Varanasi Mornings

In Varanasi, the holy city, by the river Ganges, pilgrims from all over the Hindu World come to pay their respects. Others, simply have their lives there. The river's holy water is, rightful or not, believed to be purifying. They come to cleanse themselves. Others come to embark on the final passing into the afterlife by the many ghats dotting the riverside busily turning bodies into ashes.

People of various creeds and philosophies reside in the city, with traditions going long back. It was in these Indian lands, the immortal Buddha was said to have walked and taught. Why it was exactly him that survived and became famous when so many contemporaries of similar minds and philosophies existed and walked beside him, I wonder.

One nevertheless gets an idea of the spiritual landscape that may or may not have existed at the time as people come by the river to perform ordinary and sometimes more holy rituals throughout the day. Some simply to bathe and wash themselves. Characteristic Sadhus, the so-called Hindu holy men, dedicating their lives to their beliefs can be seen in studies or meditation. Others still, with perhaps more extreme orientations, cover their bodies in ashes from the dead, carrying around human skulls. And smell from the many fires and embers are carries through the air along the river, accompanied to music blasted from the ghats enormous speakers. Most busy indeed is the river side, from the earliest in the mornings till late in the hours.

Whatever images were conjured from the above, here some actual images from the few mornings in Varnasi.