1.41. ganga, the gateway to heaven

Hari Om.

Let us begin the forty first sarga of the bAlakAnDam with offering our prostrations at the lotus feet of SrIrAma and our sathguru.

sagara realizes it’s been a long while since his sixty thousand sons went in search of the horse and there is no sign of them yet. He asks his grandson anSumAn to find out what happened and retrieve the horse. here goes…

sagara summoned his grandson anSumAn and told him – “it’s been a long time and there is no sign of my sons arriving with the horse. You’re learned, valorous and equally bright as our forefathers. Follow the trail of your uncles and go in search of the yajna horse. The beings that you might encounter in the nether worlds could be fearsome. Be well armed and honour or punish beings who come your way appropriately as per their disposition towards you. Go and return successfully with the yajna horse thus enabling me to complete this yajna.”

Ordered thus by the king, fully armed anSumAn left at once sprightly following the trail left by his noble uncles into the nether worlds. Traveling faithfully on the trail, anSumAn witnessed the earth-bearing elephants which are worshipped by all beings. Respectfully he circum-ambulated the elephants and after inquiring their welfare he asked them about his uncles. He did that to each of the elephant in the four directions respectfully. The soft-spoken and intelligent elephants blessed him saying he will go back successfully with the yajna horse.

As he proceeded further after paying his obeisance to the fourth elephant, he found heaps of ashes which were those of his sixty thousand uncles. Devastated, anSumAn wailed pitiably and loudly at the fate of his uncles. In that tearful state of his being he sighted the yajna horse grazing not at a great distance!

The illustrious anSumAn looked around for water bodies in order to perform the last rites and pay ablutions to his uncles but he found none. With his sharp eyes, he saw the swift-like-wind garuDa (eagle) who is the maternal uncle of his sixty thousand uncles (sons of kESini, sister of garuDa).

The mighty garuDa consoled anSumAn and asked him not to grieve and further said, this annihilation of the sagara kumAras has been done by the sage kapila of immeasurable power. Ultimately, some good for the worlds will come out of it. garuDa continued – “ablutions performed with ordinary water won’t liberate your uncles. Perform their rites with the waters of ganga, the eldest daughter of himavAn. As ganga flows and inundates the heaps of ashes, the sixty thousand sons of sagara will ascend to the heavens. For now, please take the yajna horse, return to your grand father and enable him to complete the yajna”.

Taking the advice of garuDa, anSumAn left with the yajna horse and reached his grandfather. He recounted the happenings, fate of his uncles and the advice of garuDa exactly in the way they occurred to his grandfather sagara.

The king was distraught to hear the words of anSumAn but performed the yajna in conformity with the scriptures and went back to his capital.