Hello TEC-Y, family and friends,
Zoe and I arrived in Varanasi yesterday and are enjoying life in this holy city. Varanasi is an ancient city previously cited in Hindu scripture. The Ganges River is a sacred river in India. It is believed by many Hindu's that to bath in the Ganges will remove some of your bad karma, and to be cremated here will end the cycle of birth and rebrith (the hindus believe that many souls live many lives and if you do good in one life you will rise to a different station in life and you if do bad then you will life a lower life--maybe a dog or a pig rather than a human) So many Hindus come to Varansi to bath and to die here.
Last night Zoe and I took an autorickshaw--a little car that has three wheels and no doors and doesn't go faster than 30km an hour down to the river and through the side streets. Our driver then parked the car and walked us around town to show us the different religious places along the river. All along the river Ganges are various steps and entrances to the water. These are called Ghats. There are over 30 ghats along the river in town and each ghat has a different purpose. We went to one ghat that was for cremation. The Hindus carry the dead body down to the water. The body is wrapped in cloth and flowers and then placed in the water for a holy dip. Later they will burn the body. They believe this will release the body and send it up to heaven. Only men are allowed to come to these ghats (although beacuse we were not Indian they permitted Zoe and I). The men who come down stay for the day and watch over their loved ones as the pray and wish them a safe trip to heaven. A few of the men in the family will shave their heads to recognize the death of their loved ones. All their head is shaved except a small piece at the back of the head--it kinda looks like a small tail.
Later we went to another ghat to celebrate the power of the Hindu god Shiva. We went into Shiva's temple and particpated in a meditation ceremony to Shiva. Many people around the temple rang bells in a song that repeated for over an hour while everyone stood and faced the statue of Lord Shiva. One man covered Lord Shiva with smoke from incence. It was very peaceful.
After the mediation a few people went out to the river and took a bath before the Brahmin (the holy man) started the evening ceremony thanking the river ganges for its role in the creating life and accepting death.
It was a magical experience and even though a lot of what we saw was about death it was not sad at all but a rather happy celebration. I understand now why they call this the holy city.
I've just explaind the role of the river Ganges in the cycle of birth and rebirth, can you guys think about what other religions use water to play a role in our ceremony's. What do Christian religions use water for? How might that be different or similar?
Because we were with our autorickshaw driver Zoe and I learned a bit about his life. His name is Raj and he is 24 years and is trying to save money to support his family. He wants to send all of his younger brothers to college so they can get good jobs and then hopefully they will help pay for him to go to college later. His family lives in a village about half an hour from Varanasi, he rents a small room just outside of Varanasi and tries to go home and visit them every couple of weeks. We're hoping to go out for dinner Raj tonight!
While Varanasi is a spiritual place for Hindu's it is also a spiritual place for Buddhists. It is said that the Buddha gave his first sermon after enlightnment here! Zoe and I took a trip to Sarnath--the place were buddha preached--this morning. At Sarnath there is a fig tree--or bodhi tree that is believed to be a grandtree of the first tree under which Buddha had enlightenment. In addition there were also many temples from various Buddhists around the world to celebrate this special place. Can you image standing in the same place the Buddha did? It was a beautiful park with lots of trees and I can understand now why he wanted to stay there and talk about his religious beliefs.
Tomorrow we head off to see the Taj Mahal I will write back in a few days and tell everyone all about that. In the meantime your question for the contest for those TEC-Yer's that want to participate. For Hindu's in India there is a belief that people are born into different levels in life--this is called the caste system. Who can tell me how many levels there are, what is the name of each level and what part of the body of Lord Shiva they represent?
See you soon!
KYLA
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