Hare Krishna !! While reading about Ganges I came across your post today. Thought to write on this trail though it had been quite a while but may benefit others. Today we might see Ganges as a dirty river but inspite of all it's dirt, never a person falls sick for taking bath in Ganges. In 1896, Ernest Hanbury Hankin reported that something in the waters of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers in India had a marked antibacterial action against cholera and it could pass through a very fine porcelain filter. In 1915, British bacteriologist Frederick Twort, superintendent of the Brown Institution of London, discovered a small agent that infected and killed bacteria. This research was carried over and then in 1969, Max Delbruck, Alfred Hershey, and Salvador Luria were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries of the replication of viruses and their genetic structure. However, since, we are not honouring the sacred river, it is predicted that soon it would disappear.

Hare Krishna, this is now Kali Yuga and the rules and regulations are not being followed, Ganges is always pure but it is stated that Ganges will eventually disappear completely. We should not foolishly take advantage of Ganga Mata's purity and behave carelessly. Let me try to explain what I mean.

The Vedic rules of hygene are quite clear I will include this small exerpt you can find these rules in the scriptures,

1. One should not pass stool and urine in front of his shadow or in the shadow of a tree. In front of a cow, the sun, fire, air, the spiritual master and the brahmanas. Also one should not pass in a plowed field, in a field where grains are growing, in a pasturing ground, in the middle of the road, in a river and at holy places, in or by the water or in a crematorium.

So you can see clearly Not allowed to pass stool in rivers this is obvious and logical but it seems people have lost their minds if Ganges is sacred how can it be all right to pass stool into Ganges? this is insanity and hypocrisy.

I hope that someone else who is more learned can tell me where to find this next point?

In the scriptures I have read that one of the Duties of Ksatriyas is to immediately execute anyone who passes stool or urine directly into a river?

I have searched again and again for this but I have not been able to find it a second time.

I do not like to say things without being able to back them up with scripture.

I think that we need to understand this carefully, the Ganges remains pure even if dead bodies, ashes of dead bodies or stool is there but harsh chemicals and direct passing of sewerage into the ganges is a big problem which cannot be ignored it is total hippocracy to say that because Ganges is pure we can simply throw anything into the river and it is fine. This is very low intellegence way of thinking.

I don't know if you can ever expect this problem to go away I think it is better to go away from the material world completely.

You can find this described in Prabhupada lilam rita
Even during The Maha Kumba Mela Srila Prabhupada was not as interested in taking bath in Ganges as he was in Chanting Maha Mantra.
Hare krishna hare krishna krishna krishna hare hare hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare

Of course he always respected Ganges, here is a quote where His Divine Grace glorifies Mather Ganges for her purity.

SB 4.21.31

yat-pāda-sevābhirucis tapasvinām
aśeṣa-janmopacitaṁ malaṁ dhiyaḥ
sadyaḥ kṣiṇoty anvaham edhatī satī
yathā padāṅguṣṭha-viniḥsṛtā sarit

Word for word:

yat-pāda — whose lotus feet; sevā — service; abhiruciḥ — inclination; tapasvinām — persons undergoing severe penances; aśeṣa — innumerable; janma — birth; upacitam — acquire; malam — dirtiness; dhiyaḥ — mind; sadyaḥ— immediately; kṣiṇoti — destroys; anvaham — day after day; edhatī — increasing; satī — being; yathā — as;pada-aṅguṣṭha — the toes of His lotus feet; viniḥsṛtā — emanating from; sarit — water.

Translation:

By the inclination to serve the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, suffering humanity can immediately cleanse the dirt which has accumulated in their minds during innumerable births. Like the Ganges water, which emanates from the toes of the lotus feet of the Lord, such a process immediately cleanses the mind, and thus spiritual or Kṛṣṇa consciousness gradually increases.

