Week 6 Story: The Rescuing Rivers

The Rescuing Rivers

"Ugh," I thought, "more litter. Doesn't this woman know that she shouldn't just throw her unwanted baskets in my waters?" 

It was a clear summer morning when I saw a woman approaching my shoreline with her waste. I knew she planned on disposing of whatever it was in my waters. The people of the region had developed a nasty habit of polluting my waters with their unwanted items. Didn't they know how damaging this behavior was? Couldn't they see the changes already taking place in my currents? I was so tired of people polluting me and damaging their own lives as a result. 

But I quickly realized that this woman...this woman was different. She wasn't like the other humans who came to dump their garbage. They always looked arrogant, careless. She looked...heartbroken. As she got closer, I realized what was in her basket. "No!" I roared, though I knew she couldn't understand me. How could a woman put intentionally allow her infant child to be swept up in me, the great River Aswa? I was angry. I picked up my currents, in the hopes that this woman would fear me and carry her child to safety. But it was no use. The woman was determined to send her child to his death. 

Or was she? As she gently placed the basket in my waters, I heard her earnestly pray the most desperate, loving prayer. She prayed protection for her child. She prayed for safety. She prayed for the women she hoped would find and love him. While I was touched by her prayer, the part that made me realize the gravity of her situation when she prayed to the child's father. This was Surya's son! The son of the Sun floating in my very waters? I had to do something. 

"Sisters!" I called, "Answer me! Surya's son is drifting in my current. We must find him a path to safety." 

As I guided the child as carefully as I could, my sisters and I planned a route for him that would bring him to a family that would love him and protect him. 

"There is a family who lives on my banks that have been praying for a child," Ganges proclaimed, "I know they would care for the boy. Perhaps we can use answer the prayers of this couple and the boys mother."

So it was settled. My sisters and I passed the boy though our waters as gently as possible, but we knew the journey would be treacherous. But by some miracle (and I truly do think it was a miracle), the tiny boy in golden armor survived the journey. When my sister Ganges announced that the boy had been found by his new family, we all rejoiced. We all knew this boy was special, and determined to keep a careful eye on him to see the wondrous things he would do with his spectacular life. 

The River

Author's Note: I chose to expand on the story of Kunti and her son. The originally story focuses on Kunti's pious life, Karna's celestial conception, and then Kunti's heartbreaking decision to send him away in the river. As soon as I read this story, I knew I wanted to write it from the rivers' perspective. I thought that the rivers would want to protect an infant, especially when it was the son of another god. 

Source: Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913).