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| Where the taxi dropped us for the boat ride to the Havelli |
It is probably very pretentious to even consider sharing
my trip to Varanasi given we were in Varanasi for barely 24 hours but opportunity
presented and one cannot ignore a chance to visit one of the worlds greatest
ancient cities and the holiest of holy places for Hindus.
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| The Mosque in tha background and the Ghats in the foreground |
Varanasi, known for a period of as Benares, is, along
with Aleppo in Syria, consider the oldest continually occupied cities in the
world.
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The Mosque caps the skyline despite the status of
Varanasi as Hinduism's holiest city |
It is the most sacred of the seven Hindu holy cities and is also an
important site for Buddhists being the site of Buddha's first public sermon
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The narrow road lined with a shrine for
almost every house |
As a yoga teacher and teacher in training preparing for
further study with my teacher in Rishikesh and the Himalaya in a few months
time it was probably a good place to push my journey into a deeper appreciation
of the Gods and Goddesses of yogic traditions.
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| A cow herded out of a house |
Certainly Shiva featured strongly in my dreams and my
lessons whilst on and around the sacred Ganga river.
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| Running of the Buffaloes |
Three river trips, an excellent stroll through the
surprisingly peace filled streets in old Varanasi town, until of course we
found ourselves near the Golden Temple, Vishwanath. Then it got really crazy in The Gods Must Be
Crazy kind of way.
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| Tea store |
From our brief visit
inside the temple grounds to our lengthy and truly informative, intensively
sensitive visit to the Burning Ghats where throughout the day we witnessed
countless pyres, some rather too close
up and as simply fires in the background
of our peaceful travels on the majestic, filthy Ganga.
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| Milk being boiled for curd |
The streets of Varansai were surprisingly peaceful and,
apart for the ubiquitous cow pats, were not as dirty as I had been led to
believe. Religious observance is central to life here and there is you can
barely walk 10 metres without encountering some form of temple or shrine no
matter how modest.
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| Chai stall, note the fan forced coal stove! |
The majority of the commerce centres on servicing
pilgrims. In addition to chai and paan, the stalls traded in cloth for wrapping
bodies, sweet, coconuts and flowers as offering for gods, diya for burning oil
and barbers for the ceremonial shaving of heads.
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| Smoke and pyres from the Burning Ghat |
The tour around the Burning Ghat was conducted by
Suraj, who works in a hospice that care
for the elderly without money and family who come to Varanasi to die. The hospice cares for them and helps to fund their
funeral pyre. He explained that the families are happy to see us there as this
joining them in an auspicious event as cremation at Varanasi ends the cycle of
reincarnation and leads to heaven. No
one cries as this will sadden the soul of the departed and this is the reason
that female family members don't attend.
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| The pyres at Burning Ghat still burning at at 6.30 am |
Each fire burns for 2.5 to 3 hours and uses between 50-70
kg of wood. After paying the fee to access Shiva's eternal flame and purchasing
eucalyptus grown near Hardiwar and shipped down river, the family members have
their heads shaved. The body is wrapped in fine cloth and washed in the Ganges
before given time to dry in the sun. It is then placed on the pyre with the
family members adding the final wood and ghee before a senior family member
lights a bundle of fine kindling/straw in Shivas flame. He then walks clockwise
around the pyre five times one for each element plus the ether and lights the
pyre.
Apart from the male chest bones and female pelvic bones,
everything is consumed by the fire. The fire is finally extinguished with five
containers of water from the Ganges and the remaining bones are deposited in
the river along with the ashes.
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Our morning boat ride, contemplating
what lies beneath! |
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A local boy fishing, given the human activity the
number fish was somewhat surprising |
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| The boat trip to the Aarti |
Our evening travels on the river took us up river in our
row boat to witness the 6pm Aarti. An
offering on a grand scale to Shiva via the sacred Ganga.
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| Morning prayers |
FOURTEEN individuals making the offerings of
Earth, Wind, Fire, Water and Ether in unison to loud chanting and music
witnessed by thousands of devotees and tourists with Chai Wallas jumping from
long boat to long boat was quiet special and surprisingly peaceful given the
Potential for Danger!
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| Sunrise |
Traveling with Chris, my husband of now twenty years, and
reflecting on our own journey together made this one of my sacred
adventures. thank you Chris!
It is appropriate to leave you with some photos of life and religious devotion on the Ganges
