Visions of Varanasi

After a two and a half hour bumpy car ride and nine hour train, we finally arrived at 10pm in Varanasi, or Benares, the holy city on the Ganges, in the state of Uttar Pradesh. What a day. To pass the time en-route, we played  a lot of Uno with our tour-mates and read a lot of books, and I tried my best to remember Japanese phrases to try on our elderly Japanese bunkies, who didn’t speak English.

The next morning we explored Sarnath, 10km from Varanasi, which is a deer park where Lord Buddha gave his first sermon, where he taught of the Dharma. It’s pretty much a pile of rubble and bricks with the occasional mound-like structure called a stupa. The massive Dhamekh Stupa marks the actual spot in the deer park park where Buddha delivered the sermon to his five disciples after gaining enlightenment. We then wondered around, looking at deers and wildlife in the park, and checked out various Tibetan Buddhist and Jain temples.

Then onto to Varanasi itself. It’s a busy town, being one of the most sacred pilgrimage sites for Hindus and Buddhists, attracting millions of pilgrims and tourists each year. It is also where devout Hindus come to die. The highlight of Varanasi for us was visiting the ghats, the steps leading down to the Ganges River, at night to view the aarti ceremony.

We went early, around 5pm, to check out the ghats and stake out a spot, but we were not successful in the latter. Everyone wanted to talk to us and sell us something. One gentleman said hi to Kelly, but then turned it into a hand massage, claiming “No rupees.” It swiftly became an arm and shoulder and back massage. I was getting worried (these things are never actually free) when Kelly finally escaped from the masseuse. He then proceeded to follow us around for the next ten minutes.

Suddenly viewing the aarti ceremony from a boat on the Ganges seemed like a great idea. In a stroke of luck, we spotted four girls from our group boarding a boat so we joined them.

We had a relaxing sunset boat trip, past the burning ghats where the dead are cremated on log fires, and back to the main ghat. Several in our group had purchased floating tin with candles and flowers, so they lit them and made a wish as they placed them in the holy Ganges. It was a beautiful scene with so many floating candles, as people in other boats were doing the same.

At 6:30 a hundreds of seated observers and boats had collected around the main ghat, where seven platforms had been setup and draped with cloth in preparation for the aarti. Music and chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra began on the microphone, and seven Brahmin priests dressed in orange robes stood on the platforms and began swinging incense and ringing a bell, and eventually swinging a metal contraption that looked a bit like a Christmas tree in shape, which had lots of candles lit on it. In general, there was a whole lot of candles and flame.

It says on wikipedia, “Aarti is generally performed two to five times daily, and usually at the end of a puja (giving an offering) or bhajan (singing devotional songs) session. It is performed during almost all Hindu ceremonies and occasions. It involves the circulating of an ‘Aarti plate’ around a person or idol and is generally accompanied by the singing of songs in praise. In doing so, the plate itself is supposed to acquire the power of the deity. The priest circulates the plate to all those present.” Unfortunately we could not see this kinda detail from the boat.