What wonderful relation is this between mother Ganga and the Hindus? Is it merely superstition? May be.
They spend their lives with the name of Ganga on their lips, they die immersed in the waters of the Ganga, men from far off places take away Ganga water with them, keep it carefully in copper vessels, and sip drops of it on holy festive occasions. Kings and princes keep it in jars, and at considerable expense take the water from Gangotri to pour it on the head of Shiva at Rameshwaram!
The Hindus visit foreign countries -- rangoon, Java, Hongkong, Madagascar, Suez, Aden, Malta -- and they take with them Ganga water and the Gita.
The Gita and the sacred waters of the Ganga constitute the Hinduism of the Hindus.
Last time I went to the West, I also took a little of it with me, fearing it might be needed, and whenever opportunities occurred I used to drink a few drops of it. And every time I drank, in the midst of the stream of humanity, amid that bustle of civilisation, that hurry of frenzied footsteps of millions of men and women in the West, the mind at once became calm and still, as it were.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Memoirs of European Travel
They spend their lives with the name of Ganga on their lips, they die immersed in the waters of the Ganga, men from far off places take away Ganga water with them, keep it carefully in copper vessels, and sip drops of it on holy festive occasions. Kings and princes keep it in jars, and at considerable expense take the water from Gangotri to pour it on the head of Shiva at Rameshwaram!
The Hindus visit foreign countries -- rangoon, Java, Hongkong, Madagascar, Suez, Aden, Malta -- and they take with them Ganga water and the Gita.
The Gita and the sacred waters of the Ganga constitute the Hinduism of the Hindus.
Last time I went to the West, I also took a little of it with me, fearing it might be needed, and whenever opportunities occurred I used to drink a few drops of it. And every time I drank, in the midst of the stream of humanity, amid that bustle of civilisation, that hurry of frenzied footsteps of millions of men and women in the West, the mind at once became calm and still, as it were.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Memoirs of European Travel
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