The Ganga

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Varanasi is famous for being a Hindu holy city. It's also a holy city for Buddists and Jain but I think it's most well known for being the place that Hindus come to wash themselves in the sacred river Ganga and if possible to be cremated there when they die and have their ashes sprinkled on the river.
The city itself is probably about the size of Gourock and there are 3.5million people living there. It's made up on tiny winding streets and lanes behind the 'ghats' which are steps up along the riverbank. There are maybe 20 or more individual ghats all with their own significance. Most spectacular are the burning ghats where funeral pyres are built and bodies are cremated. It takes 3 hours for the body to burn and the family wait there to take the ashes and sprinkle them into the river. There are 4 types of people that can't be cremated according to the Hindu faith - children under 5, lepers, people who die from snake bites and Brahmin or holy men. Instead these people are wrapped up with stones, taken to the centre of the river and dropped in. I've heard various versions about why these people can't be cremated, but I won't go into that here.
We took a dawn boat ride on the river (as is the thing to do here). It's a little rowing boat with 8 of us in it. We were praying to whatever God was listening that the boat wasn't going to go over. Everybody's heard about the pollution of the ganges but we were pleasently surprised. It is filty but just not as bad as I had imagined. All along the ghats people are washing themselves as the sun rises. There are also washer men washing clothes in the river and some people swimming. At the burning ghats you can see bodies wrapped in cloth waiting their turn. Here and there you can see people doing yoga and others in deep meditation. And all along the river are hundreds of little boats with tourists just like us. Something just doesn't add up. I know I'm turning into a cynic but something just didn't add up for me. I expected this to be a really spiritual experience but it's hard to feel that way when there are so many flashing cameras all around.

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