Ganga Ma: A Pilgrimage to the Source, Itinerary

West Bengal State

Placed in the eastern most region of India, limiting with Bangladesh, the State extends from the high mountains of Beijing in the North, to the Bay of Bengal in the South. The waters descending from the Himalayas, being the Ganges one of them, form the biggest delta in the world before flowing into the Ocean. The cradle of Indian Renaissance and the National Freedom Movement, West Bengal has long been considered the cultural center of India, a land of aesthetics and political activism, famous for its writers, artists, spiritualists, social reformers and revolutionaries.

Sagar Island

Remote in the edge of India where the Ganges meets the ocean, this place is considered by the Hindus the true mouth of the Ganges, although it lays on the Hoogly river, one of the multiple branches that form the delta at the Bay of Bengal. By mid January the island receives hundred of thousands of pilgrims who gather here for the Gangasagar Mela. After prayers in the Kapil Muni Temple the chanting devotees descend to the waters with offerings to Ganga Ma.

Calcutta

The last leg of the Ganges for the Hindus is the Hoogly river,which crosses the city of Kali, the destructive side of Shiva. Calcutta with it's 12.000.000 inhabitants, is one of the most congested and polluted cities of the world. Center of culture, literature, politics and religion, the city was a creation and the capital of British India until the turn of the century. The ancient temple of Kalikata was built where a finger of Shiva's wife fell after her corpse was cut up. To appease the temperament of Kali, two baby goats are sacrificed every morning and the blood is offered to the goddess. The temple is an active center of devotion, being visited by hundreds of pilgrims a day.

Nabadwip

This ancient center of Sanskrit tradition is a rest site for the pilgrim of the Ganges, who spends days to visit the many temples in this holy city.

Bihar State

The name Bihar is derived from the word "vihara", meaning monastery. The region used to be a great religious center for Hindus, Jains and, most importantly, Buddhists. In this area Buddha attained enlightenment. A descendant of the original tree still flourishes there today.

The poorest State of India is notorious for overpopulation, political corruption, violence and "dacoity" (banditry). As a consequence of this atmosphere, the State of Bihar grew free of tourism in spite of its Buddhist sites, natural beauty, lakes, waterfalls and hot springs. Buddha's prediction continue to come true: the river continually floods, causing disastrous problems for Bihar's dense and impoverished population.

Patna

In the 5th century BC Ajatasatru founded the capital of his empire in Patna, fulfilling Buddha's prophesy that a great city would arise there. At the time of the great Emperor Asoka, 2nd century BC, Patna was the largest city in the world and capital of India's greatest empire. The remains of the ancient city can still be seen in the district of Kumrahar. Placed in the southern side of the Ganges, the capital of the State, is noisy, dirty and polluted, but not as chaotic as other large cities of India. In the old part of the city stands one of the holiest Sikh temples, the Har Mandir.

Bodhgaya

Here Buddha attained enlightenment 2600 years ago. Today it's the most important Buddhist pilgrimage site in the world, hosting daily hundreds of devotees in its Mahabodhy Temple, which marks the spot where Buddha set out on his life of preaching.

Uttar Pradesh State

The most populous state of India, has about 150 million people. Seventy eight percent of its population work in agriculture on the Ganges basin which irrigates about 13 million hectares of cultivated land.

Uttar Pradesh contains four of the seven holy cities of Hinduism: Haridwar, Massura, Varanasi and Ayodhya, the birth place of Rama, the seventh incarnation of Vishnu.Over two thousand years ago the area was part of Ashoka's great Buddhist empire.Muslim raids from the north-west began in the 11th century, and by the 16th century the region was part of the famed Mughal empire whose capital was for some time at Agra.

Sarnath

In this village, Buddha preached for the first time to the public under a Banyan tree. Since then, a growing number of tibetan buddist monateries host Tibetans in exile, and the site is visited once a year by the Dalai Lama. The Buddist scene shown in Ganga Ma captured the weekly ceremony at the monastery in the Institute of Tibetan Studies.

