Ganges - Does the sins go away by dipping in Ganges- two stories

Ganges - Does the  sins go away  by  dipping in Ganges- two stories

By

P.R.Ramachander

(The first story is very popular   in Kerala and I read the second one in Tamil  in the post of  Mannargudi  Sitaraman  Srinivasan.  Thanks to him.)

I.  Pakkanar   and the bitter gourd

There is a poor saint  belonging   to a low caste,

Long long time    ago  in the God’s own country named Pakkanar,

One day his  master  told him that  he is going to Benares,

So  that he can bathe  in ganges, so that   all his sins  would go away.

Pakkanar gave a  bitter gourd to his master to take to Benares,

With a request  to dip it  in  the holy ganges and bring it t back with him,

And the master  just did that and on return gave  the bitter fruit to Pakkanar  ,

Who immediately  bit in to the gourd  and said, “Its bitterness has not still gone.”

II.Saint Ramakrishna  Paramahamsa      and ganges

A great poor  , very aged   follower of saint Ramakrishna ,

Planned to go  Benares,  to bathe   in Ganges  and return back sinless.

The saint   with a smile told   that nothing like  that would happen,

As  once he leaves his dresses  on the shore   and takes  the  dip,

The sins would remain in his   dresses and would again  get attached to him.

The devotee  was  slightly convinced and asked  the Bhagawan,

“They say  if I am  cremated after  death on the shores of Ganges,

After my death , then my soul   would go to heaven,”

The saint told “possibly , but the sins  of that body  get scared  of Ganges,

And would climb on some   tree and wait for    good sinless  persons  like you,

And as soon as they see  you, they would occupy your body.”

And so after  a pilgrimage  , you possibly would return with more sin.”