Varanasi Part I

One of the places that my visiting friend, Marisa, really wanted to go was Varanasi, one of the oldest and most spiritual cities on the planet. I had been waiting for just the right person to take the plunge and mingle with two million people, cows, pedi-cabs, sadhus (holy men), and the mystique of the Ganges River.

This holy man, and friend, were often seen outside our little hotel making offerings to a tiny shrine. These sights were exactly what people described when they said Varanasi is like no other place I had been. Holy men mostly wrapped in saffron robes and carrying flag-like staffs, pilgrimage from all over and walk many miles each day throughout the city stopping at many shrines and bathing in the Ganges.

Varansi is said to be 1,000's of years old, being the center of many religious rituals. The Ganges River is especially sacred to the Hindu's as a place to bring their deceased loved ones to be cremated and placed in the river. However, not everyone is allowed to be cremated. Pregnant women, sadhus, lepers and children under 15 are simply weighted down and placed in the river. Add the dung of thousands of sacred cows, no sewer systems, chemical plants upriver, and the Ganges is close to being a "dead" river. Yet, people pilgrimage to the Ganges to bathe in this most holy of  rivers. Children take daily swims to escape the heat, and clothes were laundered along its banks.

Holy men taking their daily baths.

Cremation site along the banks of the river for those not being able to afford or choosing the more modern electrical cremations.

Still, I was deeply touched by the spirituality of the Ganges. Taking boat rides at dawn and dusk offer sights and sounds never experienced. Every night a Hindu ritual called an aarti is held on several ghats (steps leading down to the river).

Marisa on the Ganges

Thousands of people gather nightly along the Ganges for the aarti ritual.

Doreen lighting floating flower and candle vessals.

The banks of the Ganges.

It will take me a long time to process everything that I saw and experienced in Varanasi. It was Marisa's favorite place in India so far. For me the contrast of the sacredness of the river and its utter filth, was difficult to accept. But it is a must-see place in the world.