Water and the nature and course of rivers have for centuries defined the rise and fall of civilizations. All over the world and all throughout history. Be it the Nile or the rivers that are nurtured and fed by the Glaciers of the Himalayas.
Which have been receding at an alarming rate. Himalayan Glaciers directly or indirectly nurture 1.3 billion people in India, China, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal through the rivers they feed. Civilizations have risen around these rivers and customs, religion and faith has been defined by their existence. What happens when these rivers disappear, as they will in the next few decades if climate change goes on as it is ? Where will we be if the Ganga disappears ?
It has happened before. The great Indus Valley civilizations like Harappa disappeared when the rivers changed course. We stand on the cusp of this disaster.
Are we going to be consigned by history as the lost civilization ? A civilization destroyed by it’s own Greed and inability to understand that natures bounty is meant to be worshipped and not abused ?
if human species has screwed mother nature for centuries and centuries why not give her a chance this time around for a couple of centuries
Dear Shekhar.. i fear water will become the gold, oil, diamond, the valuable commodity of our near future! Humankind has not learned soon enough; that their tampering against nature may well destroy & deplete natures harvests of water, plants, life, rain… food. A perfect resource for the next corrupt/greedy generation of politicians around the world to control and make war for!! Are we humans, repeating a repeated path to our own doom by allowing our global leaders to walk us down the path of obliteration?
Not only that, river saraswati disappeared in Rajasthan, maybe that time there was no desert. Rivers may change courses due to natural factors too. And if it is global warming, all the glaciers and eventually all the rivers will vanish except rain catchment.
you breath, you work…you die !
why worry?
Dear Shekhar
When I joke ( I know that I am not joking) with my 75 years old widowed mother in Rishikesh, who revers and loves Ganga more than anything, that ‘better you die soon since Ganga is going to disappear’, her ever smiling face becomes pale with gloom when she replies back, ” I am going to run and jump in the lap of my mother Ganga before it happens”. She refused to move with me to the US, despite my repeated persuasions for 20 years. ” Is there a Ganga in your Amreeka ?” Her this question would gag me to say anything further.
Ultimately being her only child, I had to move back to India five years back.
We both are born and brought up in Rishikesh and like thousand other citizens of this small town, have silently (and cowardly)seen things going from bad to worse. A bunch of ‘devotees’ which performs Ganga Aarti every evening with loudspeaker, flowers and oil lamps, remains oblivious to the horrible stench of sewage, which falls in the Holy river, not more than 200 meters down.
The least we could do is to admire your sensitivity & concern to our self propelled inevitable climatic disaster. People like me are deeply touched by the intensity of your pain and feel helpless in front of the gigantic self centered ugly greed of our callous society.
Painfully
Dinesh
Dear Mr Kapoora and Mr Dinesh,
I understand how you feel. I have lived not too far from the Ganges and now I live in USA. But my roots are pulling me back and I am making a documentary on river Ganga. Please visit my blog http://www.holyganges.blogspot.com
Dinesh ji, would it possible for me to meet with you? I am coming to India on Nov 2nd and will be traveling to Rishikesh too. If you go to my blog you can read in detail about my plans. Will appreciate if you could reply: rahul.rathi@gmail.com
Mr Kapoor, it would be great if you could just visit my blog and if possible drop a line to me that I could post on the blog. :o)
Thanks so much
Rahul
Yes. India is in an impure state at the moment , and Ganga drying up has been foretold by the Puranas.
Ganga will dry up in the plains and the current ‘secular’ India ruled by Foriegn Intelligence Agents posing as Politicians will simply dwindle away.
North India will become a desert , Himalayas will melt and create a new river rushing down South – it will be called ‘Bharati’
Meanwhile , Saraswati River will replenish itself again – it has already srpung to life. Thar will become green with vegetation and a full fledged forest area.
All this is natural. What India has to keep to is the Vedic Order , under all circumstances – else , a lot of calamities are due to meet India.
If the intelligent children of India dont care about India , who will ?
I guess Now is the right time for this …
Remember “Bob Marley – Get Up Stand Up”
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: dont give up the fight!
Preacherman, dont tell me,
Heaven is under the earth.
I know you dont know
What life is really worth.
Its not all that glitters is gold;
alf the story has never been told:
So now you see the light, eh!
Stand up for your rights. come on!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: dont give up the fight!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: dont give up the fight!
Most people think,
Great God will come from the skies,
Take away everything
And make everybody feel high.
But if you know what life is worth,
You will look for yours on earth:
And now you see the light,
You stand up for your rights. jah!
Get up, stand up! (jah, jah!)
Stand up for your rights! (oh-hoo!)
Get up, stand up! (get up, stand up!)
Dont give up the fight! (life is your right!)
Get up, stand up! (so we cant give up the fight!)
Stand up for your rights! (lord, lord!)
Get up, stand up! (keep on struggling on!)
Dont give up the fight! (yeah!)
We sick an tired of-a your ism-skism game –
Dyin n goin to heaven in-a jesus name, lord.
We know when we understand:
Almighty God is a living man.
You can fool some people sometimes,
But you cant fool all the people all the time.
So now we see the light (what you gonna do? ),
We gonna stand up for our rights! (yeah, yeah, yeah!)
So you better:
Get up, stand up! (in the morning! git it up!)
Stand up for your rights! (stand up for our rights!)
Get up, stand up!
Dont give up the fight! (dont give it up, dont give it up!)
Get up, stand up! (get up, stand up!)
Stand up for your rights! (get up, stand up!)
Get up, stand up! ( … )
Dont give up the fight! (get up, stand up!)
Get up, stand up! ( … )
Stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up!
Dont give up the fight! /fadeout/
This is the greatest tragedy of our civilization.
I do not know if there is, at the philsophical level, any other culutre more sophisticatedly nature centric than ours. And i do not know, if, at the implementational level,if there is any people who desecrate what they revere, like we do.
Doesn’t Hinduism teach that life spirit moves through living, non living, animate and inanimate objects? and that everything exisits in its own rights? Then, isn’t it the diktat of nature to respect the rights of all things that we are violating?
Why are we helplessly watching this happen? At least the sacred river Ganga should be saved from turning into a cess pool. We owe it to our civilization which sprang up from her shores.
Kedar’s analogy was totally escapist; can we say he is the quintessential evil-enabler?
Rudra bhai; let’s all hope and strive that Ganges never becomes seasonal or dependent on monsoon; I strongly recommend everybody to watch the BBC documentary “The holy ganges” before adding your comments here. Nothing sustains life on this planet as she does.
I am also adding the first stanza of Shree Adi Shankaracharya composition paying tributes to the holy river addressing her as Mother; the complete composition is at:
http://bhajans.iskcondesiretree.info/21_Bhajans%20by%20Adi%20Shankaracharya/Devi%20Suresvari%20Bhagavati%20Gange.pdf.
Devi Sureshwari Bhagwati Gange,
Tribhuwana Tarini Tarala Tarange,
Shankara Mauli viharini Vimale,
Mamatir astam Tava Pada Kamale,
Bhagirathi Sukhadayini Matah
Tava Jala Mahima Nigame Khyatah
Naham Jane Tava Mahimanam
Pahi Kripamayee Mamagnanam
Voww that was a powerful night after watching some details about Ganga …
Ganga is sacred
Ganga is Bharat
We all need to save it …
Water is ever more precious today than before- and certainly most of us don’t want to reckon with this truth. So what can be the outcome of a globe/ a nation living in denial??
When will ganga dry up? Is there any time left?