The Yamuna River
The Yamuna River is the second longest tributary of
the River Ganges and it is regarded in both Hindu mythology and theology as a
representation of the Goddess Yamuna who is none other than the sister of the
God of Death, Yama - the very personification of Dharma.
Yama and Yamuna are the son and daughter of the Sun
God Surya and the grandson and the granddaughter of the Primordial Creatrix,
Aditi, and therefore are Devas or descendants of the race of Gods.
Yama and Yamuna were born onto what could only be
described as the Hindu Garden of Eden and were its first inhabitants. They were
the earliest occupants of this earthly paradise, a place that was unsoiled by
the rigors and turmoil of the physical world, and whose inhabitants were
untouched by the birth and death cycle and were not subjected to the turning of
the karmic wheel. It was a land where the sun never set and it remained
perpetually and continuously in the sky.
According to the legend, after years of isolated
existence Yamuna fell in love with Yama and sought a union between the both,
but the God of Death and Virtue refused and counseled Yamuna instead to seek
the tender embrace of another.
Thus shunned, Yamuna undertook a journey of self-contemplation
and wandered far from her brother. She returned much later to find him asleep
beneath a tree. She shook him and tried to awaken him, to let him know that she
had realized the error of her ways, but Yama neither moved nor stirred.
His body had gone completely cold and despite the
resplendent heat that pervaded the earthly paradise, his body was devoid of
warmth. It eventually dawned on Yamuna that Yama was no longer alive.
Yamuna started to cry and the tears rolled down her
cheeks like little streams and flooded the ground below her feet. Yamuna vowed
to cry for as long as the sun remained in the sky.
Realizing that their kindred and sibling was in pain
and that the world was in danger of being drowned by her tears the Devas
conspired to create night and day.
Yamuna would cry during the day and only at night when
the sun sets will her crying stop or abate. The tears that flow down Yamuna’s
cheeks are, according to legend, the water that fills the Yamuna River.
There are numerous temples dedicated to the Goddess
Yamuna - the most famous being the Yamuna temple in the state of Uttarakhand,
located at an altitude of 10, 797 feet.
Copyright
© 2020 by Kathiresan Ramachanderam
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