VARANASI- THE HOLY CITY

There is a constant flow of energy here in Varanasi. That takes form in all living and dying beings. It is the city where Hindus come to die believing they will receive liberation if their ashes are placed in the Ganges. Mauro and I had to come to the city to see what it holds, what energy is coursing through it to allow those who die to be liberated from rebirth. I don’t really have any answers only impressions. Impressions of the people and the city. All of the living beings are SO alive, everyone stares at you, looks you right in the eye, the city is pulsating with life. Yet, death is sitting on everyones shoulder in plain view. Everywhere you look death is occurring, a funeral procession where the corpse covered in shrouds is on the top of a car heading to a ghat to be cremated, or walking down the road and seeing dying animals in the streets, floating in the river, or seeing the bodies of Hindus being burned in the sacred fires at Manikarnita Ghat. And Shiva is everywhere with its copra and trident, not letting you forget the God of destruction and creation. It is not a pretty town, there is fecal matter, beggars, sahdus, tourists, pollution, pilgrims, stray cows, buffalo and dogs. Yet it is alive and people are in touch with the fact they are going to die, and they are waiting for it, and believe the river will pardon them of their humanness. Maybe this is where the joy comes from within, the belief that whatever they do in this life will be pardoned by simply being thrown into the mother river. What about the belief of karma? Is this erased if one is able to make it to Varanasi to die? Seems like a good deal to me. As I head out to visit the center of the city, the Golden temple,Vishwanath.