India, April 17, 2010
been two weeks since I left Rishikesh, the holy city. Jordi I left, my traveling companion, accompanied by Joanna, our new traveling companion, who joined our tour. Join me in two weeks in Varanasi before leaving for Nepal.
In these two weeks I lived unrepeatable moments, I knew a part of India that maybe it was just what I was looking for, India, spiritual, mystical, that all travelers West, who dive in this country are looking for. From Rishikesh, after 25-hour train ride I arrived in Bodhgaya, another holy city.
Bodhgaya is a small village but which retains the essence of Buddhism. Is the town where Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha and lights. Here there is the tree under which Gautama meditated until it reached very high levels of awareness: the lighting or just nirvana. It is here where thousands of devotees and the curious, like me, every year we meet to meditate under this big tree. The path that many devotees of the Buddha are consists of 4 cities: Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha; Bodhgaya, where he reached nirvana, Sarnath, where he made his first speech on the Dhamma (the Path to Enlightenment) to his first five disciples, Kushinagar, where Buddha died. A Bodhgaya there is not much to do to be honest, after visiting several Buddhist temples, Japanese, Chinese, Burmese, Thai, Tibetan, Nepalese, and after passing several hours under the tree of Buddha that transmits calmness relaxation and incredible, life in Bodhgaya is terribly flat. Here I met some Indian boys are truly unique. Among the many Subod, a boy of 31 years with a smile and a great heart. With
Subod spent a full day, with his scooter around the province of Bodhgaya, showing the arid landscape and small villages where poor people live in rudimentary huts and families of 9-10 people living with the cultivation of a piece of land and a cow that can provide the basic necessities for the whole family. These families are seen together, everybody works hard, the head of the family to the youngest child, all contribute to "welfare" of the family. Along the way, take a break in one of these homes, where a family welcomes us with open arms, some I observed with great curiosity, it is not normal for their shares tourists go to visit, would not be normal because there's nothing to see normal life and current sense of these farmers who wake up in the morning with one thought to bring home food to meet their nutritional needs and grow their children with the strong hope that one day they can change their future.
really interesting ride bikes with my Indian friend, even if the sun during peak hours so that the hot air moving out of what seems an oven at 90 ยบ. Rest
3 days in Bodhgaya, the third party, for the last city visit of my trip to India, one from which I would leave to go to Nepal: Varanasi.
One thing is certain, when you go to Varanasi are sure of being in India, true that India, where culture, traditions, life and death is focused on the banks of the river running through it, the most sacred river of the world: the Ganges.
Life in Varanasi is held on gaths, the steps that end up in river. Here the pilgrims, devotees of Shiva and not bring their offerings to the sacred river, practice religious rituals, bathe, pray, meditate, do laundry, play cricket, begging, selling incense, candles and flowers for the puja. Everything takes place on the banks of the river, from life to death. Here, in fact many Indians, to the point of death, come from all over India to be cremated and their ashes cast into the Ganges. Varanasi is like Mecca for Muslims, an induction if it gets wet with water from the river receives the divine blessing and all the sins committed in this and other lives will be deleted and you can exit from the wheel of reincarnation. There are two gath particularly where the cremations take place and are in the sunlight. It prepares the wood that the deceased or his family, he must have bought before he died, and outbreaks are lit on the steps going to the river, where lies the body of the deceased is covered with sheets of gold, incense and flowers, here the body begins to burn until nothing remains but the ashes are given to family and thrown into the sacred river.
Varanasi itself is chaotic, dirty, it's easy to get lost in the labyrinthine maze of streets surrounding the downtown and return to normal starting point if you dive in for the gaths VISIT.
The streets are narrow, and you will fight against the cows, faithful, beggars, merchants and tourists hallucinated for walking in this maze, but even this has its charms. The call of the bazaar merchants, the smell of incense mixed, faeces and urine, spices, sweets, are like a drug that makes you walk the city as a viuzzole hallucinating, but when you get used to it becomes part of it, you feel as if you were born in this city and know it like your house, you feel as though I had already lived in those places, that you are part of, or in another time, in another life, I was a resident.
At 7 pm, in the main Gath, the staircase the main town, we celebrate the puja. Hindus, and not pay homage to the Ganges with music, scents of incense and fire dances. The puja is a spectacle that no one can lose, then if you see a boat on the river, the show becomes even more fascinating.
days in Varanasi I run fast, unfortunately, could only stay three days since, in short I should have gone to Sarnath (10 km from Varanasi) for the 10-day Vipassana course, but three days were enough for me to know that is a city \u200b\u200bthat I've only seen once. The recall is already strong, the desire to relive that feeling, that inner peace will always live in me.
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