Ganges : Sacred River

to the late prime minister neru the story of the Ganges from her source to the sea from old times to new is the story of India's civilization and culture of the rise and fall of Empires of great and proud cities of the adventure of man and the quest of the mind which has so occupied India's thinkers of the richness and fulfillment of life as well as its denial and renunciation of growth and decay of life and death this is that story [Music] for every one of India's diverse people speaking with more than 800 different tongues from Nativity in a hamalian glacia through maturity in the plains to finality in the Bay of Bengal the Ganges is the Slender ribbon that laces India together the river whose common worship unites a continent and welds it into a nation and this is hardware first city of the Plains touched by mother Ganges one of India's seven holy cities a thousand years ago Hardware was ancient and through the centuries pilgrims have journeyed from every religion India to this most sacred [Music] spot they come to Worship in the temples and to cleanse Body and Soul by bathing at the Ganges from the marble steps or guts that front the [Music] river now for the weary Pilgrim the Supreme moment gunga mayi kij the pilgrim shout Victory to Gangi the [Music] mother Delhi capital of India gateway to the rich plain of the Ganges hold this city conquerors have known and you command India Imperial Britain held it adding a new City New Delhi before World Wars crumbled the Empire now Indians rule from buildings where once proud Britain stood other conquerors left their Mark in masonry the fierce Moguls who ruled 200 years built echoing tombs of Oriental Splendor before them the first Muslim Invaders bringing Allah and the sword raised their Tower of Victory the catb Minar on ruins of an even older hu [Music] civilization a relic of that Hindu past is found nearby a pillar of pure rot iron that keeps a secret still what Craftsmen hammered metal that for 15 centuries could stand alone Outdoors collecting not one Speck of rust [Music] in modern Delhi an ancient Observatory huge instruments of stone built by an Indian Galileo to Mark the passage of time a work of Titans executed by Jewelers now the flag of free India blows where once so many alien banners flu each conqueror has been conquered for always in the fruit of first Victory lies the seed of last defeat no man can hold for all time that which is not rightfully [Music] his of all who ruled none left a mark more lasting than the British they gave the people Anglo-Saxon concepts of Justice Administration education and above all the English language which is the key to the richest literature of ideas science and progress with this key India was able finally in 1947 to open the way to Freedom [Music] few Nations honor another nation's dead in luck now on the Ganges plain lavish city of Muslim Mosque and Palace there is a monument to British courage that is preserved intact for all time by the state of India amid flowering Gardens the ruins of The Residency stand reminding of 1857 and the Revolt of Indian troops mutiny the British called it 3,000 Britain men women and children were here besieged and as the poet Tennyson described it later they hailed on our houses and Halls death from their rifle bullets death from their cannon balls death in our innermost chamber death at our slight barricade death while we stood with musket death while we stooped to Spade death to the dying wounds to the wounded for often there fell striking the Hospital wall crashing through it they shot and [Music] shell on the Ganges flows on from alahabad to mapor where the first Bridge of boats connects the banks in blinding sunlight and choking dust the everchanging Panorama of Indian life is [Music] revealed only at Noonday when the sun is Crest does the pace slacken and weary animals find relief in the soothing Waters of the [Music] Ganges in this the 20th century much of India still moves at the pace of the bullet cart age-old ways and ideas rooted deep in Tradition are difficult to change it is perhaps characteristic in Indian life that in more ways than one the hand is vested with an almost mystical meaning in Temple rights gesture is more eloquent than language in dance the hand symbolizes a myriad meanings and in village life it is the hand of the unted poor performing its mechanical tasks with a smoothness oiled by time in the movement of the peasant's hands there is drudgery but also Beauty and dignity [Music] these ways of Agriculture were ancient when Alexander the Great invaded India more than three centuries before Christ the leaders of Modern India sitting in New Delhi know it and they know that it must be changed a nation cannot move at the pace of the ox in the age of the jet yet the task is Herculean India is being modernized there has been much progress since Independence and few people can point to such a record of achievement but much remains to be done [Music] [Music] [Music] the hand that holds the hammer must be put to the wheel the wheel of the mechanical Harvester and the modern plow if the nation is to survive [Music] India is an agricultural Nation most of her population are Farm Workers the very backbone of her economy with am mounting birth rate the hungry mouths cry out for greater Farm production sadly so great is the problem that call all too often goes unheard in too many villages the hands perform their appointed tasks smoothly but oh so slowly [Music] catching the morning Breeze a stately ship Glides down the Ganges past this the first city of the Hindus ancient of ancient holy of holy Benares [Music] in the morning to the rhythmic beat of wasan pounding clothes on harsh Stone the Symphony of Life on Bernar GS begins to [Music] minuendo women's voices often softly singing hymns to the god Shiva float down mother Ganges they Journey days even months to come at last to this destination of their spiritual Odyssey for as Mecca is to the Muslim Jerusalem to the Christian so bernz is to the [Music] Hindu High cast and low corper and priest men and women all bathe side by side for on the steps of this vast outdoor Temple there can be no distinctions after the early morning bath some pilgrims mark their foreheads in bright colors with signs of their