions, and while searching, King Sagar's sons reached Kapil Muni's ashram. Kapil Muni was engrossed in meditation at that time. When the princes searched in the ashram, they saw the yagya horse tied there. The princes thought that Kapil Muni had stolen their horse and now he was pretending to be engrossed in meditation. Thinking this, all the princes started abusing Kapil Muni and calling him a thief. Hearing the noise, Kapil Muni's meditation was disrupted.
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The princes had no idea about the penance power of Kapil Muni. As soon as Kapil Muni's meditation was broken, all the princes started abusing him more and started calling him a thief. They all wanted to punish Kapil Muni. Hearing all this, Kapil Muni became very angry. Kapil Muni cursed and burnt all those sixty thousand princes to ashes at that very moment. When King Sagar got the news of all the princes being burnt to ashes, he felt very sad and a wave of grief spread across his entire kingdom. Then King Sagar called his grandson Anshuman and sent him to Kapil Muni to apologize to him on behalf of his sons.
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Anshuman reached Kapil Muni's ashram and bowed to him and asked for forgiveness on behalf of his uncles. He also asked Kapil Muni about the way to salvation for his uncles. Then Kapil Muni told Anshuman that all of them can get salvation only after being touched by the holy water of the heavenly river Ganga. Saying this, Kapil Muni returned the yagya horse to Anshuman. Taking the horse, Anshuman reached King Sagar and told him the whole story. After this, with a sad heart, King Sagar completed the yagya. After completing the yagya, King Sagar handed over his kingdom to Anshuman and himself went to the forest to do penance to bring the river Ganga from heaven to earth for the salvation of his sons.
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King Sagar did severe penance of Brahmaji in the forest for many years, while doing penance King Sagar died. When King Anshuman came to know about this, he was very sad. After this, King Anshuman handed over his kingdom to his son Dilip and himself went to the forest to do penance. Anshuman also did severe penance to bring Ganga to earth but he too could not succeed and he also died while doing penance. When King Dilip's son Bhagirath grew up, King Dilip handed over his kingdom to son Bhagirath and himself went to the forest to do severe penance. King Dilip too did not succeed in this task and he also died while doing penance.
Bhagirath had no children, so King Bhagirath handed over his kingdom to his ministers and himself went to the Himalayas to do penance. King Bhagirath also did severe penance of Brahmaji for many years and finally Brahmaji was pleased with the penance of King Bhagirath. Brahmaji asked King Bhagirath to ask for a boon. Then Bhagirath said, O Supreme Lord Brahma, if you are pleased with my penance, then give me this boon that the sixty thousand sons of my ancestor Maharaj Sagar get salvation through the holy water of Gangaji, also give me the boon of having a child so that my lineage can continue. Then Brahmaji said, your wish of having a child will definitely be fulfilled but Gangaji cannot descend on earth, there is a problem in this. King Bhagirath asked what is the problem in bringing Ganga to earth. Brahmaji said, Bhagirath, when Ganga will come to earth from heaven, then her speed will be so fast that the earth will not be able to handle it and Ganga will tear the earth and go to the netherworld. Therefore, to handle the speed of Ganga, you will first have to please Lord Shiva by doing severe penance, only he can handle the speed of Ganga. Saying this, Brahmaji disappeared.
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After listening to Brahmaji, King Bhagirath did not give up. He started performing rigorous penance at the same place to please Lord Shiva. Then after many years of rigorous penance, Lord Shiva became pleased. Lord Shiva appeared and told King Bhagirath that I am pleased with your penance, so to fulfill your desire, I will carry Ganga on my head. When Goddess Ganga came to know that she has to go to earth, she became very angry because she did not want to leave heaven and go to earth. Goddess Ganga decided that she will take Lord Shiva to the netherworld by flowing him in her water with her tremendous speed. She landed on Lord Shiva's head with tremendous speed. Lord Shiva sensed the arrogance of Goddess Ganga. Lord Shiva contained the speed of Ganga in his matted hair. Goddess Ganga could not free herself from Lord Shiva's matted hair even after trying her best.
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When King Bhagirath saw that Goddess Ganga had merged in Lord Shiva's matted locks, then Bhagirath again performed penance of Lord Shiva to free her from Lord Shiva's matted locks. Pleased with King Bhagirath's penance, Lord Shiva freed the river Ganga from his matted locks. After being freed, the raging stream of Ganga started following King Bhagirath. Bhagirath started moving with the stream of Ganga towards the place where his sixty thousand ancestors had been burnt to ashes. The stream of Ganga was also coming behind him. All the kings, gods, demons, yakshas, kinnars etc. coming in his way were welcoming the stream of Goddess Ganga.
King Bhagirath was moving forward with the flow of Ganga. On the way, there was the ashram of sage Jahnu. The sage was performing a yagya in his ashram. At the same time, the entire ashram of sage Jahnu including his yagya was swept away in the strong flow of Ganga. Seeing this, sage Jahnu became very angry. Sage Jahnu filled his hands and drank all the water of the flow of Ganga. When King Bhagirath looked back on the way, he could not see the flow of Ganga. He again turned back and reached sage Jahnu. He told his purpose to sage Jahnu and requested him to free the flow of Ganga. Hearing Bhagirath's request, sage Jahnu freed the flow of Ganga with his ears. Sage Jahnu had freed Ganga, hence the river Ganga is also called Jahnavi.
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When Goddess Ganga descended from Devlok into Lord Shiva's matted locks, Lord Shiva freed her at a place called Gomukh situated in the Himalayas. Bhagirath first brought Gangaji from Gomukh to Haridwar, hence even today people go to Haridwar for salvation. From Haridwar, via Prayagraj, Kashi, Pataliputra, King Bhagirath brought the stream of Ganga to Kapil Muni's ashram, where the ashes of his sixty thousand ancestors were lying (that place is situated in the present-day state of West Bengal). As soon as the ashes touched the holy water of Ganga, King Bhagirath's sixty thousand ancestors got salvation. Seeing this, King Bhagirath bowed down to Goddess Ganga. After giving salvation to the sons of Maharaj Sagar, the holy stream of Ganga merged into the sea at a place called Gangasagar. Even today, this holy stream of Goddess Ganga is flowing continuously through this route and is redeeming the fallen.
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