Varanasi - Ganga

I woke up in the very early morning, it was still dark outside and I could see from my window the brightly lit Sri Ram Mandir Temple. I stayed right at Dashashwamedh Ghat, the center of activities in town. Down at the Ghat the prayers were preparing themselves for the ritual bath in the Ganga river. First doing some meditation, then floating into the river to wash their lifetime sins away. Varanasi is one of the spiritual capitals of India, where year round pilgrims were searching for cleaning their souls, start a new section in their lives or finish it. The city was since ever also the place, where many Hindus wanted to die in peace and then have their ashes got scattered in the river, as only here Hindus can be liberated from the eternal cycle of live and death. Once the sun was crawling slowly over the horizon I took a boat to float on the river. The sun rays coloured the ghats into red and purple and the masses appeared from the river like a nest of ants. I was traveling from the great mountains of the Himalaya down to Kolkata same as the waters of the mighty Ganga river and here in Varanasi I got as close as possible to his holy waters. Kashi, how the city was called several times in the past can be translated as City of Life and watching the activities on the shore from the mighty Ganga thought me why.

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