Varanasi: India's City of Death and Enlightenment
Located on the banks of India’s River Ganges, Varanasi is considered the holiest place on Earth by Hindus. The city has been a center of enlightenment and civilization for more than 2,000 years, and the Hindu faith continues to define this sacred city. The rituals and beliefs surrounding cremation and the cycle of reincarnation.
It is on the banks of the Ganges, which Hindus believe flows with holy waters. Varanasi is also the city in which Hindus believe one must die in order to end the cycle of reincarnation and achieve eternal life. It is the last destination on a Hindu’s journey toward enlightenment. Believed to dwell in Varanasi, Shiva is the god who grants spiritual enlightenment, enabling people to end the cycle of reincarnation.
Karma is the Hindu law of cause and effect. Hindus believe that one’s karma determines the path the soul travels from birth through life, to death, and back to life. Hindus believe that bad actions in your life result in bad karma, and good actions result in good karma. Good and bad deeds in a person’s previous or present life determine the quality of the next incarnation.
The dead are cremated on funeral pyres. It is believed that death does not actually occur until the body is in flames. there are more than 70 ghats in Varanasi, which provide a ceremonial approach to the river; at dawn, hundreds of Hindus stand on the ghats facing the rising sun murmuring prayers, bathing, and making offerings; there are also the “burning” ghats where cremations take place. Hindu priests sit along the ghats and assist the people in prayers and rituals. It is believed that a person is not actually dead until flames consume the body, freeing the spirit to continue on to the next incarnation. I did not upload photographs of burning dead bodies in the ghats.
