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LA GANGA
FEBRUARY 2026
La Ganga is central to Lavor Ombra’s beliefs, writings and ethos, together with the Goddess Chhaya, our namesake.
She flows 2525kms.
“ One life affirming moment was wading into in her lucid waters, upstream, in Rishikesh with my daughter . The water was transparent with large round smooth stones. I filled my suitcase with these stones and they are scattered through-out my plant pots in Palermo.“
Of her birth, we prefer the version that La Ganga is the eldest child of Himavat, the son of Brahma and king of the Himalayas and Queen Menavati.
That she was born of and descended from the Himalayas resonates.
Upon attaining youth, the devas took La Ganga to Svarga where she assumed the form of a river and flowed.
In Varanasi, on each visit, she prompts tears with her sights; the movements on her banks, a regular much needed catharsis. A therapist. Life and death converge here .
Our dedication to La Ganga is steadfast. She is wordless and all- knowing .
La Ganga is the mother of humanity. In Hindu belief, she absorbs humanity. Pilgrims disperse the ashes of their kin to attain moksha, the liberation from the cycle of life and death.
Further musings regarding our Goddesses Dear / our Muses:
La Ganga is tangible and flowing. She is a physical, geographic reality as much as a spiritual one. She represents active movement, liberation of sins and nurturing of the Indian subcontinent.
Chhaya is born out of shadow. She represents Maya (illusion) and the unseen psychological realms. She does not wash things away; instead, she quietly absorbs, reflects and endures.
In her descent from heaven, La Ganga’s raw, torrential power threatened to shatter the Earth. Lord Shiva absorbed her impact into his matted locks, to pacify her fierce energy.
Conversely, Chhaya was created precisely because Surya’s blinding heat and intensity were too fierce for his original wife, Sanjana, to bear. Chhaya possesses the unique divine endurance to withstand the Sun's direct glare, effectively absorbing and tempering his harsh rays.
La Ganga is maternal, completely forgiving, and unconditionally loving. Immersion of a body, albeit living or in ashes, cleanses a soul of bad karma.
As the mother of Shani (Saturn)—the cosmic judge of karma—Chhaya's lineage is deeply tied to spiritual accountability. While La Ganga liberates karmic debt, it is Chhaya’s realm that first invites a reckoning.
Both goddesses are bound to the life-giving water systems of the physical world.Whilst the Ganga is the most prominent holy river, Chhaya is also the mother of the Tapti River,a sacred riveralso flowingthrough central India.
