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Published: June 17th 2006
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Our boats...
...slowly down the Ganges The name of my Intrepid tour "Slowly down the Ganges". This was an epic journey down the holy river Ganges, the most holy of rivers in India. We boarded our four boats in a village 3-days away from our destination, Varanasi, a holy place of pilgrimage. Varanasi is known as one of the oldest surviving cities on Earth, some claim the oldest. My impression is that for the Hindi Varanasi holds a significance similar in magnitude to that of Mecca for the muslim.
The few days before our arrival into Varanasi, my level of apprehension and excitement was growing with every story our tour leader told. Camped on the banks of the river by night, the 12 of us sat around the fire and listened intensely to Chandra's stories. In preparation of things to come, he told us about The Cast system in India, their religious beliefs and ceremonies, about reincarnation and the afterlife. We learned a bit about the principal Hindu deities Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. According to Chandra, the name GOD stands for Generator, Operator, Destroyer? Similar functions are assigned to each of these Hindu deities, the Creator, the Protector, and the Destroyer & Restorer, respectively.
Some things
I've seen and done: we saw a cremation being performed for three bodies on the banks of the Ganges in Varanasi. Pilgrims come from all over India to throw the ashes of the dead in the river waters, so that the spirit can proceed on its journey into the afterlife... The Hindi cremate their dead with very few exceptions, in some cases where cremation is forbidden (ie. if it's a child, a holy man, someone bitten by snake-considered to have bad karma, or someone with leprisy) the body is released into the river to float away... we saw that too. I thought that I would feel strange after this, but this kind of thing happens here on a daily basis and it all seemed so natural. I didn't feel weird during or after seeing this. Slept fine.
Also went to the place where Buddha performed his first sermon under the Bhodi tree in Sarnagh, some 600 years BC, very near to Varanasi.... amazing yeah!
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