New water treatment plants opening. All done by BJP's Rekha Gupta. What AAP and Congress could never do (they cried about how "dirty hindoos pollute everything" instead of tackling the industrial pollution and municipal responsibility), Rekha ji did within months.
BJP Hindutva sanghi cow dung cow piss hindoo nationalist government has been getting India cleaned up with Swachh Bharat and Jal Jeevan missions, cleaning dirt from many places of society.
what have the secular, liberal, leftist, progressive, congressi/opposition folks been doing?
Well, they've been mocking and being useless pieces of shits.
namaḥ śrī-krsna-rupinyai krsne tubhyam namo namaḥ- Yamuna Stava, Garga Samhita
Obeisances to Srī Yamunā, who was born from the left side of Sri Krsna, Obeisances to Srī Yamunā, who is of the form of Krsna! O Srī Yamunā, obeisances to you! Obeisances to you!
A Mahadevi form a day (4/9)
May KrishnaPriyaa Yamuna forever take you to the Lotus feet and Lotus heart of Her Shyam!
Flowing with Divinity : River Names of Sri Rukminī from Her Sahasranāma 🐚🫧
Gaṅgā (गङ्गा)
Gaṅgā, the celestial river, descends from the heavens, sanctifying all in her path. Rukmini, like Ganga, is a source of divine purity, bestowing grace upon her devotees.
Gaṅgāsāgaravāsagā (गङ्गासागरवासगा)
She who resides in the sacred confluence where the Gaṅgā meets the ocean, symbolizing the endless union of devotion and divinity.
Yamunā (यमुना)
The sacred river Yamuna, dark as a rain-filled cloud, is revered as the sister of Yama and the beloved companion of Śrī Krishna’s pastimes. Just as Yamuna’s waters witnessed the divine leelas of Krishna in Vrindavan, Rukmini, as the embodiment of devotion, carries the essence of unwavering love and surrender. Like Yamunā, who flows ceaselessly toward the ocean, Rukminī’s heart flows eternally toward Krishna, dissolving all barriers in the current of divine love. Just as the river’s waters grant spiritual liberation, Rukminī’s bhakti purifies the soul, drawing devotees into the embrace of the Supreme. She is inseparable from Krishna’s divine play, carrying the sweetness of devotion in her being, nourishing the world with her love, and leading seekers toward the eternal shores of Krishna’s embrace.
Sarasvatī (सरस्वती)
The Sarasvatī River, though often unseen, is revered as the sacred flow of wisdom, purity, and spiritual power. Emerging from the divine realms, it merges into the Triveṇī at Prayāga, signifying the confluence of knowledge, devotion, and righteousness. Just as Sarasvati remains hidden yet ever-present, Rukminī embodies the silent yet profound wisdom of divine love—her devotion to Krishna flowing like an eternal river, nourishing the soul beyond what the eyes can see. Like Sarasvatī, who nourishes the Vedas and purifies the mind, Rukminī’s words and actions reflect the highest truth—unwavering faith and surrender to the Supreme. She is the Saraswati of devotion, where knowledge transforms into love, and love into liberation, guiding seekers toward Krishna’s divine embrace.
Mandākinī (मन्दाकिनी)
Flowing through the divine forests of Chitrakuta, Mandākinī's waters sparkle like jewels, reflecting the purity of ascetics and sages. Just as Rukminī embodies the serene beauty of devotion, Mandakini enchants the heart with its divine presence. Lord Ram, addressing the moon-faced daughter of King Janaka; Sita, described the river Mandakini: "O Princess, behold the river with its enchanting banks, home to swans, cranes, and flowering trees, resembling the river Sangandhika of Kuvera’s realm. Its muddy fords, stirred by deer, attract the heart. Ascetics bathe here, and munis worship the sun with raised arms. The trees sway, making the hills dance, while scattered blossoms offer a floral tribute to the river. The waters sparkle like gems, forming a serene sandy beach." (Valmiki Ramayana)
Vipāśā (विपाशा)
Originating from the Himalayas, the river Vipasa symbolizes liberation—its name itself means "freedom from bondage." Rukminī, the consort of the Supreme, represents spiritual emancipation, guiding her devotees toward divine liberation.
