Varanasi the “Holy City”, also known as Banaras and Kashi is one of the world’s oldest continually inhabited cities and a place of pilgrimage for Hindus and Buddhists, Varanasi is the cultural and spiritual capital of India. Situated on the banks of the river Ganges, it is a place of rituals and ghats, yoga, spiritualism and philosophy.
A visit to Varanasi in itself offers a unique spiritual experience. The trip should start before sunrise from Assi Ghat on the banks of the Ganges, considered holy by most of the visitors. Assi Ghat is at walking distance from Hotel Kings Banaras.
Kashi Vishwanath- One of the Jyotirlingas’
The Shiva Purana, a holy book of Hindus, mentions Jyotirlinga’s. These are the structural appearances of Lord Shiva and are considered to be Him by Hindus.
Kashi Vishwanath Temple is one of the most illustrious Hindu Temples. It is devoted to Lord Shiva. It has one of the 12 Jyotirlingas or the Jyotirlingams which make it one of the divinest temples of Shiva. This temple is sited on Manikarnika Ghat and is considered as a Shakti Peeth or the place of devotion for the Shaktism sect of Hinduism.
History of Kashi Vishwanath Temple-
As per the Shiva Purana, once Brahma (the Hindu God of creation) and Vishnu (the Hindu God of Preservation) had disagreement about who was highest. To test them, Shiva pierced the three worlds as a huge endless pillar of light, the jyotirlinga. To determine who was mightier Vishnu took the form of a boar and sought out the bottom while Brahma took the form of a swan to fly to the pillar’s top. Brahma out of arrogance lied that he had found out the end, offering a katuki flower as witness. Vishnu modestly confessed to being unable to find the bottom. Shiva then took the form of the wrathful Bhairava, cut off Brahma’s lying fifth head, and cursed Brahma that he would not be worshipped. Vishnu for his honesty would be worshiped as equal to Shiva with his own temples for all eternity. The jyotirlinga is an antique axis mundi symbol representing the highest formless (nirguna) reality at the core of creation, out of which the form (saguna) of Shiva appears. The jyotirlinga shrines, thus are places where Shiva appeared as a scorching column of light.
Ganga Aarti in Varanasi
The most attractive spectacle in Varanasi is the “Ganga Aarti”. It is the ritual done with traditional lamps (Diya’s) conducted every single morning and evening at Dasaswamedh Ghat, Assi ghat, and many more by a group of young priests standing on a dais next to the river.
Varanasi is well known for being the ‘religious capital of India’ where thousands come for several divine purposes. Some come for the last rites, some to conduct their new borns’ birth ritual and some, to perish serenely.
Moksha In Kashi
There are numerous ghats, or steps leading to the river, to the north of Assi Ghat; the accurate number of ghats being 87. While some are bathing ghats, others are meant for carrying out devotions. However, two ghats stand apart. They are Manikarnika Ghat and Harishchandra Ghat-both are cremation ghats.
The two-storied hospice ‘Kashi Labh Mukti Bhawan’ hosts the elderly who request to spend their last days in the search for divine liberation. Recognized by the Dalmiya Charitable Trust in 1958, the Bhawan does not charge anything from the people who come here for a purpose. The trust bears all the overheads from the stay in the house, to all the rites of the day, to the cremation after “the soul leaves the body.”
People who are about to die or are on death bed, and believe in ‘moksha’ come to Moksha Bhavan for spiritual satisfaction. Nearly a half kilometer from the Bhawan, on the banks of river Ganga, falls the primary and most sacred cremation ghat in Varanasi, Manikarnika Ghat. When the soul leaves the material body, it is firmly covered in a white cloth on a lean bamboo cot, as per Hindu tradition.