గఙ్గారాత్రికా (జయ మాతర్గఙ్గే)

An āratī to the Ganges in Sanskrit, signed in its colophon by the renunciate teacher Śrīdhara Svāmī Mahārāja, and opening on the line it is known by — jaya mātar Gaṅge, jaya jaya mātar Gaṅge — hailing her as being of the nature of existence, consciousness and joy, and as the breaking of becoming. Its argument is stated in the first stanza and is more precise than an āratī usually attempts: that power at the feet of the Lord which gives release has come forth in the form of you. The river is therefore not praised as a thing that washes but as the released power itself taken visible shape. The stanza following names the three ways she works and puts them in ascending order of ease rather than of merit — by being seen, by her name being spoken, and by bathing in her.