The great King Santanu fell in love with a women who was standing near a river. So he approached her and said "you must certainly become my wife, whoever you may be". She agreed, but only on a few conditions. These conditions were "that neither you nor anyone else should ever ask me who I am, or whence I come. You must also not stand in the way of whatever I do, good or bad, nor must you ever be wroth with me on any account whatsoever. You must not say anything displeasing to me. If you act otherwise, I shall leave you then and there. Do you agree?" King Santanu agreed and they lived very happily as a married couple. Ganga had many children. However, she drowned her first seven children in the Ganges river.
Poor Santanu was horrified every time a new child was born, the next day Ganga would drown it. On the eight time, Santanu couldn't hold his horror in anymore and finally asked her why she kept drowning the innocent children. Ganga reminded him of his promise to never question her, and told him the Reason why, before she left to go back to her river.
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| Figure 1: King Santanu stopping Goddess Ganga from drowning the eight child, Bhishma |
The Reason:
The Vasus are immortal god-like beings. The decided to visit the mortal world with their wives for a 'vacation' of sorts. During their visit to the Himalayas, they happened upon the hut of Vasishtha. In the hut's garden, the great sage Vasishtha was deep in meditation. Next to him, stood a cow and a calf. They were really beautiful and one of the Vasus' wives wanted it really badly and convinced her husband to steal it. And so one of the Vasus stole the cow and calf with the seven other brothers acting as a lookout to make sure the great sage wouldn't be roused from his meditation.
After the Vasus successfully stole the cow and calf, Vasishtha woke up. The cow and the calf were important parts of his everyday prayer/ritual to the gods. So Vasishtha cursed the Vasus to lose their immortality for a period of time and be born into the mortal realm of men. The Vasus came back and pleaded for forgiveness and for the curse to be absolved. But once a sagely word has been spoken, it cannot be broken. So Vasishtha agreed to soften the terms of the curse. "The curse must needs take its course. Prabhasa, the Vasu who seized the cow, will live a long life in the world in all glory. but the others will be freed from the curse as soon as they are born. my words cannot prove ineffective, but I shall soften the curse to this extent" (7). The eight Vasus approached the goddess Ganga to be their mother, as she is the giver of life to the entirety of the Himalayas and the North with the waters of the Ganges River. Thus, the seven Vasus were freed from their mortal curse the moment they were drowned by Ganga, but the 8th child that King Santanu saved from drowning was actually Prabhasa's rebirth, destined to live a long life in the mortal world as Bhishma.
The Vasus are immortal god-like beings. The decided to visit the mortal world with their wives for a 'vacation' of sorts. During their visit to the Himalayas, they happened upon the hut of Vasishtha. In the hut's garden, the great sage Vasishtha was deep in meditation. Next to him, stood a cow and a calf. They were really beautiful and one of the Vasus' wives wanted it really badly and convinced her husband to steal it. And so one of the Vasus stole the cow and calf with the seven other brothers acting as a lookout to make sure the great sage wouldn't be roused from his meditation.
After the Vasus successfully stole the cow and calf, Vasishtha woke up. The cow and the calf were important parts of his everyday prayer/ritual to the gods. So Vasishtha cursed the Vasus to lose their immortality for a period of time and be born into the mortal realm of men. The Vasus came back and pleaded for forgiveness and for the curse to be absolved. But once a sagely word has been spoken, it cannot be broken. So Vasishtha agreed to soften the terms of the curse. "The curse must needs take its course. Prabhasa, the Vasu who seized the cow, will live a long life in the world in all glory. but the others will be freed from the curse as soon as they are born. my words cannot prove ineffective, but I shall soften the curse to this extent" (7). The eight Vasus approached the goddess Ganga to be their mother, as she is the giver of life to the entirety of the Himalayas and the North with the waters of the Ganges River. Thus, the seven Vasus were freed from their mortal curse the moment they were drowned by Ganga, but the 8th child that King Santanu saved from drowning was actually Prabhasa's rebirth, destined to live a long life in the mortal world as Bhishma.
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This chapter contained many elements of rebirth and infanticide.
On one hand, the King is horrified by the Ganga's infanticide enough to go back on his word and break his promise of never questioning her. Like I explained in a previous post, the spoken word carries an ENORMOUS amount of weight in this ancient world, it transcends rebirths and generations. This implies that infanticide is a thing that is bad enough to break one's own word.
However, knowing the backstory of this situation brought to light many concepts that present a really complicated view of children. On one hand, after knowing that this death would free them from the pains of the mortal world and bring them closer to Brahman in the immortal world, perhaps the death of those infants can be viewed in a different way.
