Hindus Holiest City - VARANASI

The HINDUS HOLIEST CITY, VARANASI IS PERPETUALLY overflowing with pilgrims. To visit it once in a lifetime is every Hindu’s goal; to die here is to have the greatest chance of moksha (salvation). It is, therefore, not an easy city for a person to visit.

Walk down to the river for a boat ride, either early in the morning or in the late afternoon when the sun’s rays are enjoyable rather than punishing. Give this city some time: zipping in for a dawn boat ride and then out again is rarely satisfying. Varanasi is about watching a nonstop pilgrimage city going about business. A city as old as Babylon, Varanasi is, for Hindus, quite simply Kashi (city of Divine Light). Of the Hindu’s seven Sacred Cities, it is the most sacred. The others are the Haridwar, Ujjain, Mathura, Ayodhya, Dwarka, and Kanchipuram. Each is dedicated to Shiva or Vishnu, except Kanchipuram which is dedicated to both.

Thus, although it is a center for Hindu culture and has fine music and art. From the most humble upward, pilgrims often make their yatras by bus on excursion, singing bhajans along the way.

Varanasi was already thriving 2,500 years ago when Buddha came to Sarnath to deliver his first oration making it sacred to Buddhists, too. Later, Muslims periodically plundered the city: the widowed Shah Jahan Forbade temple- rebuilding, and pious Aurangzeb converted one temple into a mosque. Early British arrivals wrote of being intoxicated by Varanasi’s exoticism and mystery. Winding your way through the maze of narrow, filthy alleys swarming with cows and pilgrims, you feel something of this as you peek into temples of all sizes, some simple, some flashy, like Tulsi Manasmunda, funded by the Birla family. Pilgrims flood in and out of then ceaselessly.

Despite the city’s squalor- for no other word will fit – the holiness of Varanasi has been the inspiration for some of the most sublime creations in Hindu culture. Classical music was nurtured in the temples and today the city produces many of the India’s top musicians and stages important music festivals.

Getting there:

Varanasi is well connected and accessible to major Indian cities and tourist spots. There are daily domestic flights and trains to and fro from Varanasi. Varanasi also has a good network of roads connecting it with the nearby places.

Accommodation:

There are several options ranging from hotels, resorts, lodges, guest houses, dharamshala’s etc.

Best time to Visit:

Any time is the best time to take a holy dip in the sacred water of Ganga River.

Har Har Gange...!!

"Sail from antiquity to eternity on the Ganga and let spirituality immerse you."

The dominant force of eastern India is the Ganga. Its hundreds of Tributaries trickle down the Himalayan slopes, link up into rivers, and create the life- giving Gangetic Plain Delta. The Ganga flows past Knur, near Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, and then continues to Allahabad, where it takes in the Yamuna River, which has already watered Delhi and Agra. Then further it flows through Varanasi and into Bihar state. Here, at the city of Patna, major tributaries swell its waters: the Ghaghara, the Son, and the Gandak. Soon the Great River begins to split into hundreds of threads to become the vast delta whose blessings of nourishment and punishments of flooding are shared by West Bengal and Bangladesh.

The Ganga is sacred to Hindus. A Hindu’s Ganga Yatra (journey, pilgrimage) begins at the river’s source, Gangotri, near Rishikesh then descends to Haridwar, Allahabad, and Varanasi. At each stop the river’s water is revered: just a few droplets, not a hard scrub, can purify. The Ganga’s water is especially purifying since Hindus believe it to be the goddess Ganga flowing eternally from the summit of Mount Meru, the abode of the gods, down through Shiva’s matted locks. To bathe in the waters is to cleanse oneself of the Karma of previous and current lives and so be prepared for death and rebirth into a better life. Hindus from all over India attend the mass ritual bathing that take place during the Kumbh Mela festival held every three years at one of Haridwar, Allahabad, Nashik and Ujjain in turn. Of these, Allahabad, also known as Prayag (confluence) because the Yamuna and Ganga meet there, is especially sacred so the Kumbh Mela held here is known as Maha Kumbh Mela: the city also has an annual Magh Mela.

At Chunar, Upstream from Varanasi, the Ganga turns sharply north and then makes a great arc through the holy city. This combined with the high west banks and the flat land on the east banks, creates an extra ordinary, almost tangible bowl of light, especially at sunrise. Hindus have for centuries thought of Varanasi as Kashi (City of Divine Light), or as Kashika (The Shining One), referring to the light of Shiva.

Historically, the Gangetic Plain was the hearth of Indian Culture, and settlements spread east ward from this core region more than three millennia ago. The Ganga was a highway for east – west trade across the subcontinent, and it irrigated and fed the soil to produce rich farmland. Thus, early cities such as Patliputra (Patna) grew to be capitals of great empires. Later, the Mughals made Allahabad one of their capitals. The British pushed their influence up the Ganga from Calcutta to protect their vital trading route.

Today the rich alluvial plains formed by deposits from the Himalayan Mountains form one of the world’s most densely populated regions. Deforestation of the Himalayan Mountains means additional silt is carried down river and helps cause flooding: more than a third of Bangladesh is flooded annually. Ironically, this rich silt is essential to the nourishment of the rice crops being intensively farmed throughout the Ganga Basin.