Varanasi, also known as Benaras or Kashi is the holiest place for Hindus. It is the oldest living city in the world, a city that finds mention in texts as old as 3000 years. Growing up I had always considered Kashi with the same deference anything customary and “handed down” was considered with – indifference and slight. I couldn’t understand why it was such a big deal for someone to make a Kashi Yatra. So when this trip was planned, the purpose was to take my parents-in-law to that one place they always wanted to visit. The flights, the stay and the itinerary were planned around their wishes and their comfort. My mind was filled with concerns about the (un)cleanliness and money-minded priests Kashi was so infamous for. I was more worried than excited about this trip. I was taking two 65+ senior citizens with me to this crowded, inconvenient and unknown place and I felt a huge responsibility to ensure the trip was safe and fruitful.
All that changed as I started googling about Varanasi on the week before we left to do some research on the place and the sights. As I read about the Ghats and discovered that Kashi is also famous for music as much as religion, my curiosity and excitement grew. This is a place where birth and death come together. This is one of the 12 sites place where Shiva is in the form of a Jyotirlinga and this is one site which Shiva has assured that He will never leave. Almost every blog I read spoke about the vibrant spirit of Kashi and the number of religious and spiritual personalities who have visited Kashi is endless. By Sunday night I was looking forward to the trip.
Our itinerary was quite simple. Reach Delhi by flight (Jet Airways) and then take a Spice Jet flight that afternoon to Varanasi; spend that evening and the next day at Varanasi; drive to Allahabad to take a dip in Triveni Sangam; travel back to Delhi by an overnight train from Allahabad and then finally take Kingfisher airlines back to Bangalore. I had arranged accommodation at the Kasi Nattukottai Nagarathar Chathram (or “Naat Koat chathram” as it is known locally), run by the Nagarathar community. The manager at the chathram happened to be a family friend which was quite helpful.
Reaching Varanasi on the first day was quite uneventful barring the inconvenience of having to move from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1 at Delhi and the delay in the Spice Jet flight. Mr. Panaiyappan from the chathram had arranged a pick up vehicle at the airport. Driving through the city streets looked quite okay to begin with as we breezed through the dusty roads. But as we approached the heart of the city, the roads narrowed down and traffic seemed to be flowing from all directions. Finally we managed to reach the chathram, after a short walk through an alley. We checked in, met Mr. Panaiyappan and checked into our comfortable, airy rooms.
The chathram itself is more than 150 years old. In the next two days during our stay there, we discovered how big the chathram actually is. What looks like a narrow door leads into multiple levels and multiple rooms on corridors that keep appearing. There is a small Shiva shrine right within the chathram. The chathram provides clean, comfortable and affordable lodgings and vegetarian meals 3 times a day. We were quite surprised at how clean the whole place was maintained inspite of the dust and chaos outside. The chathram and the Nagarathar community, through the chathram, provide significant financial support to the main temple at Kashi, the Vishwanath temple. You can notice that influence in multiple places – the chathram gets a free pass for every aarathi; there is a hundi in the temple with the chathram’ s name on it; there is a changing room in Seethal ghat that has been put up by the chathram. The lunch at the chathram is often sponsored by someone and is provided free on such days.
By the time we settled down, it was already 6 pm and it was suggested we go watch the Ganga Aarathi. This is a daily ceremony that is performed at Seethal Ghat and Dasaswamedh Ghat, during which prayers are offered to the river. 5 Brahmins perform the aarathi at Seethal ghat and 7 Brahmins at Dasaswamedh Ghat. A ghat is a paved and built riverfront that provides access to the river. There are supposedly 355 ghats in Kashi. Kashi is situated on the west coast of the river Ganga between confluences of river Varuna with Ganga in the north and river Assi and Ganga in the south. And thus we started our trek to the riverfront. It is a short walk of about 5- 7 minutes from the chathram through cobbled alleys and crowded roads. I was not quite prepared for what waited for us at the end of our walk. There were the waters of Ganga, looking impressive even in the dark, and just overwhelming me with the deepest connection I have ever experienced. It absolutely felt like standing there, in front of those waters, at that moment is all what I had been waiting for, all these days. I suddenly understood why this place is hailed as the ultimate pilgrimage; why it has remained significant across thousands of years; why Kashi and Ganga are so revered.