faith and show that they have made the spiritual Voyage to bernz this daily ritual part of a religion that was old when Moses descended from Mount Si with the Ten [Music] Commandments today as in centuries past with floral offerings to Gangi the mother the believer enters the crowded Waters and prays reciting the many names of the cre [Music] close by a Pious man performs a breathing exercise control of the body Hindus believe is but a step toward Mastery of the mind which leads to closer Union with [Music] God amid all the clamor of life on the crowded guts there is the Stillness of death for along the banks of the Ganges the full cycle of men's Earthly years can be seen this is one of the holiest places in binaris called manik cona it is the burning gut [Music] to those who believe in reincarnation death is but another phase in the endless cycle of birth and [Music] rebirth the last dip in the sacred River this beside the Dead the living bathes both must be purified only then can the living take part in the final ceremony [Music] after bathing in the sacred River the eldest male relative of the deceased walks seven times round the p as he walks he chants a prayer lightly touching the head of the shrouded figure with the wand of jut sticks as he completes each round [Music] with hardly a backward glance the relatives of The Departed leave the guts in their eyes the ceremony has been not an act of Destruction but of Deliverance [Music] on the outskirts of beris a few miles from the Ganges is another holy place here in sth more than 2,500 years ago the Lord Buddha delivered in the quietness of a deer park his first sermon [Music] he preached the golden mean the middle path between the extremes of [Music] life he was a reformer against the established Hinduism of his day his teachings lighted a spark that fired men's minds and his words were carried to most of the lands of Asia to take roote and flourish [Music] while today Buddhism has mostly disappeared from India the land of its origin yet such was the mark he made by his words and deeds that all Hindus regard him as an incarnation of one of their Chief deities the god Vishnu pictured on the walls of this temple in sth is the legend of Buddha born of Royal parents the infant at Birth could walk a sign of his great Holiness knowing nothing of suffering and sorrow he reached manhood and then shocked by the misery around him renounced the world and went forth to find a solution to Life's problems as a Searcher after truth he became a disciple of many teachers none satisfied him he subjected himself to the most rigorous fast but at death's door discovered that a life given to self mortification was painful ignoble and profitless so breaking his fast he journeyed on to buaya and there under the sacred bod tree began his Meditation evil spirits and demons of Desire tempted him all night they screamed cursed and cajoled but he conquered them and at dawn the light of knowledge burst upon his mind and he became Sama samb Buddha the fully enlightened thus Buddha arrived at his gold and mean or middle path which he taught his disciples in santh he ministered to the sick saying whoever would serve me should also serve the sick and he preached to the robber angulimala whose bloody hands had killed 999 victims making him repent and then receiving him into the faith he preached against the cast system and admitted women to his order finally at the age of 80 Buddha his work completed lay down for the last [Music] Repose Bud GAA 25 centuries after Buddha attained Enlightenment beside the temple the tree direct descendant of the original bod tree whose branches sheltered the compassionate one in his meditation [Music] priests and pilgrims from every corner of Asia make the journey to this sacred spot to honor Buddha who gave them the middle path the path which shuns a life of self-indulgence avoids self mortification and leads to Insight and wisdom to Supreme Enlightenment to [Music] Nirvana for the Hindu holy man smeared with ashes or the Buddhist priest for the countless millions of India and Asia this land along the banks of the Ganges is more than earth and water it is the birthplace of [Music] religion and Gangi as the mother who nourished it [Music] with straining back and aching senu the traffic of the Ganges is [Music] transported and on her Banks the sweating [ __ ] still carries his burden in the fashion of his forbears only now that burden is coal for this is patner capital of the state of bear whose lands are rich with black wealth [Music] Here For the First Time began Jesus deep enough for navigation and people board paddle wheelers such as those used on the Mississippi in early days for brief Expeditions down river entering West Bengal where the Ganges divides into many streams Hindus believe it does not continue into East Pakistan but turns Southward and becomes the hogly river that flows past Kolkata to the Bay of Bengal with change of name a new role is assumed now a river of Commerce her currents carry cargos of jute from Factory to City [Music] huge sprawling biggest city in India Kolkata in this city which is almost smothered by The Fallout of India's population explosion the eye roving the streets captures a thousand conflicting images Vivid vital Unforgettable [Music] kolkata's Inland Port is one of the largest in the East but more than 80 miles of gangji's river must first be navigated some of the most treacherous Waters in the world ripped by Tides sudden Cyclones and concealing hidden shs before ships can reach the security of the harbor for her last miles the Ganges slip silently past lonely marshes and deserted Islands the stifling premonsoon heat lies across the face of the land like a hot steam towel under leaden Skies the river Glides on to meet the ocean from the beginning Indians have looked to the skies with distrust to the rivers with hope for without fail each Summer from the heavens come the monsoon rains if they are strong the Harvest of the Rivers will be full but if they are weak the hungry Millions will starve [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so the cycle begins again without the monsoon the river could not survive without the river the people could not survive so they worshiped the river the sacred River the Ganges [Music]