And just say the name of Benares, Varanasi Hindi, gives me some chills. You recall spending time in the most holy and sacred city of India leads me to another life, another world, whose magic and spirituality only contemplating in situ comprising what happens there. Since the Sun shows its first rays until the evening comes, what is experienced on the steps that slide into the river, known as ghats, is the representation of a ritual that goes beyond any explanation I can give. There is joy mixed with life and death, purity and misery of a people who are convinced that the Ganges and worship the gods that can free them from the cycle of reincarnation redundant. A place where the ceremonies are its reason for being is visible from a small, narrow wooden boat from which several times a day I used to observe and portray those scenes of color and feeling.
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Varanasi is a living city that managed excited by the minute, which enveloped me in its mystical world from the start. And it was in a little boat where I found the inspiration to try to understand everything that showed me.
VARANASI HOLY, HOLY AND SPIRITUAL
The holy city of India is not far from a place to get lost in great monuments. I'm not saying they do not exist, but that is not the aspect that attracts the attention of the world and why many touches us especially fiber. He won his start chameleon scene, the feeling that follows the faith of those people who indulges in it, who are naked emotionally to put your body and heart to the service of something intangible but is within each and every one of they.
With regard to India I have the impression that much abuse is often the term "Spirituality". It seems that in this country everything is spiritual, even its chaos, its constant hardship and more filthy squalor of the slums. And that is not found everywhere as many "gurus" are determined to show as his Martini shaken in a 5 star hotel. Far from it. Spirituality, if it exists, is another matter. And in Varanasi you can capture some of the essence, something that escapes any explanation but removes inside, it envelops you in an atmosphere of beliefs and ceremonial make you spit getting the most current and mean of your thoughts.
While in Varanasi, every morning I got up before the clock struck five in the morning to see this explosion of prayers, unbridled joy and certainty to illogical priori ideologies. He was staying in a little hotel called Hotel Ganges View (In 2009 I paid 1000 rupees for a single room) which was in the Asi Ghat, perfectly situated for a linear journey through all the most important and central ghats of the old city, paragraph enough to sleep quietly at night. Since dawn just at that time and later the heat was terrific, he took the opportunity to take a boat with a young lad with whom ran Varanasi flush waters of the River Ganges. I asked her to take me until the very end, for 2 to 3 km, to go slowly returning on foot. There were times when I did it three times in one day, coinciding with the morning, afternoon and night.
And since that wooden boat that sailed in the Ganges I was running into all this visual and sensory explosion that is organized every day in Varanasi, with the energy of those looks that sought purification. And with that welcome those found along the river's death and his ashes are scattered into eternity. This duality is what explains, personally, that word so overused of "spiritual". If you are somewhere, you are probably there in the mystical and holy Varanasi.
TEN IMAGES FROM ghats of Benares the Ganges
Since there were so many comings and goings my boat, that lonely counterpoint to the hubbub that occurred in the bank, I selected ten images ... ten scenes with which to explain the vision of a city that I nailed most Deep in my soul. I think there are few places like Varanasi who are passionate about photography and portray moments that happen only every second and that continue even when we blink. I have hundreds of pictures of Varanasi and I struggled to pick just ten pictures, but do not think more about it and here goes:
Explosion of joy and color in the Ghats of Varanasi
From early morning the steps of the main ghats of Varanasi are visited by thousands of people who come down to purify the waters of the Ganges. This, according to their beliefs, helps cleanse their sins and therefore his soul. With the first rays of sun the river comes alive, its energy is reflected in the faces of pilgrims from all over India, as Benares is like Mecca for the Arabs, who have to visit at least once in life. However that is where religion puts many mythological stories of the deities they worship.
This scene is captured no later than 5:30 am. From 8:00 in the months of April and May the heat is simply terrifying and should take advantage of early and late in the day.
Multitudinous purifying baths in the Ganges
It never minds that the Ganges, in the section which passes through Varanasi, is one of the most polluted rivers in the world, garbage, ashes or pieces of bodies that have not been finished scorch is thrown. A crowd full of color and usually dressed in the case of women, undertaken with joy and fervor the purifying baths. With prayers, smiles and gestures, people perform a ritual really important to them. So many incredible pictures while you do not have the ability to assimilate all are given.
A Sadhu fire raises his glass facing the river
Long I talked of Sadhus, those holy men and ascetics of Hinduism who dispense with their material life and are turning in contemplation, prayer and survive by begging. In my initiatory trip to India I found many of them in different cities, but I never saw as many as in Varanasi. From the boat which left from Asi Ghat I met several of them always looking over the river. In this case the sadhu raised a glass of fire which is likely to make a toast to the sun, which was just waking up that morning.
