I hope my first issue on Kasi yesterday must have rekindled the memories for those who have visited the place and for those who have not visited must have started planning......
Here we go.......
We reached Kasi late in the late evening on 25 Dec 2005 we rested for the day.
A river is an important thing for any country and we in India associate it traditionally with our culture. We have been taught to treat the river as Goddess and mother. We address all our rivers by female names barring Brahma Putra being an exception.
A perennial river with its tradition and history dates back to Mahabharata and its name associated with name of the film, film songs, film dialogues and in every other possible way. No other river has claimed such popularity I believe. Yes…..I am referring to Ganga… Though I had the privilege of seeing Ganga at Kanpur, Ganga at Kasi has its own specialty in many ways.
I must mention here that Kasi is not a modern city. It is an old city still retaining century old buildings in every angle and shape, very narrow alleys with width being approximately 4 feet. Human beings in two wheelers or by walk share & congest these narrow alleys with cattle is a common site. Yet Kasi is inundated with tourists.
It is also believed that lakhs and lakhs of Shivalingams got buried underneath the surface of Kasi. Probably, for this reason the old local people do not use footwear to walk on the roads. Kasi is also known as Punya Karma bhoomi where even deaths are taken casually as any normal event and they consider it a big thing to get cremated in designated Ghats.
We started at 8 in the morning (in heavy foggy conditions) to Kedar Ghat which is very nearby from Vaishali’s Grandparents. We were dumbstruck at the sight of magnificent Ganga with its huge water mass flowing serenely, doing its duty day in and day out without expecting any benefits. We were ecstatic and thrilled to watch Ganga.
Initially we were hesitating to venture in water fearing it would be too cold because of winter. By seeing the crowd who were taking dips very casually, we got some confidence. After shedding clothes we were chattering literally. But the moment we took our first holy dip, we felt no cold at all even with temperature around 9 deg C . At this point I reasoned out that why river is being treated as mother. Everybody would have experienced in the childhood by being in the hands and lap of mother with her warm hugs. I had a similar experience and cannot describe beyond this in words. One has to experience this feeling. Though we never wanted to come out of the river as we were having an enchanting experience, we were to visit many places which forced us to come out of the river….
Some of the facts associated with Kasi are:
There are 64 Ghats. Out of these 64 ghats, cremation takes place only at Hari Chandra & Mani Karnika Ghats (“Mani” refers to bell and “Karnika” refers to the neck of Lord Shiva)
The alias name for Kasi is Varanasi which is derived from two rivers namely Varuna and Asi
The names of some of the notable Ghats are Kedar, Hari Chandra, M
ani Karnika, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Asi, Dashaswamedha, Prayag & Raja
The famous “Ganga Aarthi” takes place at three Ghats namely, Dashaswamedha, Raja & Kedar
I leave you all at this point to ponder with the thoughts of Ganga..….… Ganga Maiya (Amma) ki Jai
Here we go.......
We reached Kasi late in the late evening on 25 Dec 2005 we rested for the day.
A river is an important thing for any country and we in India associate it traditionally with our culture. We have been taught to treat the river as Goddess and mother. We address all our rivers by female names barring Brahma Putra being an exception.
A perennial river with its tradition and history dates back to Mahabharata and its name associated with name of the film, film songs, film dialogues and in every other possible way. No other river has claimed such popularity I believe. Yes…..I am referring to Ganga… Though I had the privilege of seeing Ganga at Kanpur, Ganga at Kasi has its own specialty in many ways.
I must mention here that Kasi is not a modern city. It is an old city still retaining century old buildings in every angle and shape, very narrow alleys with width being approximately 4 feet. Human beings in two wheelers or by walk share & congest these narrow alleys with cattle is a common site. Yet Kasi is inundated with tourists.
It is also believed that lakhs and lakhs of Shivalingams got buried underneath the surface of Kasi. Probably, for this reason the old local people do not use footwear to walk on the roads. Kasi is also known as Punya Karma bhoomi where even deaths are taken casually as any normal event and they consider it a big thing to get cremated in designated Ghats.
We started at 8 in the morning (in heavy foggy conditions) to Kedar Ghat which is very nearby from Vaishali’s Grandparents. We were dumbstruck at the sight of magnificent Ganga with its huge water mass flowing serenely, doing its duty day in and day out without expecting any benefits. We were ecstatic and thrilled to watch Ganga.
Initially we were hesitating to venture in water fearing it would be too cold because of winter. By seeing the crowd who were taking dips very casually, we got some confidence. After shedding clothes we were chattering literally. But the moment we took our first holy dip, we felt no cold at all even with temperature around 9 deg C . At this point I reasoned out that why river is being treated as mother. Everybody would have experienced in the childhood by being in the hands and lap of mother with her warm hugs. I had a similar experience and cannot describe beyond this in words. One has to experience this feeling. Though we never wanted to come out of the river as we were having an enchanting experience, we were to visit many places which forced us to come out of the river….
Some of the facts associated with Kasi are:
There are 64 Ghats. Out of these 64 ghats, cremation takes place only at Hari Chandra & Mani Karnika Ghats (“Mani” refers to bell and “Karnika” refers to the neck of Lord Shiva)
The alias name for Kasi is Varanasi which is derived from two rivers namely Varuna and Asi
The names of some of the notable Ghats are Kedar, Hari Chandra, M
ani Karnika, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Asi, Dashaswamedha, Prayag & RajaThe famous “Ganga Aarthi” takes place at three Ghats namely, Dashaswamedha, Raja & Kedar
I leave you all at this point to ponder with the thoughts of Ganga..….… Ganga Maiya (Amma) ki Jai
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