Post #7: Varanasi - a trip to the holy

Another overnight train ride, this time to the unbelievably complicated city of Varanasi. The trains are a real experience in India -- another mass of humanity, both inside and out of the train.  Our train was many hours late, but we really didn't mind -- we got to watch the world go by from our berth...

Varanasi is an historic, cultural center and to Hindus it is the most sacred of cities. Located on the banks of the Ganges River, it is the oldest city in India, and some believe that dying in Varanasi leads to salvation.

 Holding godlike status, the Ganges River draws Hindus seeking spiritual purity. There may be lots of foreign tourists in Varanasi, but the Indian visitors to the city vastly outnumber the foreign tourists. Varanasi will likely be our most otherworldly experience in India.

Daily people come to bathe, especially at sunrise, to wash clothes,  to pray, and to defecate as needed.  Industries and individuals dump their waste.  Bodies are deposited in the belief that in the water the soul may escape. It all happens in the India's most sacred river, the Ganges.

People come to Varanasi to die, be cremated and ultimately have their ashes added to the river. Several cremations are going on at once in the pictures below.  We took a row boat ride down the Ganges at dawn, and our boatman indicated that Indians cremate all people after death, but when babies die, their bodies are not cremated but instead are given back to the Ganges.  A few minutes later, a baby's body floated by us. Whew...

The river is the center of life and death. It is holy. There are lots and lots of spiritual practices going on at the river. The Ganges is also one of the only places that many poor people have to bathe. And pee and poop.

Hindu Prayer Ceremony