Namaste 🙏
Hope you all are doing great!!!
So after my visit to the ancient Kashi Vishvanath Temple, I was back at the Kashi Vishwanath corridor with my grandparents. I asked my grandparents to have a seat there near the Ghat while I wanted to go explore the nearby region and also take a dip in the holy Ganga river.
It is believed that taking a dip in Ganga river, frees you from all the sins that you have committed. For the first time, here in the ancient city of Kashi I was about to do that. I asked people on the sites of Ghat that which place is the best to do that, and they insisted me to go to some Ghats beyond Sheetla Ghat.
They told me that after crossing about four Ghats, you will reach the place where it’s very good to take bath, and you will certainly see some people doing that. They also asked me to join them because it’s a little bit dangerous to take a dip alone as the water is quite deep here.
So, I kept on walking for about 15 minutes and crossed a couple of Ghats before I reached the place where the Ganga Aarti is held in Varanasi.
There were many shops here as this place is the most famous place and it is most crowded during the evenings. As the most auspicious Ganga Aarti is held here and people from throughout the world come here to visit that Aarti.
This was on day before the festival of colours that is Holi that I was there, and I could see the preparation of the festival going on here in Varanasi and it’s full glory. You could see many people and many Baba’s especially Gauri Baba’s hair in Varanasi, they were ready for the ceremony that was to be held later that evening after Aarti.
In the photograph below, you can see the Ghat, which is famous for all the boats. Here, the little boats were parked as the Aarti was about to start, and the Burchman were looking for the people whom which they can take to the centre of the river to show them the Aarti from the other side.
I just kept on walking and walking until I reached the point where there were many people collectively standing in a crowd so that they can get a seat to witness the Aarti upfront.
Later, I realise that I was still not in the centre of the place where Aarti was to be held. It was about five minutes away from here as I asked a person who was rushing towards the Aarti Ghat. I also followed him and started running towards the Aarti Ghat.
The more I move towards the right side, the more people I saw on my way, I could see the excitement in the atmosphere, and I could feel that everyone was super excited to witness the most auspicious Ganga Aarti ever.
I was certain that I would also be seeing Ganga Aarti in a very good way as it was planned that after taking a dip in the Ganga, I would head back to my grandparents, and then we will get back to our boat from where we will see the Ganga Aarti from Ganga river itself.
So here I was, it was the place where Ganga Aarti was to be held and it was full of crowd as you can see in the photographs below. Everyone was gathering here to witness this auspicious event, especially before the festival of colours. That was very nice day after Ganga Aarti, another festival was in line that was Holika Dahan.
There were many places where sticks and wood were stacked up so that the ritual can be performed after the Ganga Aarti. It was the start of the festival of colour.
It was still three hours until Aarti would start, but people were sitting there to capture the seats so that they could see Aarti comfortably. They were no seats left from this time only and now people were hunting to search a comfortable place for them to sit so that they could enjoy this beautiful magical event that was about to taken a couple hours afterwards.
While people were busy locating their seats, I was curious to find a spot where I can take a dip. I need to cross about three guards to reach to that place as a person confirmed the same, so I kept on moving until I reached that place. I will be writing about my experience of taking a dip in the Ganga River in next blog. I think that’s it for today.
Thanks for passing by.
Peace ☮️