Internal conflicts arise on a regular basis. The struggle between logic and intuition, body and spirit, responding vs reacting, yada yada yada. I had one of these moments this past Friday morning at 4am when my alarm clock yanked me from dreamland. My body pleaded for more rest (as I still was struggling to get back on a indian sleep schedule) and at the same moment my spirit yearned for exploration and adventure. My spirit triumphed in the case as I arose, threw a few items in a backpack and headed to the airport. The destination wa
s Varanasi which is considered one of the holiest cities in all of this spiritually saturated country. My fellow explorers were Ibanga (friend and co-worker) and Seth (Pal who is traveling around the world for a year).Varanasi is by far the dirtiest city I have traveled to thus far in India. The cows are abundant and roam freely. Hence, landmines in the form of cow shit are everywhere. I came outfitted only with flip flops and miraculously made it through three days of roaming this dangerous environment unscathed....
On the other side of the spectrum, the energy and vibeof varanasi (also referred to as benares) filled my spirit with peaceful acceptance of everything and everyone. And that should not be take lightly...considering the plethora of shocking, strange and intense experiences one encounters during a visit to "the holy city".
The city sits on the ganges or ganga river which flows from the Himalayas and is believed to provide life to mother india. Similar to Mecca for Muslims, Hindus come to the ganges for cleansing of their spirit and take "holy baths". People that know me understand that baths and spirituality are to of my favorite pastimes...So what better than to join in a "holy bath"?!?
Well my friends, the problem is that the ganges is really dirty. There is a 7km stretch of river kissing the shore of Varanasi. In this same area, over 30 large sewers are flow in the river. The water is septic meaning no dissolved oxygen exists. Water samples show it has 1.5 million fecal coliform bacteria per 100ml of water. Water that is safe for bathing, based on the above stats should have less than 500 FC! To make matters worse, Hindus believe that being bathed in the ganga and then cremated in wood burning fires is a way to break the cycle of reincarnation and achieve "moksha". So people bring their family members here and other places along the ganga for this intricate process which is omnipresent 24/7, never stopping. Babies that expire (the term for death) are often put in the ganges for rebirth...
So taking all this into account and just looking at the pollution that hangs out on the surface of the river I was perplexed. Again an internal struggle... This time between logic and spirit. My mind and senses told me: you would be cuckoo for cocco puffs to do this and my spirit said let go, surrender to "the holy dip"...
I must confess, in this situation logic overtook spirit and I chose not to take a "holy dip". Although, on a side note: after three days of not bathing, when I returned to hyderabad I had what felt like a spiritual experience as I washed my body...
I would recommend Varanasi to any traveler exploring mystic india, as it will provide you with resonating experience.
There are some good pics and videos in the links if your interested in seeing some of what varassi has to offer.
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