Purport:

In India, one can actually see that a person who takes a bath in the Ganges waters daily is almost free from all kinds of diseases. A very respectable brāhmaṇa in Calcutta never took a doctor’s medicine. Even though he sometimes felt sick, he would not accept medicine from the physician but would simply drink Ganges water, and he was always cured within a very short time. The glories of Ganges water are known to Indians and to ourselves also. The river Ganges flows by Calcutta. Sometimes within the water there are many stools and other dirty things which are washed away from neighboring mills and factories, but still thousands of men take baths in the Ganges water, and they are very healthy as well as spiritually inclined. That is the effect of Ganges water. The Ganges is glorified because it emanates from the toes of the lotus feet of the Lord. Similarly, if one takes to the service of the lotus feet of the Lord, or takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he is immediately cleansed of the many dirty things which have accumulated in his innumerable births. We have seen that in spite of the very black record of their past lives, persons who take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness become perfectly cleansed of all dirty things and make spiritual progress very swiftly. Therefore Pṛthu Mahārāja advises that without the benediction of the Supreme Lord one cannot make advancement, either in so-called morality, economic development or sense gratification. One should therefore take to the service of the Lord, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and thus very soon become a perfect man, as confirmed inBhagavad-gītā (kṣipraṁ bhavati dharmātmā śaśvac-chāntiṁ nigacchati). Being a responsible king, Pṛthu Mahārāja recommends that everyone take shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and thus be immediately purified. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa also says in Bhagavad-gītā that simply by surrendering unto Him one is immediately relieved of all sinful reactions. As Kṛṣṇa takes away all the sinful reactions of a person immediately upon his surrender unto Him, similarly the external manifestation of Kṛṣṇa, the representative of Kṛṣṇa who acts as the mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, takes all the resultant actions of the sinful life of the disciple immediately after the disciple’s initiation. Thus if the disciple follows the principles instructed by the spiritual master, he remains purified and is not contaminated by the material infection.

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore stated that the spiritual master who plays the part of Kṛṣṇa’s representative has to consume all the sinful reactions of his disciple. Sometimes a spiritual master takes the risk of being overwhelmed by the sinful reactions of the disciples and undergoes a sort of tribulation due to their acceptance. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore advised that one not accept many disciples.

http://vedabase.com/en/sb/4/21/31

Replies

rajiv shankar February 15, 2023 at 7:07pm

Hare Krishna !! While reading about Ganges I came across your post today. Thought to write on this trail though it had been quite a while but may benefit others. Today we might see Ganges as a dirty river but inspite of all it's dirt, never a person falls sick for taking bath in Ganges. In 1896, Ernest Hanbury Hankin reported that something in the waters of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers in India had a marked antibacterial action against cholera and it could pass through a very fine porcelain filter. In 1915, British bacteriologist Frederick Twort, superintendent of the Brown Institution of London, discovered a small agent that infected and killed bacteria. This research was carried over and then in 1969, Max Delbruck, Alfred Hershey, and Salvador Luria were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries of the replication of viruses and their genetic structure. However, since, we are not honouring the sacred river, it is predicted that soon it would disappear.
Volunteer

anand patel June 2, 2013 at 2:29pm

THE GANGES.‏

http://www.iskcondesiretree.net/group/krishnaconsciousness/forum/to...

THE WATER OF THE GANGES.‏

http://www.iskcondesiretree.net/group/krishnaconsciousness/forum/to...
0l2b509epm9um September 4, 2012 at 6:14pm

Hare Krishna, this is now Kali Yuga and the rules and regulations are not being followed, Ganges is always pure but it is stated that Ganges will eventually disappear completely. We should not foolishly take advantage of Ganga Mata's purity and behave carelessly. Let me try to explain what I mean.

The Vedic rules of hygene are quite clear I will include this small exerpt you can find these rules in the scriptures,

1. One should not pass stool and urine in front of his shadow or in the shadow of a tree. In front of a cow, the sun, fire, air, the spiritual master and the brahmanas. Also one should not pass in a plowed field, in a field where grains are growing, in a pasturing ground, in the middle of the road, in a river and at holy places, in or by the water or in a crematorium.

So you can see clearly Not allowed to pass stool in rivers this is obvious and logical but it seems people have lost their minds if Ganges is sacred how can it be all right to pass stool into Ganges? this is insanity and hypocrisy.

I hope that someone else who is more learned can tell me where to find this next point?

In the scriptures I have read that one of the Duties of Ksatriyas is to immediately execute anyone who passes stool or urine directly into a river?

I have searched again and again for this but I have not been able to find it a second time.

I do not like to say things without being able to back them up with scripture.

