3. The rivers in the Major Upaniṣads

In the Upaniṣads, a little bit of information are found regarding the rivers. All the rivers of India are symbolized as goddesses except the river Brahmaputra which is considered as god. The Hindus have been revering rivers since the Vedic times. It is possible that the Indus people also might have worshipped rivers and had some associated rituals.

Life would become impossible if the liquid principle were not present. If there is no rain, there will be no food. The earth will be parched and it will no longer be fertile. The capacity of the earth to produce foodstuff would be nil, if there is no rain. The coordination of the liquid element with the solid element is, therefore, necessary to produce that element called food. People will start weeping and crying if there is no rain and it is all droughts. Living beings feel distressed on account of the absence of foodstuff caused by the absence of rain. They say, “There is no food, it is all dry.” When there is rainfall, people, animals, the plant and vegetable, kingdom, the whole of nature becomes luxurious and joyful. Whatever has been mentioned earlier under ‘food’ is once again repeated here by saying that everything is dependent on the element of water like food, for sustenance, in as much as the former is the cause of the latter. All beings live with food and water.

Now, this is evidently a subtler form of meditation that the master is prescribing. It is not necessarily a meditation on the ocean or the rivers or the water that is found in the world, but on a subtler element that is prior to the manifestation of the solid matter which is physically not visible. It must be able to conceive of the subtler principle behind the earth principle. It must be able to contemplate on the subtle principle existing prior to everything that is solid and material in its contents. It means to say that it is now gradually rising from the physical level to the conceptual and psychological level of meditation.^[1]

There are some rivers like Gaṅgā, Yamunā, Sarasvatī, Kṛṣṇā, kāverī etc., and they all go to the same ocean and fall into the same body of water. When they enter the ocean, they become a mass of water and one cannot no longer make out which is Gaṅgā, which is Yamunā or any other. If someone takes a tumbler of water from the ocean, they do not know which river-water they are taking. The distinguish character of the river has been abolished in the body of the waters of the ocean. The bodily distinction of the river is completely transcended, overcome, abolished from the roots. All is now the ocean. This is an analogy to describe what pure Being is, in respect of the various individuals here. These created individuals in bodies are like rivers tending towards the ocean of the absolute. They are reaching the Pure Being, which is the absolute, is just like the rivers entering the ocean. The rivers become the ocean and they do not know where they are, yet they are there. It cannot be said that the rivers are absent in the ocean. They are there. So, it is not a negation of individuality. It is not that the rivers are destroyed there, but they are absorbed into a larger being, into a greater reality of themselves, which is their self. It may say in a sense, the ocean is the self of the rivers towards which they go and get absorbed, which they become in the end. So is the case with all of us, all individuals. All beings in creation tend towards the ocean, the ultimate being. When they go there, they cannot distinguish themselves, for they become one with the being.^[2] The essence of the earth is water.^[3] According to Śaṅkarācārya, the earth is the essence, i.e. the shelter or refuge in this world. The water is the essence of the earth, for the earth lies extended in water, crosswise and lengthwise. Hence, it is the essence of the earth.^[4]

In the first chapter of the Bṛhadāraṇyakopaniṣad which is related to the horse-offering, the rivers are described as the group of his nerves. In this chapter, a gigantic horse for the offering has been described. It has been said that the limbs and the organs of such a horse are spreaded all over the three worlds. The term ‘horse’ is the indicator of power and motion. This world is always dynamic. This power making it dynamic has been called the horse. The term ‘horse’ denotes anything that moves very fast. This horse described herein is for the purpose of offering. This word is synonymous to the offering. Therefore, the circulation of power that conducts this world as a whole is definitely worth–offering. The little objects of this universe are his undigested grains of food; the rivers are the group of his nerves.^[5] According to Śaṅkarācārya, the head of the sacrificial horse is the dawn. Its eyes are the sun and its vital force is the air. The back of the sacrificial horse is heaven and its belly is the sky. The half digested food of the horse is the sand and its blood-vessels are the rivers. The four-parts of the horse are the ascending sun and its hind part is the descending parts. The shaking of the body of the horse is thundering. The neighing of the horse is its voice.^[6]

In one mantra of the Praśnopaniṣad, it is found that the rivers flow towards the ocean. They reach the ocean and disappear. The names and forms of the rivers are destroyed and it is simply called the ocean.^[7] According to Saṅkarācārya, the rivers which have the sea as the place of immersion just as the flowing rivers which have the sea for their goal are called Samudrayanaḥ. The rivers lose their name and form after reaching the ocean just like the Gaṅgā and Yamunā become destroyed. There is no distinction of the rivers and they are simply called the sea, taking into consideration their substance, viz. water.^[8]

The same descriptions of rivers are found in the Muṇḍakopaniṣad also.^[9] The rivers flow towards the ocean. Their names and forms are destroyed and disappeared; same is the case with people also. They are liberated from name and form and then go to the heaven, higher than the high. According to Saṅkarācārya, the rivers such as Gaṅgā flow towards the ocean. Gaṅgā becomes invisible, i.e. lose her identity on reaching the sea by giving up name and form. Same is the case with enlightened people. They become free from name and form created by ignorance and attains the splendid Puruṣa, who is greater than the Akṣara.^[10]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

(i)āpo vāvānnādbhūyasyatasmadyadā suvṛṣṭirna bhavanti | vyādhīyante prāṇā annaṃ kanīyo—————-ivemā murtā apa upāssveti || Chāndogya Upaniṣad, 7.10.1 (ii)sa yo’po brahmetyupāsta āpnoti sarvānkāmāṃstṛptimānbhavati yāvadapāṃ gataṃ————— ———yathākāmacāro bhavati|yo’po brahmetyupāste’ti bhagavo’dbhyo bhūya———————tanme bhagavānbravītviti|| Ibid., 7.10.2

[2]:

imāḥ somya nadyaḥ purastātprācyaḥ syandante paścātpratīcyastāḥ samudrātsamudramevāpiyanti sa samudra eva bavati tā yathā tatra na viduriyamahamasmīyamahamasmīti|| Ibid., 6.10.1

[3]:

aṣāṃ bhūtānaṃ pṛthivī rasaḥ pṛthivyā āpo raso’pāmoṣadhayo rasa——-rasaḥ || Ibid., 1.1.2

[4]:

Saṅkarācārya on Ibid.

[5]:

ūvadhyaṃ sikatāḥ sindhavo gudā—————yanmehati tadvarṣati vāgevāsya vāk || Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad,1.1.1

[6]:

Saṅkarācārya on Ibid.

[7]:

sa yathemā nadyaḥ syandamānāḥ samudrāyanāḥ samudraṃ prāpyāstaṃ—————samudra ityeva procyate|| Praśna Upaniṣad, 6.5

[8]:

Saṅkāracārya on Ibid.

[9]:

yathā nadyaḥ syandamānāḥ samudre’staṃ gacccanti nāmarūpe vihāya | tathā vidvānnāmarūpādvimuktaḥ parātparaṃ puruṣamupaiti divyam || M.U., 3.2.8

[10]:

Saṅkarācārya on Ibid.