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Published: March 19th 2012
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Varanasi, the religious capital of Hinduism, is possibly the oldest living city in the world. We arrive just in time to witness the Ganga Aarti or “Offering Prayer to the Ganges,” a ritual performed every night on the banks of the Ganges River. The Bazaar that lines both sides of the street leading to the Dasaswamedh Ghat where the prayer takes place each night is hopping with activity. Often referred to simply as the evening prayer or dinner prayer, many people come out to participate in the prayer service and thus the merchants are all still open in the hopes of making their last sales of the day to the people attending. Our large bus can’t navigate the narrow streets of the bazaar safely so we are dropped off a ways away and we take rickshaws in as far as we can, walking the remaining 500 meters that even the rickshaws are unable to navigate.
Much of the community comes out for the evening prayer service. There are people everywhere, both tourists and locals, jockeying for a spot where they will have a good view of the 7 Brahmin priests making the offering of incense, sandalwood, Ghee, and camphor. The
offering is made in all four directions. People mill about the crowd: children selling souvenirs to the tourists; priests blessing people and marking their foreheads with a dot on the third eye to remind them of the connection between their spiritual self and their body; and of course as is the case everywhere in India, beggars. Both the “tourist beggars” who aggressively attempt to bully tourists into giving donations and “real beggars” who sit at the edge of the crowd holding their bowl out and patiently awaiting kindness to be bestowed upon them. Everyone comes to the evening prayer. No matter what your lot in life, no matter what caste you may have been born into (for although the discriminating caste system is for the most part defunct everyone is still keenly aware of the caste they were born in to and in the more rural communities caste plays a bigger role in society then one would hope), and no matter how devoted you are to your faith, the River Ganges is for everyone – all are equal at the banks of this mighty river.
Early the following morning, before sunrise, we return to the Ganges. The bazaar has
not yet come to life. There are far fewer people making the pilgrimage to the river than there were last night; it is only the truly devout that begin each day with this morning ritual that has occurred for centuries. At dawn, pilgrims converge at the holy waters for the ritual immersion and prayer to release their souls from the cycle of rebirth. Where I see polluted water that we have been emphatically warned not to swim in they see the opportunity to cleanse themselves with the sacred. Women in their brightly colored saris wade into the river, steadying one another so as not to slip on the stone steps, one washing the other’s hair. Having begun their day with this sacred devotion to their faith, they are ready to take on the secular tasks that await them.
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Cathy Gerstbacher
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Prayer offerings to the Ganges
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