The solar eclipse in Varanasi

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So a few of us from Sadhana embarked on an adventure to Varanasi to see the solar eclipse. It was a 41 hour train journey, going over 2000 miles. Suprisingly the train ride was actually a great experience. We had beds and slept for most of the journey so it passed much faster than I imagined it to. Some of the scenery we saw on the way was beautiful too. It was so green, which was really refreshing as it's not so green around here in Sadhana. Even in our forest it's not particularly green, although it's getting there.

Varanasi was a shock to the system as soon as we pulled into the train station. We were overwhelmed by a sea of orange, as the holy colour there is orange and many come on pilgrimages to Varanasi dressed in orange as it's the holiest place you could ever go as a Hindu. We were instantly swarmed by people wanting to help, but with self interest of course, or people begging. An elderly woman actually sat by us crying as she was holding her hands out which was quite upsetting, but definately not the worst I was yet to see there. We needed to book tickets home, so we were guided towards the foreign office, which I thought was pretty bad as all the Indians have to que for hours, whilst we have an air conditioned room with comfortable sofas. Although I wasn't complaining!

Then it was onwards into the heart of Varanasi to our guesthouse called Shiva Ganga lodge. We took a rickshaw, and our driver, as well as all the other drivers on the roads were crazy! Moreso than in Chennai and Pondicherry by a long run! Cars cram themselves into every space, desperately trying to overtake the masses of bikes, motorbikes, people, cows, rickshaws, cars and buses! It is manic. Our guesthouse wasn't amazing, but we definately got what we paid for, which was 40 rupees per night, which converts to 50p per night! Insanely cheap. Hospitality was great though. I'd probably recommend them just for the view you get from the veranda, where there is also a beautiful temple. The view of the ganges was beautiful, and an ideal spot to later watch the eclipse.

We saw a few things in Varanasi whilst we were there, like the ganges, where we visited the two burning ghats. The one ghat has been constantly lit for 3000 years, and masses of bodies have been burnt on them. Tourists can go and witness these burnings, and i'd heard from some people that it is a beautiful thing to watch purely from a spiritual perspective, but i found it hard to appreciate it. I felt like I was invading a familys personal mourning space. I have only ever been to one funeral, but I know that I definately wouldn't want tourists coming along to have a look. It felt too open and it wasn't a nice thing to watch. Death is hard to deal with, so to witness 4 bodies being burnt was too overwhelming. Especially when I witnessed two dogs ripping apart a floating body that hadn't been burnt. That was just too much for me to handle. The reason some aren't burnt is because they are diseased when they die, so instead of burning them they wrap them in a sheet and just throw them into the river. When they float, they are sometimes found by animals and eaten. That really disturbed me.

It was kind of refreshing to see all these people so devoted to their religion and with such faith that they bathe, drink and play in the ganges. But at the same time you want to drill it into them that this water is highly polluted. Each 100ml has 1.5 million parts ecoli, which is off the scale! It's because they have several sewage outlets pumping into the river, as well as diseased bodies, and all the other bits of rubbish floating around in it. Yet hindus think that it is the holiest thing they can do, and would to anything to bathe in there.

The one night we witnessed the celebration they have, which they hold every evening at 7pm and it is to worship mother ganga. It was a beautiful ceremony and it overwhelmed me to see so many people there, and for it to be every evening is amazing. It is such a religious place, probably the most religious place I have ever witnessed.

The following day we had a look around all the shops, down the little alleys. It was kind of disappointing that every stall seemed to have the same things, most of which you could purchase from a new age shop at home, but it was still an experience. Varanasi is amazing for silk if you are on the hunt for pure silk. They have masses of it, in so many beautiful colours and patterns. We had a look in a silk factory at how it was made then was shown some of their silks. It really was such beautiful fabric, and so cheap also! 3000 rupees for 6 metres, which is around £40.

We also took a look at the university, which some didn't find so interesting, but I thought it was beautiful. The buildings were beautiful and it was refreshing to see a bit of green as Varanasi is such a dirty city. We took a look in the temples also which was amazing. A teenage girl started talking to me and showing me these prayer books, but we couldn't understand a word of what each other were saying so we just kept breaking out in giggles. She was so warm and friendly though. The one temple is known as the monkey temple as loads of monkeys surround the temple. A young boy entered their territory and was bitten! They're quite aggressive little things but it was funny to see them climbing to the top of trees and flinging themselves into the mud pools at the bottom!

Anyway, onto the best bit, the solar eclipse. It was totally out of this world. For an hour the sun was slowly diminishing, and just before it was totally covered many people were shouting and cheering and then when the total eclipse came it turned to eerie silence. Everyone was overwhelmed by its beauty. It was immense. It lasted around 3 minutes and we really didn't want to take our eyes off it. It was just pure black, as you can see by the photographs. Gael told me that the bright rim that surrounds the moon is something to do with how gravity interacts with the light. I'm not too sure how, but it sounds interesting. There wasn't many people out to see the eclipse, mainly foreigners, as Hindus worship the sun, so they see the eclipse as a bad thing. Some will watch, but they all wash themselves, their houses, walls, clothes and throw away their food shortly after the eclipse has finished as they believe that it taints everything. So the ghats were relatively empty, which was nice.

Apparently there is an eclipse in Australia in 2012 so if anyone wants to come i'm so up for it!! 😊

Then there was the train home, shortly before I had to say goodbye to some amazing people that I'd met and I miss them already! We just about made the train as we were running late, and we entered the train to find our seats had been stolen by a large indian family. The indian train system here is so messed up. You have seats which sell out really quickly, then if there are no seats left you can buy waiting list seats, which means you buy a ticket, but you only get the seat if the person who paid for the seat originally doesn't turn up for the train. But of course we did turn up, but they still refused to move. I got pretty angry, and it didn't help that I was being pushed and shoved everywhere as the train was so crowded. So a piece of advice, turn up early for the train and get in your seats as soon as possible as I get the feeling that local indians have no sympathy for a few tourists who want to be comfortable on the train, they steal any seat they can. But it wasn't all bad....as they refused to move we called the inspector over and she moved us up into a higher class...with air conditioning...comfier beds...sheets and pillows! Haha, it was amazing!

Now I'm home at Sadhana forest and feel so good to be back!! 😊 I'll update with some more interesting happenings soon.

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Comments

[Abhinay]

RE: Excellent Blog
Hey, Thats an excellent blog on Varanasi. I always love to read blogs from a perspective of a westerner.