It was as if a curtain of fog had just been torn apart. She stood dumbfounded, watching the men unload their royal jewellery and dive happily into the water. How could she have forgotten that face? That beautiful dark face surrounded by those dark blue curls? Now that she had seen it, memories came flooding back to her. The day he han been born, his father had carried him across the river; she had been there then. Then, she had been born. Oh, how she remembered now! She looked up once more at the sun, in her mind she saw her old room, in the house of Sun himself, as if in a previous life, her twin brother laughing. Twin? The God of the Dead! How he had cried in her arms when their stepmother had mistreated them. She remembered how scared they both had been of their father. She also remembered her other brother; Manu, the father of mankind! When he had died, she had sent him off, and her brother had received him! How could she have forgotten those aeons of laughter and tears?! And, the boy who played his intoxicating flute at this same riverbank! Oh, how often had she watched from a distance as he frolicked with his friends! To her, now, it seemed like a bare instant ago, when she had seen him dancing on the hoods of the multi-headed serpent!
Read more at: https://archiveofourown.org/works/51631189
Not exactly mainstream mythology, but the past few days I've been thinking about how many goddesses and some gods are associated with rivers, and how their parentages changed over the years.
There is a Wikipedia page for the Rivers in Hinduism, and while I haven't been able to cross-reference some of these (Wikipedia, due to the nature of contributions, has a vast number of references from books, travelogues and anecdotes written by individual authors instead of actual scripture or local sources), many others are easily verifiable and extremely interesting. I'd still advise taking this with a grain of salt, though, because some might not be extensively true.
The south gets a separate post, and this one is a list of the most prominent rivers of the north:
1, Ganga: As the major river in the plains, Ganga has quite a few myths attached to her. There is, of course, the story of how she was brought down to earth, with a detour through Patala, by Bhagiratha, and the Ramayana makes her Parvati's sister and Himavat's daughter by his wife Mainavati, daughter of Mount Meru. During the descent, she floods sage Jahnu's aashram so the sage drinks her up completely. Bhagiratha comes to entreat him, and Jahnu, realising his mistake, lets her out of his ear. This is Ganga's rebirth, and also why so many people call her Janhavi.
Another myth that is attested in the Devi Bhagwata Purana labels her as Vishnu's wife, along with Lakshmi and Saraswati. Once Saraswati accuses Ganga of trying to steal Vishnu's love. Vishnu refuses to intervene in this, but Lakshmi tries to soothe Saraswati, who becomes angrier and curses Lakshmi to be born on earth as a river (which Vishnu later alters so she is born as both the Padma(vati?) river, and the Tulsi plant). Ganga gets upset that Lakshmi got cursed defending her, and curses Saraswati to become a river, and adds on that men will wash away there sins in her waters. Saraswati gets even madder and curses Ganga to also become a river with the same conditions . Then Vishnu intervenes, and declaring he will keep only Lakshmi as his wife, and sends Saraswati to Brahma and Ganga to Shiva. Which is a hell of a thing to say when you have three wives in who were quarreling for your affection and you did not interfere. Predictably, the three of them band together and Vishnu in the end has to back down. A third part of Ganga goes to Shiva's hair, a third into Bharata, and the full part (no I don't get the math either) stays with him at Vaikuntha. Similarly, the other two remain his wives in Vaikuntha, while simultaneously being rivers and all the other things they're supposed to be.
The story of Ganga marrying Shantanu and drowning seven of their eight kids is pretty popular, but this myth has a bit of a prequel, in which everyone gets cursed. Ganga (called Janhavi in the Mahabharata, because she was reborn to the sage Jahnu) and this other Suryavamshi King are attending Brahma's court with the other gods. Suddenly, the wind blows off Ganga's clothes, and everyone averts their eyes, except the King. Brahma is furious at the disrespect and curses him to be reborn on earth as a man, and Ganga, who apparently didn't mind as much, decides to follow him. In some versions, she also gets cursed because she enjoys the act of being watched and Brahma went "get a room and the room is the earth". As she is leaving the meeting, she runs across the Vasus, who also just got cursed, and offers to help them. Nice :)
Also the Devi Bhagawata Purana makes Shantanu a part of Vishnu to retain Ganga as Vishnu's wife, which, given that both he and Krishna did their best to cause war, makes sense in a weird type of way.
The sacredness of river Ganga comes from the fact that she interacts with all the three supreme gods. The Bhagwata Purana says that when Vamana Vishnu stepped for the second time, his toenail pierced the fabric of the universe and let in the water from outside in the form of Ganga (yes, this is exactly what is written. I'm not exaggerating one bit, they even call her Vishnupadi for this). Then she passes past the Saptarshis, into Brahma's city, and afterwards Shiva picks her up and ties her in his hair so her force will not shatter the earth.
The Agni Purana depicts her as a fair-complexioned goddess with a pot and a flower, and names her vehicle the crocodile.