Varanasi

The City of Shiva, known in the past as Kashi or Banaras, is one of the oldest living cities of the world. For centuries Hindus have flocked to Varanasi in the belief that dying here frees the soul of sin and ends the cycle of death and rebirth. At the end of life, it is the wish of the Hindus for their corpses to be burned in Varanasi and have their ashes scatered on the river.

Along the river banks are a series of Ghats (steps leading to the river) where pilgrims bathe, pray and cremate their dead. Every day, hundreds of people arrive to spend their final days and many corpses are cremated here. See photos Ganges .

The city also has many temples that the Gang Ma team visited. Vishwanath, among them, which is the most sacred temple in Varanasi. Dedicated to Vishveswara- Shiva as lord of the Univerrse- the god is the center of daily fire ceremonies; and the Durga Temple, known as the Monkey Temple due to the many monkeys that live on the site.The filmmakers spent in this enchating city a total of three months and no one day passed by without them having the chance of capturing the stunning visuals offered by this enclave of Hindu culture.

Allahabad

Three rivers meet at the same place. Two are the holiest rivers for the Hindus: the Ganges and the Yamuna. The third, the Sarasvati, believed to run underground, is only visible to the initiates.

This holy city is the host of the biggest gathering of people in the world: the Maha Kumbha Melah, that is, the biggest Melah of all. (See photos Kumbha Mela ) The last Mela, which accours every 12 years,took place here in January 2001, congregating about 25 million people in the 40 days celebation.

The members of "Ganga Ma" project spent 25 days on a houseboat, sailing from Varanasi to Allahhabad. They documented the event anchored in the holy confluence of the Ganges and the Yamuna rivers; that cpnfluence is the holiest site for the Hindus and where the bath of the holy men takes place every 12 years.

Haridwar

The "Gateway to the Gods" or the "Gate of Vishnu" is located where the Ganges emerges from the Himalayas to begin its slow progress across the plain. It is considered one of the holiest cities of India. Being one of the spots where Vishnu dropped the fluid of immortality, a gathering of Sadhus and holy man is held in here at the Kumbha Melah festival every three years.

The pilgrims gather here in May and September, provisioning for the last leg of the journey to the source of the river. Here and at Rishikesh the Ganga water is considered the holiest. People come from all over the country to fill vessels for their weddings, burials and other special occasions.

Mukhba

This small village embelished with traditional architecture and engravings, hosts the image of the goddess Ganga during the winter. At the openning of the season the return of the image to Gangotri, her main place of residence, is occasion for a large celebration. "GangaMa" relates the ceremonies and the procession from end to end.

Gangotri

This town is considered the holiest site for the pilgrims of the Ganges, who end their journey presenting offerings to Ganga at her temple. Abandoned in winter due to the rigours of the weather, this village glows the rest of the year with the visit of holy men and thousands of pilgrims at the end of their spiritual quest.

Gomuck

"For this is Gomukh, source of all begotten things, where shadows struggle into form against the white unending canvas of eternity, where all that has ever been exist unuttered".

As the glacier retreated with the centuries after the mith was created, the real source of the Ganges lays 14 miles away at the feet of a wall of ice, surrounded by snowed high peaks above. The "Cow Mouth", at 13.500 feet, strange and compelling, says all that can be said about beginnings. No fixed road leads to Gomukh, only stone cairns guide the few holy men who endure the hardship of the path. The Ganga Ma team spent a week in a tent waiting for the weather to clear. The ice shots of Ganga Ma portray the glacier that gives birth to the Ganges.

And then...above the source and above the glaciers, a small plateau of ice and pools reflect the peaks of the Himalayas, most prominent of all the Shivling or the Lingam of Shiva, shown in Ganga Ma as the ultimate source, the birth of the Ganges.

Text compiled from "The Ganges" by Steven G. Darian, University Press of Hawaii, 1978; "India" by Lonely Planet 1999, and other sources.

As we look over the Ganges river that kisses the banks of this city of Kashi (light), the city of Shiva. The divine principle of transformation of consciousness and body, form and being."

Om Nama Shivai !

Ol Doinyo Lastoli, le Baaba (aka) Vemavajra Kali Baaba