It’s taken me until now to write about my springtime Ganges River trip. I needed time to process and reflect on all the history, rituals and customs I had seen. Varanasi and the Ganges River is hands down one of the most special travel experiences I’ve had and I’m so grateful to have experienced it with my family.
The Ganges River is the longest river in India, stretching from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal. Indians know the River as Mother Ganga; our Trinetra tour guide shared that Indians have three mothers: their birth mother, Mother India, and Mother Ganga. The Ganges is considered sacred, granting spiritual purification to those who enter its water.
Hindus believe that bathing in the holy Ganges and death in Varanasi will bring everlasting salvation, guaranteeing freedom from the cycle of life and death and ultimately reaching nirvana. Knowing this tid bit about Hinduism helped me digest all the ritualistic and religious activity that is the fabric of Varanasi.
Varanasi is the spiritual capital of India and is regarded as the oldest living city in India. Hindus aren’t the only ones making the pilgrimage to this holy city, Buddhists do too since Varanasi is the birthplace of Buddhism. With so many people engaging in historical traditions and ritualistic devotions, Varanasi offers the perfect atmosphere for documenting daily life. There is a ton of activity that surrounds you at any given moment that it was hard to find one focal point to fixate my wandering mind on.
I didn’t really know how to prepare for my visit to the Ganges or what I would expect to see. There isn’t enough you can do to fully prepare yourself no matter what you’ve read or what your guide tells you. You just have to discover it for yourself. I reminded myself to put aside any preconceived ideas of the city and to see it through a fresh lens.
It was so interesting to see how the Hindus embrace the full circle of life in Varanasi. Daily activity is set against the backdrop of death: from the old and sick pilgrims who have come to the city to die to the burning pyres in the cremation ghats to mourning families. Yet, rather than a grim or macabre atmosphere, Varanasi was very much alive with life and bursting colour.
Traveling always make me reflect on my own life and the percentage of time I allot to each aspect of my life on any given day. My thoughts about the circle of life don’t amount to that of the pious pilgrims! I’m so thankful for what I have and as cliché as it sounds, my experience in Varanasi has inspired me to focus on doing things I’m really passionate about.
Riding along the Ganges, I noticed how polluted the river was with human and animal sewage, remnants of flower offerings, garbage and occasionally corpses, which we didn’t encounter that day. When pilgrims take their ritual bath in the river to rid a lifetime of sins and sickness, it’s purely symbolic dirt and not the literal filth that immerses them. I kept wondering: when do you draw the line when religious customs become a health concern?
For some, the culture shock will be too overwhelming. The open cremation, burning bodies, cremation fumes in the air, the occasional floating corpse and openly flowing sewage can overload the senses. However, seeing with my own eyes the pilgrims engaging in ritualistic devotions in the sacred river set against centuries-old buildings is a sight that I know I’ll never forget.
Safe Travels
xx Deb
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