2. Yamuna: She is very often referred to as Kalindi in later texts, and is included among Krishna's eight principal wives, and also plays an important role in Krishna's childhood myths. By and large, her parents are accepted to be Surya and Sanjana/Saranyu, which makes her related to a bunch of Kunti's children in some really complicated ways.
[Side note: despite Indra being the King of Gods, Surya appears to have a much broader influence in the genealogy of heroes and most of his children end up being kings and queens.]
There are a few early texts that equate Yami with Yamuna, and by that metric, here is another story about her. In one version, attested in the Rig Veda, Yami wishes to marry her brother Yama and gets rejected. It sounds like a dialogue between a little sister and her big brother, because all Yami says is, "Let's get married, and we will be beautiful and happy forever!" and Yama keeps dissuading her by saying things like, "No, that is wrong, that is sinful. You're going to get a lovely husband, don't worry." And then Yami gets upset and calls him a bad brother. But there is no basis for this, I just got those vibes. This is very likely a moral and social rejection of brother-sister marriage. In her book, The Indian Theogony, Sukumari Bhattacharji speculates that Yama-Yami may have been married at some point, as a parallel to all the married brother-sister couples across mythologies who retain their opposite and comparative nature, and Yama committed adultery to avoid laying with his sister.
Cute story about Yamuna and Yama: In my culture, and possibly some others as well, we say that Yamuna gives 'phota' to her brother Yama, and all sisters do the same to the brothers on Bhai-Phota to cover Yama's doors with thorns so he will never be able to take their brothers away. I think Bhai-Dooj, Bhai-Beej and Bhratri-Dwitiya are celebrated similarly.
There is another story, and this one involves coercive intimacy, so skip to #3 if this is uncomfortable for you. In the Bhagwata Purana (and the Agni Purana mentions this in passing), a drunken Balarama spots Yamuna and beckons her to come "play" with him (we all know what that means). She refuses and ignores his calls, so he gets mad and using his plow, diverts her waters into the orchard he was standing in. Now frightened, Yamuna apologises to him and agrees to "play" with him, explaining that she was unable to recognise him as the Supreme Lord. Evidently, this is supposed to be a metaphor for divertion of canals for irrigation.
The Agni Purana depicts her as a dark-complexioned goddess with a pot, and names the tortoise as her vehicle. It also names Yamuna's mother as Rajni, mother of Revanta and daughter of Raivata, and I have no idea who this is. There is one Raivata who is the father of Revati, Balarama's wife, but as far as I was aware he had no daughters named Rajni and Revanta was Sanjana's son so... Idk what happened here. The most likely option is that this Raivata is one of the Rudras, but he could also be the mountain Raivata or the fifth Manu Raivata, because the Agni Purana also mentions all of them them.
3. Sindhu: So, Wikipedia thinks this river is a goddess, sourced from a book called Rivers of the Rigveda by J.N. Ravi. I have always heard of Sindhu being labelled masculine (along with Brahmaputra) at least in my mother tongue. The Mahabharata calls him the Devanada - an exclusively masculine epithet meaning River of the Gods. But wisdom.lib, a mostly reliable website, notes that at one point Sindhu is invited to Parvati's meeting with other goddesses where they discuss the duties of women. I couldn't find it, but then again, Ctrl+F is useless in the MB pdf so eh.
The Rig Veda also appears to refer to Sindhu as a man. I have only the english version, so the accuracy of translation is difficult to pin down, however, Sindhu is compared to a king or lord leading an army (the confluence) and a fleet-footed stallion (but I've also seen a mare translation though smh). SIndhu is also considered to "unite" with several female rivers - Gomati, Shveti etc. And then, right after, Sindhu is called "as handsome as a beautiful woman". Also he is invoked with the goddess Aditi and Saraswati a bunch of times and is listed with the "Goddess Floods". So make of that what you will. Maybe Sindhu is a god who sometimes looks androgynous. Or he is trans as well. Or enby. Or something else. Idk.
Also in one version of Rig Veda I came across Sindhu being called the Dragon of the Deep and I think that's the coolest thing I've read while searching up the rivers.
Varuna is credited with charting out the river Sindhu's course, is very often invoked right before Sindhu, and is also said to glorify Sindhu (Mahabharata, Sabha Parva) so it is safe to say Varuna really likes him.
Interestingly, although he is supposed to be hailed before a battle or a sacrifice, Sindhu's chariot is said to perform no violent deeds. Whether this means the Sindhu river never flooded in those days* or something else, I am not very sure, but quite a few kings of the Bharata lineage sheltered in the Sindhu basin when attacked, so make of that what you will.
