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Published: January 21st 2008
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The second adventure for my parents and myself (Dan stayed behind to work) was a two day trip to Varanasi. For those of you that dont know here is a excerpt from Varanasicity.com
"The land of Varanasi (Kashi) has been the ultimate pilgrimage spot for Hindus for ages. Often referred to as Benares, Varanasi is the oldest living city in the world. These few lines by Mark Twain say it all: "Benaras is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend and looks twice as old as all of them put together". Hindus believe that one who is graced to die on the land of Varanasi would attain salvation and freedom from the cycle of birth and re-birth.
The city is a center of learning and civilization for over 3000 years. With Sarnath, the place where Buddha preached his first sermon after enlightenment, just 10 km away, Varanasi has been a symbol of Hindu renaissance." (http://www.varanasicity.com/history-of-varanasi.html)
For me, and possibly for most westerners, Varanasi is a difficult place to describe. I can understand the history of this holy city...and even understand many of the rituals Hindus follow here on a daily basis. But to be completely
honest with you, it is very difficult for me to understand how people live in this city. Or maybe a better way to put this is how they can find their spirituality in a place that is so littered with poverty, filth, pollution and an exorbitant amount of people crammed into a very small city. I guess that is the epitome of faith....finding it where it seems most unlikely to be.
Again I'll pull from my mothers journal entry about our trip to Varanasi.
"I was really looking forward to this part of our trip as I was anxious to be in such a holy place. I thought that being surrounded by so much spirituality would draw me in to the Hindu religion and give me a feeling of peace. I was very wrong about that. This Holy sight is such a disturbingly dirty and wretched place. The walk from our car down to the "mother Ganga " was fraught with beggars, feces, and litter. Tin cups are waved in your face and pleas made for money from every direction. Everyone is trying to sell you something...a postcard, some trinket or some other item. I can't really say
what they were selling as if you look at anything, they surround you with more sellers and more beggars. You just have to develop a mantra that says no, no, no and keep your eyes straight ahead and keep moving or you will be surrounded by these poor folks trying to con you out of a few rupees.
The young children are especially hard to see, and also the hardest to ignore. My heart broke when I passed a young mother who was carrying her child and I could see the bugs crawling in the little ones hair. Very very sad and yet you just move on. You can NOT help one as in the end it really wouldn't make a difference at all. The river itself is narrower than I imagined and filthy. And yet, people were performing their ablutions, praying, bathing, and drinking this water. We rode an early morning boat along the Gange and watched as the scene unfolded before us. It was dingy, dirty, and chaotic. We did see people performing their morning prayers, and we saw a Yogi painted blue and sitting perfectly still, and we saw priests sitting under their umbrellas. We saw
a bloated carcass of a cow float by us and we saw a body being prepared to be burned. Debris, junk, and garbage were floating alongside the people dipping in the Ganges for religious reasons, and the women doing laundry as a way to earn a living. Monkeys were running on the steps and so were cows,and goats. All leaving behind their little piles which we would have to walk around on our return from the river.
When the boat landed and we walked back up the steps I actually thought things could NOT get worse. I was wrong. We avoided the beggars and hawkers by walking back through a very narrow little street with "homes" on either side. All you could hear was coughing. This place is so dirty that I just know everyone in those houses had some lung infection. We skirted bicycles, garbage, feces, and bulls on our way to the market to see some beautiful silk. The silk was beautiful, we bought some items, but honestly, I just felt a bit used and abused. By the time we made a few purchases and worked our way back to the city street I had had more than
enough of dead dogs, dead cows, dirty things and beggars.
We went home, showered, put our clothes in plastic bags and took a very long nap. The trip was long, the place was hard to be in and a good nap was exactly what we needed to revive our spirits. I will end this days adventures with a note that we encountered some clean, brightly dressed and happy Buddhist children at a Buddhist temple and it was a joyous experience. The Buddhist area of Sarnath was clean and a pleasant experience."
Janine
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