The perpetual fires of Manikarnika
The Ghats of Varanasi one of the most striking is undoubtedly the Manikarnika, whose function is to crematorium corpses. Of those in the city this is the most famous and popular. From the boat, or on foot, one can always see the fires burning in which are burning the bodies of dead people whose ashes are then thrown into the Ganges. Looking for your spiritual liberation families move their loved ones to this place to be burned in a ceremonial ending with the remains of the dead in the river. It all depends on the amount of wood that have been able to gather for this sacred ritual.
While it is a place that left me speechless, one of the things that impressed me not see a single tear in any of the cremations to which I attended. Perhaps it is his unwavering faith that makes them be convinced that this is just another step in the life of a person paid to the cycle of reincarnation. Cycle is broken if one dies in Varanasi or 60 kilometers around, making many older people and beggars come to this and other ghats to die. If they are poor begging alms to pay for the wood to be cremated and thus be closer to the release.
Manikarnika works day and night, and there is no time in the day when there is no body burning on the pyre ...
Should be cautious about taking pictures, especially if done by (from the boat is allowed), as there are mafias that control this aspect and ask for substantial amounts to tourists who want to grab an image.
Preparing a Harishchandra Ghat cremation
Although Manikarnika Ghat which is usually out all the lights and teeming gangs left and right, there's another just a kilometer south, which is something closer to Asi Ghat. It's called Harishchandra Ghat is another cremation combining the two forms of incineration, with traditional wooden and more modern electric. Although a higher percentage of the population prefers the method of life in which wood is used, this ends up being quite costly for them, so here you are also offered the alternative of electric furnaces at more affordable prices.
Still, without too much crowding, you may also see fires night and day. In the picture we observe exactly how he is preparing a bonfire beside the body involved. Perhaps most shocking here is not the dead itself, but external details as there right beside the garbage eating goats, although this does vary gesture to people who are starting the funeral ceremony. That's what they get places like Varanasi, it is the ordinary extraordinary and the ordinary is amazing for the view that many have of an issue as it is death.
Saris coloring the Ganges
India is the sum of the five senses at its finest. Everything is very visual, noise is terrible, the smell accompanies you everywhere, strong flavors are felt on the palate well based and touch can leave you feel the soft tissues of the world. If something does increase the sense of sight in the country is the colorful saris worn by Indian women. Varanasi look soak in the sacred river thousands and thousands of these saris every day in these purifying baths that are the day to day in the city.
Clothes drying in the sun on the ghats of Benares
The steps from the shore of Benares are not only used for ceremonies and rituals. When there ghats that are not too crowded end also being perfect for drying clothes that have previously washed in the river. That way you can see extended saris, shirts, sheets and even carpets brought from home for the occasion. On sunny days it does not take a snap clothes to dry. Surely a chore well planned in the holiest city in India ...
Meditation and prayer to the gods at the foot of Ganges
We return to the spirituality of Varanasi with this image of a man totally engrossed in his prayers in the morning. Hidden in their orange robes, close your eyes to devote himself to prayer rein in the waters of India's holiest river. It seems from the boat that took the image, or an earthquake would you move from where you are. Surprises are capitalized in every one of the steps of a ghat any of the holy city of Varanasi.
Buffalo bathing in the Ganges
But what I see? This time those who are taking a dip is not the faithful in search of purification. It is a herd of buffalo which is stirring up the torpor of unforgiving heat wave in the middle of the day. Cattle are bathed ... and cleaned by a guy who makes sure that all animals entering the water soon. This scene I found on my trip to India on many occasions. Varanasi would expect, of course.
Woman patiently waiting on a step
A good lady expects clothes and saris that has put the sun to dry. If something excites me India is the color to even the most ordinary scene. It becomes easy photogenic alone. Why this country and this city in particular, represent a major Havens of professional and amateur photographers. Varanasi is full of possibilities marked a goal and bring it back home.
Definitely Benares or Varanasi whichever you prefer to call it, was the city in which I have lived a greater accumulation of sensations. Sometimes from a boat, as I tried to show this time, others walk down the stairs LF countless charting every single day of the year a show without equal, that leaves you speechless. It is a city of Gods made by and for people, which as you can imagine bizarre goes unnoticed. I enjoyed there for three days of a little comparable to elsewhere visual and emotional explosion. And all you can say about it would fall short ...
Varanasi is unique and inimitable. It is ... that India was looking for when I left
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