The Cleaning of Manasi Ganga

Recently the cleaning of Manasi Ganga began under the auspices of the National Lake Conservation Plan by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, whose website informs as follows:

In the State of Uttar Pradesh, the projects for ‘Prevention of Pollution and Revival of Mansi Ganga Lake’ in Mathura and ‘Pollution prevention & Conservation of Ramgarh Tal’ in Gorakhpur have been sanctioned at a cost of Rs.22.71 crore & Rs.124.32 crore respectively. An amount of Rs.9.22 crore has been released for project implementation.

Sakhicharan Dasji, our Radha Kund correspondent, blogging at Living in Sri Radha Kund has given the following report. Many more pictures were posted there, so please visit his site, which is rich in Radha Kund katha.

(March 27) I was unaware of it and quite surprised to see the work going on when I went there for a snana. These images are all from March 27th taken from the southern bank. Soon I will return and get some updated photos. By tradition Manasi Ganga is the place where pilgrims begin and end there parikrama of Sri Giriraj Govardhan. Briefly, I will retell the story about the appearance of Manasi Ganga.



This Hanuman image was found in the muck at the bottom of the steps.

Nanda Maharaj, Yasoda Ma, and many others decided to go on pilgrimage to take bath in the Ganga. On the way they stopped to spend the night in Govardhan. Krishna began to think, ” All of the holy rivers are present here in My Braja, but alas the Brajabasis do not understand this. Let me show them.” As soon as Krishna thought in this way Mother Ganga appeared in person before Him and everyone else. The Brajabasis were extremely surprised to see her there. Krishna told them, “All of the holy rivers in the three worlds are present in Brajabhumi because they wish to do the seva of Brajabhumi. Because you were all going to leave Braja to bathe in the Ganga she has mercifully appeared before you, therefore take your bath in her sacred waters. Henceforth this place will be known as Manasi Ganga.” This took place during the night of the new moon in Kartik Masa. Mother Ganga appeared from the mind of Sri Krishna.

(May 11) I went back to see how the cleaning process was going and found that they are still working at it in full force. A company from Delhi was hired to do the job and they brought in many pieces of heavy equipment to remove all the sludge and gunk from the bottom and haul it away. From what I understand it is being dumped somewhere between Govardhan and Radhakunda. They are predicting that they will be finished in about two months.

Manasa Ganga has been frightfully dirty for a long time. It is good to see that the central government is taking this initiative. It appears that enough consciousness raising has been done by Braja Foundation and other groups in the Braj area to attract federal money.





Already looking a lot better.



Check Sakhicharan's blog for more pix.