“Siva and Ganga met as two excesses. Siva allowed the celestial river to break over his head before touching the earth, which otherwise would not have survived the impact.” 
“And in ever bathing the motionless Siva’s head, ever flowing in streams down his face, Ganga stopped the scorching god from withering up the whole world”
“This beneficial and ever-renewed equilibrium was also a secret love affair. Of no other woman was Parvati so jealous as of Ganga. No sooner did she come close to him than she saw her sister in the quivering drops on Siva’s face. Even his saliva smacked of Ganga”
“A stream crosses the sky: a stream of souls of waters, of the dead, of subtle substance. It is the Milky Way... where do the celestial waters plunge down to earth, with their tremendous mass, where do they carve out their bed?”
“Such is the disparity of force, between heaven and earth, that it is perilous, rash, to pass directly from one to the other”
“The flow of the Milky Way headed down to where a mighty corrugation lifted earth to sky. It was the Himalaya. Thus, flowing down from mountaintops, the Milky Way became Ganga, Siva’s lover...
“The impact shattered the mass of water, which then came down to earth in a thousand small streams. That was Ganga’s body, forever twisting around her lover’s head, streaming over his lips, pouring from his jet black tresses”
• • •
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