CREATION & CREMATION
Along the Ganga Ghats in Varanasi

Robert Moses

Introduction - Part Three

An visual glimpse into the phenomenal complexity of the multi-layered worlds of Vārāņasī and its business of birth, the procession of life, and ultimate death.

The best description of the Indian city of Vārāņasī, originally known as Kashi and Benares, is probably “deeply mysterious.” In fact, sacred texts maintain that Vārāņasī isn’t even a city at all, but rather a lińgam of celestial light, the subtle and cosmic form of Lord Śiva, which manifested itself as a city for the sake of seekers of liberation. To bathe in the holy Gańgā, beside the Vārāņasī ghats, is to be purified of your sins. To die in Vārāņasī, as has been said uncountable times before, is to attain liberation and to bring to an end the cycle of rebirth known as transmigration.”
Eddie Stern, Soundwalk, Vārāņasī

During 1869 Sri Ramakrishna went on a
pilgrimage along with Mathur Babu to the holy city of Kashi, the spiritual capital of India. In Varanasi, one sees the sights of the temples better on boat tours. On one such tour, with Mathur and Hriday, Sri Ramakrishna came to a point opposite the Manikarnika Ghat, the well-known cremation ground of Varanasi. Sri Ramakrishna had the vision of the majestic Shiva on the steps of this cremation ground. He later said, “I saw a tall white person with tawny matted hair walking carefully to each Jiva [the dead body] and imparting into his ear the mantra of supreme Brahman. Sri Ramakrishna’s body hair stood on end, and he walked out of the cabin of the boat, to its very edge. The boatman cried to Hriday to catch hold of him, but Sri Ramakrishna was seeing only the Lord Shiva, standing on the steps, “embodying in himself” he later said, “all the solemnity of the world.” Finally, the figure of Shiva approached Sri Ramakrishna and merged in him.
From Shri Ramakrishna Ashram, Rajkot, website.

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