As I explained in a previous post, Brahman is the all-knowing one. He can be considered God. Everything and everyone is a facet of Brahman, even animals and mountains etc. Brahman sends out a soul to the mortal world with a specific Dharma. Once that Dharma or duty is completed, the soul can once again regain their closeness with Brahman and rejoin his soul. If the soul does not fulfill their dharma in one life, they must go through multiple rebirths until they achieve moksha (or the release from the cycle of rebirth) by settling their dharma and karma.
Technically, those seven babies' dharma was to be born into the living world. But once they finished that dharma, they are free to rejoin the godly realm. In many Hindu contexts, living life in the mortal world is pain and suffering. So, Ganga is offering a "mercy-kill" and saving them the pain that their 8th brother had to live through.
Considering this Hindu view on life and death and rebirth, where can we place infanticide and abortion?
Obviously, some of the most poor, rural regions of India still practice infanticide. There are numerous causes for this practice, the chief of which include a general lack of resources to support the child, the belief that female children cost more to raise than male children. With the population of India on the rise, and with the lack of proper resource management, it is increasingly hard to have enough to take care of a child. Female children are historically difficult to raise in India due to the extra costs involved in keeping them healthy and safe through the difficult puberty years. It is also common belief in India that female children are auspicious. They signify wealth and grace and prosperity, and as such, they are usually adorned with jewels and gold to match their cultural importance. This is also seen in the dowry that is presented to a groom and his family along with the bride. However, with poverty rates on the rise, less and less families are actually able to afford to raise a female child according to culture and customs. Therefore, poor families have developed a prevailing fear of raising a female child, and instead resort to infanticide and abortion.
While the infanticide in the Mahabharatha was portrayed to be a way of helping the Vasus achieve their dharma and balance their karma, these conditions do not apply to the current situation in modern times. As humans, we never actually are able to judge Karma/Dharma of others. In the situation of the Vasus, their birth and death in the mortal world was closely watched and managed by sagely and godly presences like Vasishtha and Goddess Ganga.
As such, I really do not think the case of infanticide of the Vasus can be used as a 'model' to modern infanticide.
However, knowing the backstory of this situation brought to light many concepts that present a really complicated view of children. On one hand, after knowing that this death would free them from the pains of the mortal world and bring them closer to Brahman in the immortal world, perhaps the death of those infants can be viewed in a different way.
As I explained in a previous post, Brahman is the all-knowing one. He can be considered God. Everything and everyone is a facet of Brahman, even animals and mountains etc. Brahman sends out a soul to the mortal world with a specific Dharma. Once that Dharma or duty is completed, the soul can once again regain their closeness with Brahman and rejoin his soul. If the soul does not fulfill their dharma in one life, they must go through multiple rebirths until they achieve moksha (or the release from the cycle of rebirth) by settling their dharma and karma.
Technically, those seven babies' dharma was to be born into the living world. But once they finished that dharma, they are free to rejoin the godly realm. In many Hindu contexts, living life in the mortal world is pain and suffering. So, Ganga is offering a "mercy-kill" and saving them the pain that their 8th brother had to live through.
Considering this Hindu view on life and death and rebirth, where can we place infanticide and abortion?
Obviously, some of the most poor, rural regions of India still practice infanticide. There are numerous causes for this practice, the chief of which include a general lack of resources to support the child, the belief that female children cost more to raise than male children. With the population of India on the rise, and with the lack of proper resource management, it is increasingly hard to have enough to take care of a child. Female children are historically difficult to raise in India due to the extra costs involved in keeping them healthy and safe through the difficult puberty years. It is also common belief in India that female children are auspicious. They signify wealth and grace and prosperity, and as such, they are usually adorned with jewels and gold to match their cultural importance. This is also seen in the dowry that is presented to a groom and his family along with the bride. However, with poverty rates on the rise, less and less families are actually able to afford to raise a female child according to culture and customs. Therefore, poor families have developed a prevailing fear of raising a female child, and instead resort to infanticide and abortion.
While the infanticide in the Mahabharatha was portrayed to be a way of helping the Vasus achieve their dharma and balance their karma, these conditions do not apply to the current situation in modern times. As humans, we never actually are able to judge Karma/Dharma of others. In the situation of the Vasus, their birth and death in the mortal world was closely watched and managed by sagely and godly presences like Vasishtha and Goddess Ganga.
As such, I really do not think the case of infanticide of the Vasus can be used as a 'model' to modern infanticide.
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