Varanasi - Day 1 of 3

A rose is a rose is a rose and the rose by any other name would still smell as sweet.  Varanasi, Benaras, Kasi – whatever you call this sacred city, is engulfed with divinity and the feeling as soon as you land there is celestial. The 7 of us have been looking forward to this trip for a long time and the time had come for us to set off on this religious sojourn.

 

Day 1 - We landed in Varanasi at 10am and were greeted by Nihar, our guide at the airport. We got on the 11 passenger van reserved for us for the next 3 days and set off on our journey. We started off by driving up to Sarnath, giving a Buddhist perspective to the holiness of the area. We saw the Moolagandha Mandir, the Dhameka Stupa where Buddha delivered his first sermon after he attained enlightenment, archeological sites, big Buddha sculptures in various temples and museum with a sculpture of the Ashoka pillar that was chiseled out of a single block of sandstone.

 

We drove back to Varanasi and before checking in to Ramada around 4 pm, had lunch at Royal family restaurant. The evening was a melting pot of all things spiritual, mysticism, and divinity as we gravitated towards the Jyotirlinga of Shiva enshrined in the Kashi Vishwanatha temple. We used different modes of transportation to get there. First by van from Hotel Ramada and half way through the heavily crowded streets in a cycle rickshaw which brought back childhood memories of going to school in a rickshaw and finally walked through the narrow winding streets. As we walked through the streets, I was sure we were going to get lost and silently followed our guide trusting his instincts. Finally we reached the Kashi Vishwanatha temple and the feeling of exhilaration reached the peaks of devotion and the glimpse of the Jyotirlinga amidst the mass of individuals funneled into an oneness with God. From there, we went to Kasi Visalakshi and Annaporneswari temples.

What we witnessed next was one of the most memorable moments of life – the vibrant and admirably choreographed Ganga Aarthi ceremony. It was energizing to see thousands of people assembled at Dashashwamedh Ghat to view the spectacle of evening aarthi in Varanasi. Seven young priests in traditional Indian attire moving to the tune of melodious aarthi and bhajan, holding huge deepams was a sight to behold. The soul stirring bhajans reverberated through the area and the whole atmosphere was magical with the aarthi deepam creating a bright hue against the darkened sky. As the aarthi came to an end and the young man singing the bhajans with such fervor started to unwind, we had the opportunity to continue the momentum by singing Bho Shambo in unison. Deriving such a feeling of satisfaction, we then scrambled to float lamps in leaf boats in the Ganges. It was amusing to see other people around taking pictures of us as we tried to take selfies.

As we were returning back to the hotel, we didn’t want to miss out on any local specialties and had aloo tikki chat for dinner and finished off with hot milk with cream floating on top in matkas or clay pots which added to the subtle flavor.