*This would be very strange because a) the Sindhu nowadays floods pretty often and b) Sindhu is also called "of the [mighty] floods" a bunch of times. His other epithet is "Sindhu with the path of gold" so it could also mean that Sindhu is a bounteous and fertile river.
It is likely that the region around the Sindhu River was known as Sapta Sindhu, after the seven sacred rivers - Sindhu, Vitasta (Jhelum), Asikli (Chenab/Chandrabhaga), Parushni (possibly Iravati, i.e. Ravi), Vipasha/Arjikiya (Beas), Shatadru (Sutlej) and Sarasvati.
4. Saraswati/Sarasvati: I am going to make a separate post for her because she is, by far, the most interesting of all the rivers when it comes to evolution pre and post Indra-supremacy age and there is a lot more to share.
Here's more... cuz I realised I'm really good at it 💅✨lol
Yama: Many may think he sounds rough while in a way he does... But also he sounds like he's there to take you home. Exactly like your mother who came to take you home after the first day of school when you were anxious. His sound is comforting, it's to guide you back home.
Agni: whatever he speaks, he apeaks with a passion. A passion you'll feel is burning like the sacred flames. It have a certain warmth to it yes. You'll feel the safe fuzzy feeling you get sitting around the campfire. But when he's angry his voice will engulf you whole, give you no spac to escape and burn you fully.
Dyaus: Well... He just sounds... Vast. You'll never figure out where exactly is he speaking from, even if he's standing just infront of you. And you'll also never know which ear you heard him from... Was it left? Or was it right? His voice kinda sounds like an akashvani (lol pun intended) he takes his time while speaking and his tone is unchangeable to say the least.
Alakshmi: She sounds like she's in despair. She sounds hateful, sad and it will give you a sense of emptyness. Like as if you are sure you failed your interview but just the news haven't reached you yet... Anxiety is not the term to explain her voice but it's like that. It's empty, it's hateful. You won't want to listen to her again...
Ashwin Kumars: This two are what you call typical twin voice... They sound so similar yet so different. Their voice is like the soothing ointment you apply on your wounds, a bit straight forward but got a nice comfort to the voice. When they speak to you they speak in sync, completing eachother's sentences... It almost feels as if you just woke up from sleep after a horrible feverish night. You'll automatically feel better if you listen to them.
Vac: She sounds like every and any type of sound you can ever imagine.. You would be utterly confused trying to figure out what exact tone she's speaking in. But at the same time it's easy to understand. As if you're a child who doesn't know how to speak yet... And you're trying to pick up the words your parents are asking you to speak.
Shukra: Knowledged. If anything he sounds knowledged, but also most of the time he sounds strict like a teacher. But when he's not angry he's calm and you'll actually enjoy listening to him. But also like his graha's atmosphere his voice have a certain density to it. As if the dead might rise again listening to him (lmao bad pun sorry)
Ila/Sudyumna: There's a duality in their voice... When he's Sudyumna he sounds regal and poshed just like a prince. With softer tone and sweeter accent. But when Ila, she's a bit rougher.. even if not as royal as her male self, still sweet though.
Yamuna: Her tone is slow and she takes her time speaking just like the Yamuna river, it's sweet and enjoyable to listen... As if a storyteller from some far away land is telling you the tales.
Rudra: Powerful, sharp tone. A bit loud... Kinda like wild animals, but not bad. He speaks fast as if he's a storm or he's in a hurry. His tone will give you the feel of a hunter chasing down it's prey, it's like a lion's cry majestic and can scare you on occasions..
Savitr: His voice is pleasant to hear, a reassuring tone, just like a gaurdian. It's a bit deep and have a heavyness to it, as if protecting you from something... But at the same time it's warm like new sunrays hitting the baby plants on the morning.
Ayyappan: His voice is boyish, and sounds innocent yet as if it holds all the knowledge of this earth. It sounds like the soft jingles of temple bells or the laughter of children running around. It gives a somewhat a sense of nostalgia to you
Shani: Straight forward and sharp. A bit too sharp for liking. Also whenever he speaks it's as if he knows, now what he knows that you'll never know... His voice may sound a bit like, as if he's criticizing you.. which he maybe is. It got both the ability to scare you or make you feel safe.
YOU DID IT AGAIN!
YOU CAPTURED ALL OF THEM SO PERFECTLY. I ESPECIALLY LOVED SHANI'S SJDNEFJN he really be one of those brutally honest dudes lmao
