From the Himalayas to the Sea: The River Ganges

The Ganges River during morning prayer

We woke up to pouring rain and headed to the airport to Varanassi known as Benares known as Kashi as every person who spoke English would point out. No matter what its name, it’s the undisputed holy capital of India. One guide said Jesus even visited here in his unaccounted for teenage years. This is a place where pilgrims come to wash in the Ganges and worship at Ghats along the river. It is also the most holy place to be cremated and it is said that if you are cremated there and your ashes go in the Ganges you stand a good chance of going straight to heaven rather than suffering through another reincarnation in this world.

Worshippers bathing in the river in the early morning

Before entering the mystical world of Varanassi our guide took us to Benares Hindu University, one of the largest universities in India. The campus had separate male and female dormitories on either side of the campus. There was nothing modern about this university on the outside. (See pictures).

We are here visiting in monsoon season and the water was extremely high on the Ganges so the ghats (temples on the river) were covered and the steps leading down to the riverbank were totally submerged.

I don’t know how to begin to describe Varanassi. The narrowness and grime of the old streets was similar to Delhi but every time you looked up there was a temple tower or a minaret or shrine. We made our way through them down to the banks of the Ganges and, with the other pilgrims, sat to watch the Ganga Arati ceremony. The arati is performed every night to put the river, who Hindus believe is a goddess, to sleep. As we watched the original prayer, we were struck by how timeless it was, it was recited the evening before, the year before, the century before and back into the beginning of this civilization. The spirituality of the incense and clapping and music was pervasive and undeniable. It was uplifting.

Priests performing arati at sunset

Normally, this ceremony is watched from a boat, but with the river so high, we were not allowed out on the water. We did however, make it into the city through the Muslim part of town to the silk market one evening led by a friendly local who escorted us past hundreds of Muslim men staring in curiosity at our presence in their bazaar. Down one of these alleyways is the famous golden temple of Varanassi whose top dome is 2500 pounds of solid gold. It is built beside a mosque and so under heavy military guard. This guard is necessary because of bombing in the area. One such bombing took place when a member of Al-Qaeda detonated explosives at the red temple of the goddess Durga. It was chilling standing in that courtyard imagining it full of people on the festival day when the bomb went off, killing seven.

The Red Temple to the goddess Durga who rides a tiger and gives courage to those who offer prayers

The next day we left Varanassi to go to Sarntah and see the site of Lord Buddha’s first sermon. Here at the stupa we learned of Siddartha Guatama’s, the prince who became the buddha’s, journey to enlightenment through paintings on the temple wall.

The Stupa at Sarnath, intended to echo the shape of Buddha's overturned begging bowl

Bull in a china shop. He is there every day
and has become the official store mascot

Curiously, in the fifth century in response to the growing popularity of Buddhism which eschews the caste system, Hindu priests claimed the Buddha as the ninth incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu so as to bring errant Buddhists back into the fold. Indeed, Hinduism was seen more as a world view than a religion in India. There was a small museum there with a stunning collection of carvings. It included the lion capital from the reign of India’s first real emperor, Ashoka. That particular piece is from the fifth century. Having made a thorough round of the holy sites we left Varanassi for Khajuraho.