Today we enjoyed more of the religious offerings of Varanasi. This morning we went back down to the ghat area of the Ganges river, where all the Hindu pilgrims go to bathe in the river and make offerings to the river, which is, to them, a god. Even with temps in the high 40s with cloud cover and fog, these devotees strip down to their underwear and go into the Ganges to bathe and make offerings and prayers. It is quite remarkable. We took the bus down as close as we could get and then, once again, walked the gauntlet, being hounded by hawkers and child beggars all the way to the water. We walked along the waterfront a bit, enjoying the ambiance, which includes hundreds of pilgrims, children, priests sitting under their big orange umbrellas ready to give blessings and say prayers for the devotees before they take the plunge in the river, along with the usual array of dogs, cows, goats, monkeys and birds! We took another motor boat ride along the river, stopping at various points to watch the pilgrims do their ritual of bathing and submersing themselves in the river. Our guide had hired a priest to join us on the boat and he did a prayer ritual in which he chanted mantras for our ancestors. We were all given a flower to hold while he chanted and when he was done, we tossed them in the river.
After our sojourn on the river, which included another viewing of the cremation site, we went to visit the place where the Buddha achieved enlightenment and where he gave his first sermon, famously known as the "Deer Park" sermon. This is Sarnath, a Buddhist learning center with a temple on the site and the bodhi tree that is now there is believed to be a direct descendant of the tree that was there when the Buddha achieved enlightenment on that spot. We also visited the museum that has numerous artifacts taken from that area when it was made into a pilgrimage site. There were Buddhist monks and nuns all over the place and as we went through the museum, Buddhist chanting was playing quietly in the background. So we had a really good dose of both Hinduism and Buddhism in one morning!
Varanasi is an amazing city, absolutely steeped in spirituality and religious ritual. It is the most holy city for Hindus, but nonetheless, like all the other Indian cities we have seen, it is very, very dirty, covered with trash and litter everywhere, animals roaming all over the place, beggars very much in evidence, buildings exceedingly run down and dirty and in disrepair, air polluted, roads full of potholes and very muddy. Its surprising that such a holy place is permitted to look so very run down, but that is India. We came back to the hotel by early afternoon and had some free time. Tracy and I had a light lunch and then visited a spice shop across the street from the hotel and a shop selling silk goods. You can't walk down a street in this country, as a tourist, without being corralled by every merchant along the way trying to haul you into their shop and make a sale! And bargaining is the name of the game! Its very exhausting after awhile!
This evening we had our farewell dinner and before the dinner we gathered for a concert of traditional Indian folk music, with sitar and drums. Then all the women were given sarees and a lady from the hotel wrapped us in them and we wore them to dinner. It was great fun but we learned that draping a saree is not an easy thing! They are beautiful, however.
Tomorrow is our final day, which is mostly packing, flying to Delhi and getting to our respective middle of the night flights at various times. We have a yoga and meditation class at 7 tomorrow morning and then time to pack and get organized.
Pics today include scenes from the river bathing rituals on the Ganges river, Tracy and I on the boat, in our sarees and shots of all of the women in sarees.
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