" Brace yourself. You are about to enter one of the most blindingly colorful, unrelenting chaotic and unapologetically indiscreet places on earth"
Varanasi is one of India's holy cities and a pilgrimage destination for Hindu people. There is no way to describe Varanasi except to say, it is completely overwhelming! Even knowing what to expect beforehand couldn't prepare me for this! Many times in India I have felt that I just don't know where to put my eyes! But here, you cannot possibly take in all of the craziness. There is a festival happening now, and the people have been celebrating for nine days. Today, they will parade an effigy through the streets, and down to the ganges where it will be burnt. There are thousands of people in the streets, music, lights, rickshaws, motorbikes, cars..... Not only is it hard to decide what to look at, it is hard to move through the streets and not get hit by some sort of vehicle! You need to be 100% aware of your surroundings at all times!
The first evening we were here we had a candle/flower ceremony. Here we all sent a "wish" floating off with our little candle down the Ganges.
We came back towards the dock just in time to catch the rather massive prayer ceremony happening at the main ghat.
As you may or may not already know, people hold cremation ceremonies on the banks of the river. The most intimate rituals of life and death take place in public.
The bodies are brought down to the water's edge shrouded in white cloth and then wait to be cremated. You see these funeral processions amidst the rest of the chaos in the streets. There was so much going on, I almost missed a funeral procession going right by me! The water of the Ganges is very special to the Hindu people. They believe that being cremated here in Varanasi breaks the cycle of rebirth and allows the soul to enter nirvana rather than being reborn again. Many elderly people make their last pilgrimage here for this reason. We passed two "burning ghats" where the cremations take place. It is very strange to know that the smoke and fire you see marks the end of a person's life! It is strictly forbidden to take pictures at the burning ghats but you can see the banks of the Ganges in the shots below.
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