Why Did Devi Ganga drown her 7 new born children?

Story of the 8 Vasus and their curse:

Bhishma is one of the 8 souls of a certain group of ascended beings calls the Vasus.

One day all 8 Vasus and their wives were playing and having a picnic, when one of their wives saw a very beautiful Cow grazing. She wanted her husband to capture that Cow and bring it to her. The Cow (Nandni) belonged to a great and powerful sage (Holly guru) called Vashishta. And people generally did not intervene or disturb such sages. It has been known that sages spend most of their times in spiritual work and meditation, and thus naturally accrue powers, and if harmed or insulted, have a tendency to curse the offenders.

The wife of one Vasu kept insisting that she wanted the Cow, so eventually her husband and his 7 fellow Vasus caught the cow and took it home.  When the sage returned and found out what had happened, he immediately cursed the offending Vasus to be born on earth (which is seen as a punishment for ascended beings!)  


The 8 Vasus ran to the sage and begged for forgiveness. The sage softened his curse and said the 7 who aided will have short lives on Earth and return, but the one who caught the Cow must pay for his bigger role in the crime, and must live a longer time on Earth.

The 8 Vasus then approached Ganga Devi (river Goddess of the sacred river Ganges), and requested the river-goddess Ganga to be their `earthly mother’ and on being born, to kill them so that they may only live a very short time on Earth. She agreed.

And so it was she – who met the King Shantanu and married him and bore his sons. And on each child being born (one of the souls of the 7 Vasus), she drowned them, so that their soul may immediately be set free from long and troubled life on Earth, and return to their ascended planes. The 8th Son (soul of the Vasu who had stolen the cow) was not killed on birth (by the natural and fated intervention of the King). He became a great warrior Bhishma.

King Shantanu, Ganga Devi and Bhishma


To know more about the story behind appearance of Ganga on this earth, check the following post:

*** Hare Krishna ***