As we neared the ghat, we had been approached by a man who offered a boat ride and a chance to watch the aarathi from the boat. He promised us that watching the aarathi from the boat would be more spectacular than watching it from the shore, plus it will allow us to watch tha aarathis happening at both the ghats. For me the prospect of sitting comfortably in a boat rather during the one hour long Aarti outweighed the other options. So we agreed to take the boat and settled upon a rate of Rs. 500 for that ride. A word of caution here – you will be approached by hawkers all the time offering one thing or the other. These are not harmful people but they usually are quite expensive. The hotel/ chathram you are staying at should be able to arrange many of the rides and poojas for you at a fraction of the cost. For example, this boat ride would have been Rs.35 per head if I had arranged it through the chathram.
Until we reached the ghat, we did not realise what an effort it was going to be for my poor father-in-law with arthritic knees to climb up and down those long flight of stairs to reach the Ganga!! Anyway, we were there, we had to what we had to do and he embraced the task before him bravely, having travelled all the way to Kashi just to experience all this.
The aarathi was indeed spectacular, with the chants, songs, sound of the bells and the mesmerising act put up by the Brahmins as they offered prayers to the Ganga with multiple different kind of lamps. It started at 7 pm and went on until 8 pm.
The next day was planned to cover all the critical elements of a Kashi Yatra – a bath in the Ganga, pitru pindam for the departed beloved in the family and then visits to the most important temples – Kashi Vishwanath, Annapoorani and Visalakshi. These are the bare requisites of a religious trip.
We started the day with a boat ride on the river. This time we had booked the boat ride through the chathram. The boatman was kind enough to inform us that the Varanasi sewage water enters the river from the west bank and hence they would take us to the east bank for the ritual dip.
First, we headed South to the Manikarnikat Ghat, the most famous of all ghats in Kashi.
Manikarnika Ghat is supposedly the spot where Shiva and his consort Parvati bathed in the Ganga, when one of Parvati’s ear rings fell into the river. But the reason this ghat is famous for is that, this is a cremation ground. A Hindu who dies in Kashi, is believed to attain Moksha or a state where there is no more rebirth. There are many Hindus who strive to spend their last days in Kashi. When that is not possible, the families atleast make an attempt to bring the ashes of the deceased to Kashi and leave them in the river. Those who are lucky enough to die in Kashi are cremated in Manikarnika Ghat or Harishchandra Ghat, the other cremation ground. Manikarnika Ghat has a continuous inflow of bodies that are brought there to be cremated. The boatman informed us that 200-300 cremations happen in a day. The piles and piles of wood in the ghat was a standing proof to that claim. If you have enough time to take a walk along the Ghats, you might be able to visit the Manikarnikat ghat from the bank and see the eternally burning flame of Shiva, from where the flames for cremation are taken every time.
After the Manikarnika Ghat, we headed to the eastern bank.
We got back in the boat and headed north towards Harishchandra ghat.
The sight of the two eerie and silent ghats signifying death with the lively and vibrant city in between them was a philosophical statement in itself.
After the bath in Ganga, it was time for the pitru pindam – a ritual where one remembers the departed members of the family, says a prayer for them and makes an offering of rice flour and sesame seeds.
This is typically done by the men in the family who have lost a parent. This ritual is facilitated by a Brahmin priest. The chathram had arranged a priest for this and we were taken straight to him. I have seen my father do this multiple times at home. But observing my father-in-law perform this ritual, in the banks of Ganga, I realised what a beautiful ceremony this was, preserving one’s connection to his forefathers; remembering and honouring your lineage, your roots.
While the men were busy with the ceremony, the ladies in the group treated ourselves to the local breakfast snack of Kachori and Channa which was delicious. I was quite impressed when the vendor served them in bio-degradable plates and asked us politely to place them in dustbins once we finished eating. There is quite an effort to keep Ganga and Kashi clean and environmentally friendly and the effects were visible. The entire city was cleaner than I expected. The biggest offenders apart from the cows in the city are those who chew paan (betel leaves with special filling) and spit the red paste everywhere. If you can watch out for cow dung and paan then you are pretty much safe.
