Inspired Traveller's Guide Spiritual Places by Sarah Baxter

Author:Sarah Baxter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aurum Press (White Lion 1)
Published: 2018-02-25T16:00:00+00:00

Varanasi, which sits on the left bank of the Ganges in the state of Uttar Pradesh, is among the world’s oldest living cities. One legend states that it’s where Shiva and his wife Parvati were standing when time first started ticking. Also called Kashi (Luminous), Varanasi is one of the holiest tirthas – spiritual crossing places that allow humans to access the divine and gods to descend to earth. As such, pilgrims have been flocking here for millennia in search of salvation and nirvana. Every Hindu hopes to visit at least once to take a sin-absolving swim. Jains also consider Varanasi sacred, while Buddhists make for nearby Sarnath, where the Buddha delivered his first sermon in around 530 BC.

Varanasi is a chaotic muddle of narrow weaving alleyways, ashrams and palaces, bullock carts, rickshaws, jewellery sellers and silk weavers. It’s said there’s a temple every ten steps, the most sacred being the golden-domed Vishwanath Temple. This is home to an ancient lingam, the phallic symbol of Shiva; on certain holy days, Hindus queue for hours for a chance to touch it.

However, most of the action in Varanasi is focused on the Ganges itself. Along the water’s edge are numerous ghats (stone stairs) that lead down into the river. This is where you’ll find devotees performing puja (prayers), kids flinging cricket balls and flipping somersaults, old men chewing blood-red betel nut, stretching yogis, ladies washing rainbow-bright saris and long-haired sadhus chanting mantras into incense-thick air. These steps give bathers access to the holy water. They lead up to crumbling palaces and temples. They host boisterous festivals. And they deal in death: Varanasi is considered an auspicious place for Hindus to die, and some ghats are reserved especially for cremations. At these sites, bodies are burnt on wooden pyres, the smoke drifting up to the heavens before the ashes are collected and scattered into the holy water.

One of the most atmospheric times to take to the river is at dawn. After haggling with a boatman, you can float down the Ganges as the rising sun warms the ghats, the temples and the monkeys scurrying in between. There’s a sense of calm; the silence is broken only by the slow lap of the oars, the chirruping of birds and the bells chiming for the early morning rituals. Watch as this ancient city wakes up, and its circle of life and death, absolution and liberation begins again.

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