I think that we need to understand this carefully, the Ganges remains pure even if dead bodies, ashes of dead bodies or stool is there but harsh chemicals and direct passing of sewerage into the ganges is a big problem which cannot be ignored it is total hippocracy to say that because Ganges is pure we can simply throw anything into the river and it is fine. This is very low intellegence way of thinking.

I don't know if you can ever expect this problem to go away I think it is better to go away from the material world completely.

You can find this described in Prabhupada lilam rita
Even during The Maha Kumba Mela Srila Prabhupada was not as interested in taking bath in Ganges as he was in Chanting Maha Mantra.
Hare krishna hare krishna krishna krishna hare hare hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare

Of course he always respected Ganges, here is a quote where His Divine Grace glorifies Mather Ganges for her purity.

SB 4.21.31

yat-pāda-sevābhirucis tapasvinām
aśeṣa-janmopacitaṁ malaṁ dhiyaḥ
sadyaḥ kṣiṇoty anvaham edhatī satī
yathā padāṅguṣṭha-viniḥsṛtā sarit

Word for word:

yat-pāda — whose lotus feet; sevā — service; abhiruciḥ — inclination; tapasvinām — persons undergoing severe penances; aśeṣa — innumerable; janma — birth; upacitam — acquire; malam — dirtiness; dhiyaḥ — mind; sadyaḥ— immediately; kṣiṇoti — destroys; anvaham — day after day; edhatī — increasing; satī — being; yathā — as;pada-aṅguṣṭha — the toes of His lotus feet; viniḥsṛtā — emanating from; sarit — water.

Translation:

By the inclination to serve the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, suffering humanity can immediately cleanse the dirt which has accumulated in their minds during innumerable births. Like the Ganges water, which emanates from the toes of the lotus feet of the Lord, such a process immediately cleanses the mind, and thus spiritual or Kṛṣṇa consciousness gradually increases.

Purport:

In India, one can actually see that a person who takes a bath in the Ganges waters daily is almost free from all kinds of diseases. A very respectable brāhmaṇa in Calcutta never took a doctor’s medicine. Even though he sometimes felt sick, he would not accept medicine from the physician but would simply drink Ganges water, and he was always cured within a very short time. The glories of Ganges water are known to Indians and to ourselves also. The river Ganges flows by Calcutta. Sometimes within the water there are many stools and other dirty things which are washed away from neighboring mills and factories, but still thousands of men take baths in the Ganges water, and they are very healthy as well as spiritually inclined. That is the effect of Ganges water. The Ganges is glorified because it emanates from the toes of the lotus feet of the Lord. Similarly, if one takes to the service of the lotus feet of the Lord, or takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he is immediately cleansed of the many dirty things which have accumulated in his innumerable births. We have seen that in spite of the very black record of their past lives, persons who take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness become perfectly cleansed of all dirty things and make spiritual progress very swiftly. Therefore Pṛthu Mahārāja advises that without the benediction of the Supreme Lord one cannot make advancement, either in so-called morality, economic development or sense gratification. One should therefore take to the service of the Lord, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and thus very soon become a perfect man, as confirmed inBhagavad-gītā (kṣipraṁ bhavati dharmātmā śaśvac-chāntiṁ nigacchati). Being a responsible king, Pṛthu Mahārāja recommends that everyone take shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and thus be immediately purified. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa also says in Bhagavad-gītā that simply by surrendering unto Him one is immediately relieved of all sinful reactions. As Kṛṣṇa takes away all the sinful reactions of a person immediately upon his surrender unto Him, similarly the external manifestation of Kṛṣṇa, the representative of Kṛṣṇa who acts as the mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, takes all the resultant actions of the sinful life of the disciple immediately after the disciple’s initiation. Thus if the disciple follows the principles instructed by the spiritual master, he remains purified and is not contaminated by the material infection.

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore stated that the spiritual master who plays the part of Kṛṣṇa’s representative has to consume all the sinful reactions of his disciple. Sometimes a spiritual master takes the risk of being overwhelmed by the sinful reactions of the disciples and undergoes a sort of tribulation due to their acceptance. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore advised that one not accept many disciples.

http://vedabase.com/en/sb/4/21/31

This reply was deleted.

Forum

Why Ganges water is polluted?

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THE GANGES.‏

THE WATER OF THE GANGES.‏

SB 4.21.31