When a spiritual seeker is ready, the Ghats of Varanasi can peel off layers of muck and ignorance with the
visceral experiences of life and death that unfolds and reveal the illusions of the ego and our superficial attachment to ‘this’ putrescible organic identity that really belongs to time in the fire of dissolution. Here, we can pull back the curtain and feel the heat as we ponder on the meaning of this temporal life, the mystery of death and what happens after that, based on one’s religious belief and conditioned persuasions.
I do believe that going to Varanasi is not just an ordinary, off the beaten path, trek but rather happens when the time is ready for a seeker who is longing to experience a deeper spiritual awakening that will provide a shift in the aspirant conscious awareness. Indeed! to see the golden surreal hue of the early morning sunrise over mother Ganga and also simultaneously witnessing the the oozing smoke from the cremation pyre on the North Ghats provides for deep and introspective reflection on the nature of life and death. Beholding the dawning of the life-giving morning sun as the boatman glides his boat past the burning cremation pyres casts a sombre gloom which seemingly overshadows the transitional eclipsing in the ongoing life to death cycle… at this sacred Lord Shiva’s alter to Dharmaraja.
Varanasi is, without doubt a very mystical place which naturally invites us to take off our masks and to examine our true purpose and reason for being who and what we are. The ancient Ganga Aarti at the Dashashwamedh Ghat is still being performed and provides for a transcendent spellbinding experience.
I wish Pandita a very enlightening and transformative spiritual awakening in one of the holiest place in our ancestral homeland.
By Cliff Rajkumar