Visit to Varanasi

Varanasi, or Benares or Kasi, as it's also called, is said to be the oldest living city in the world.

I saw this hoarding in Varanasi, and it sure says it best:

“"Varanasi" is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together” - Mark Twain

It's an experience at an altogether different level, like someone said, it's actually like time travel, and that's what made it a really intriguing and intense visit.

Each experience there was so overwhelming and extreme that I think it's going to take me days to process the visit. 

Let me start with the quintessential picture of Varanasi that comes to mind ......the Ghats; the palaces, the bathing ghats and the burning ghats.

We did a boat ride down the Ganges twice....once in the evening specifically to see the Ganga Aarthi and early next morning to catch the sunrise, so the pictures are mixed between evening and early morning.

Those were out little lamps which we let afloat. Felt good and looked pretty.

The Ganga Aarti. This is one of the most beautiful religious ceremonies I've seen, where twelve priests simultaneously offer aarthi, with the background of chantings and large lamps, to the river Ganges,  considered the holiest of rivers.  A spiritually powerful ritual.

                  

And within minutes of watching the aarthi, you are at the cremation ghats, the Harischandra Ghat and the Manikarnika Ghat While per Hindu tradition, cremations are done only during the day, at these two ghats they can be done through the night as well, and it's on round the clock.

This was how it was when we went. It's an extremely unsettling experience, because you can't figure how you can be sightseeing something like this. And when the boat went close, we saw there were six more bodies waiting their turn.

It is said that if you die in Kasi or are cremated in Kasi, you are released from the cycle of birth and death; an immediate attaining of moksha.

When I told Diksha this, she was like...'but why would anybody not want to be reborn'? Valid question that, and I completely agree. I would definitely want to be reborn too. Considering we're not even aspiring, guess we're nowhere near moksha :)

A beautiful beautiful sunrise....

Captured a few minutes later....couldn't figure which was prettier, so just put both :)

And it's really all of that......the spectacular beauty of the sunrise over the Ganges, the magnificent palaces on the ghats, the ritual of bathing in the ghats for purification of sins, the ganga aarthi ......and the burning bodies. Guess it just encompasses all of life in that one boat ride....that's why crazy intense.