For ages, Ganga has been a source of inspiration to saints, sages, poets, authors, scientists, leaders, and many who have gathered at Her banks. Ganga is not only the lifeline of nearly 500 million people who live along Her banks and the ecosystems She supports, but She is truly the cultural and spiritual heritage of India. As renowned environmentalist and GAP member Dr. Vandana Shivaji said, “If Ganga lives, India lives. If Ganga dies, India dies.” For these reasons, Ganga Action Parivar is inspired and dedicated to work towards Ganga’s restoration, protection and preservation.
Reverence of Ganga
“The Ganga, especially, is the river of India, beloved of her people, round which are intertwined her memories, her hopes and fears, her songs of triumph, her victories and her defeats. She has been a symbol of India’s age-long culture and civilization, ever changing, ever flowing, and yet ever the same Ganga.” – Jawaharlal Nehru, First Prime Minister of India
“The Ganga to me is the symbol of India’s memorable past which has been flowing into the present and continues to flow towards the ocean of the future.” – Jawaharlal Nehru, First Prime Minister of India
“Gita and Ganga constitute the essence of Hinduism; one its theory and the other its practice.” – Swami Vivekananda
“A bath in Ganges undoubtedly absolves one of all sins; but what does that avail? They say that the sins perch on trees along the banks of the Ganges. No sooner does the man come back from the holy waters that the old sins jump on his shoulders from the trees. The same old sins take possession of him again. He is hardly out of the waters before they fall upon him.” – Ramakrishna Paramhansa
“I will lay my bones by the Ganges that India might know there is one who cares.” – Alexander Duff
“I am convinced that everything has come down to us from the banks of the Ganga – astronomy, astrology, spiritualism, etc. It is very important to note that some 2500 years ago at the least Pythagoras went from Samos to the Ganga to learn geometry.” – Francis M. Voltaire
“O Ganga, strange are your ways, you fill up the sea but dry up Bhavsagar – the sea of troubles of worldly life.” – Ratnakar, Hindi poet
“The sacred river Ganges in India is one of the most enduring images of the country.” – Daniel Lak
“If Ganga lives, India lives. If Ganga dies, India dies.” – Dr. Vandana Shivaji
“The land where the Ganges does not flow is likened in a hymn to the sky without the sun, a home without a lamp, a Brahmin without the Veda.” – Jean Tavernier, Travels in India
Reverence for Water
“I do not know about gods; but I think that the river is a strong brown god – sullen, untamed and untractable.” – T.S. Eliot
“We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one. Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.” – Jacques Cousteau, Oceanographer
“Water is the driver of Nature. When you put your hand in a flowing stream, you touch the last that has gone before and the first of what is still to come.” – Leonardo da Vinci
“A man of wisdom delights in water.” – Confucius
“Water is the critical resource issue of our lifetime and our children’s lifetime. The health of our waters is the principal measure of how we live on the land.” – Luna Leopold, Hydrologist
“Jal bahule srustinasa, jalabihune srustinasa. (Too much or too little water destroys creation.)” – Oriya proverb
“If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.” – Loren Eiseley
“Whenever you drink the water, remember the spring.” – Chinese proverb
“The Waters are Nature’s storehouse in which she locks up her wonders.” – Isaac Waltonta
“Next to blood relationships, come water relationships.” – Stanley Crawford
Reverence for Nature
“The Mississipi, the Ganges, and the Nile…the Rocky Mountains, the Himalaya, and Mountains of the Moon, have a kind of personal importance in the annals of the world.” – Henry David Thoreau
Inspiration for Seva (Selfless Service)
“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.” – Rabindranath Tagore
Inspirational Quotes on Positive Change
“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world–that is the myth of the ‘atomic age’ – as in being able to remake ourselves.” – Mahatma Gandhi
“Never doubt that a handful of committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead