Change In Plans

Greetings from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India.  Varanasi is a 4,000-year-old city, and is the spiritual capital of Hinduism. This post is about our first evening here.

We arrived yesterday afternoon, after taking three flights from Udaipur. The flights were uneventful except for Tallulah and me spilling a glass of apple juice on the hand luggage of a Japanese couple sitting behind us. They were incredibly gracious and easygoing about the mess we created.

Varanasi is located on the holiest part of the Ganga. The Ganga (”Ganges” is apparently an English bastardization) is officially the national river of secular India, but more importantly, it is an absolutely central element of Hinduism. The Varanasi stretch is holiest because the otherwise south-flowing river loops and runs north (ie, toward heaven) here. Also, in mythology, the gods spilled a drop of the elixir of life in the Ganga here while they were fighting with demons.

For at least the last 4,000 years, Hindus have been coming to Varanasi to bathe in the river, and to be cremated on its banks after death. A Hindu aspires to have his or her first and last drinks from the Ganga. Dying in Varanasi and/or being cremated here is believed to “break the cycle” of reincarnation, and secure a place in heaven. Varanasi is a very big deal to Hindus.

Last night we walked through a big Sunday market, and down one set of stone steps (Dashashwahmed ghat) out of dozens that lead to the river. The ghats are central to the interaction of the faithful with the river. Dashashwahmed ghat has seven large platforms, where young priests perform a nightly “thanks and goodnight” ritual (aarti) in honor of the river. More on that later.

We pushed out from the ghat in an old wooden boat, and rowed upriver about 500 meters. From a distance, we could see seven or eight bonfires burning. As we pulled closer, our guide pointed out the burning corpses on the pyres, and explained the whole cremation ritual to us. Zola and Tallulah took all of this remarkably in stride - showing interest but not much emotional reaction. Coinidentally, this is in keeping with the Hindu practice of not showing any emotion during the cremation. Visible sadness is believed to be the manifestation of the departed’s soul, refusing to leave this life.

We were able to see several creamtions in various stages of progress: family members bringing a body into the water for a complete submersion before burning (and the “last drink’); a pyre being lit with the sacred fire bought from an ancient untouchable caste; the ritual end, where an old man doused the cremation fire of a loved one (his wife?) and then turned his back and smashed the clay water pot on the ground.

There are about 200 cremations every day in Varanasi, and the wood is stacked 30-40 feet high along the ghat. To keep the process moving, burning time is limited to about four hours, which apparently isn’t enough to combust an entire human body. Unburned remnants (usually the lower back and pelvis) are discarded into the Ganga. Between human parts, animal carcasses, the ashes and detritus of countless worhsip and cremation ceremonies, runoff from thousands of bathers, and a lot of plain garbage, the Ganga is remarkably polluted. The justification for polluting it is “the river can take anything, and stay pure.”

We rowed back downriver, where the evening aarti ritual (the Agni Poojah) had begun in all of its chaotic glory. Back on Dashashwahmed ghat, several thousand pilgrims had gathered to watch and participate. Seven young priests stood on the raised platforms, and swung a series of sacred objects (oil lamps, smoking censers, peacock-feather fans, woolen dusters) in synchronized motions. A praise singer chanted through giant loudspeakers and hundreds of bells were rung in fast rhythm. The noise was overwhelming. The smell of burning hair drifted downriver from the cremation site.

We watched the fire ritual from the rowboat for about 30 minutes, sitting about 3 meters from a handsome, long-haired priest on his platform. This mass celebration is done every evening.

Tomorrow morning we will go back out on the Ganga, to see the sunrise bathing ritual, and to walk in the ancient city. In the meantime, all of us are trying to process what we are seeing and hearing in Varanasi.