Varanasi, India: where Hindus go to die

Editor’s note: This is part one in a series of articles featuring the sacred sites of the world’s religions.

Hinduism’s holiest city, Varanasi draws a million pilgrims each year. Their mission is to pray, to wash away their sins in the Mother Ganges River, and to die.

The Mother Ganges is considered an actual deity in the Hindu pantheon. They regard the river itself to be the Goddess Shakti. Hindus venerate the river as a giver and life, but also as a means of liberation from life.

Dying on the river’s sacred banks is believed to free oneself from samsara, the endless cycle of death and rebirth. Breaking the reincarnation chain will allow Hindus to achieve spiritual liberation, or moksha. Moksha is similar to Buddhist enlightenment in that it is liberation from earthly desires and the suffering that follows it. Moksha is the ultimate goal for a Hindu, and the Mother Ganges is the fastest way to achieve it.

But what of all the bodies that are left on the banks of the river? Varanasi’s cremation gnats burn several thousand bodies each month. These gnats are considered some of the holiest places in the city; where death and life come together. Barefoot men rotate the burning bodies with bamboo poles, and the ashes are shoveled into the river. It is not uncommon to see the bodies of infants floating in the water, as they are still considered pure and not in need of cremation.

Along with ash and human remains, the brown-colored river is polluted with raw sewage, and industrial chemicals. But the toxic water is not enough to dissuade the pilgrims from bathing in, and drinking the water, as the sacred connotations of the river far outweigh trivial mortal issues.

According to legend, the Hindu deity Shiva, who is considered the most fertile Hindu god, discovered the city of Varanasi 5,000 years ago. Because of this, the city is filled with phalluses. Stone phalluses decorate temples and emerge from sidewalks. Real phalluses can be spotted on the Hindu holy men called sadhus, whose only clothing is the ashes from the cremation gnats, spread over their bodies.

Along with being one of seven sacred cities of Hinduism, Varanasi is also sacred to Buddhists, being one of four pilgrimage destinations designated by Gautama Buddha himself. It is said that the Buddha gave his first sermon on the basic teaching of Buddhism in the holy city.

Tagged as: afterlife, Hinduism, sacred sites