“GANGA MAIYYA”, NEEDS A HOLY DIP?!!

Grounds where the fire never dies. Varanasi, popularly know as Kashi or “the city of light” or Banaras is in Uttar Pradesh of India. It is believed that the very first ray of light felled in this city after the creation of world. The place where Lord Shiva dwells is one of the holiest cities for Hindus. Varanasi attracts millions and millions of pilgrims every year. The river that flows here is India’s longest river, the world famous, “Ganga”. The numerous ghats along the Ganga are the most attractive ghats which change colors with shifting rays of sunlight. Other than all these things, the high intensity of religious feelings had made this place more holy and famous.

The river Ganga flows towards the north and washes the banks of kashi for the one and only time throughout her course. The ultimate goal of one Hindu’s life is to visit kashi. Washing their sins in river Ganga. Praying not to give them another life after death (moksha siddhi). It is believed that a fast (upvasa) for three days in Kashi equals thousands of years of asceticism (tapas). The death in kashi is believed to be the ultimate liberation. Therefore in old days, people believed that the one who goes for a kashi yaatra will never return.

Mainly three reasons have made kashi the holiest, one is that it is the city of light, secondly, ganga flows here and the third one is Shiva himself whispers the taraka mantra in the ears of the man who is dying (taraka mantras are nothing but the mantras which help a paapi to cross the river of samsaara and reach the moksha).

These things have made people to dwell in kashi until they die. About 60,000 people visit the Varanasi ghats to take a holy dip of Ganga maiyya. Crazy!! More people, meaning to say more pollution and more head ache. People having no one in their life come here to die. They don’t have left or right. Ultimate aim is to die in Kashi. They don’t even think of their cremation or burial after their death.

The holy Ganga is no more holy. It has become the worst place one should never have to go. Around 30 large sewage pipes continuously discharge the sewage into the “holy Ganga” 24X7. The worst thing is that, it is discharged in the same place where millions of people take their holy dip. Dead bodies can be found anywhere and everywhere in Kashi. Bodies are wrapped in colorful cloths and carried to the river on bamboo stretchers and then bodies are given one final dip in holy Ganga and then buried. On the river bank, traditional funerals are performed. Children under twelve, sadhus, pregnant women are not cremated as they are treated as pure. They are wrapped, tied to some big stone and thrown directly to the river.

According to official sources, 3,150 human bodies and 6,270 animal bodies were found floating in the river during 2007-2008. Some 32,000 bodies were cremated at the river's banks generating 300 tones of ash and 200 tones of half burnt flesh, which all went into the Ganga. Sewage as much as 275 million liters a day (MLD) are sent to the three plants that together have the capacity to treat only 98 MLD. And the plants are not equipped to handle industrial discharge. The remaining 177 million liters, sorry to say, go into the Ganga without treated.

Ganges river water is fully polluted and it is really a disastrous thing that no more dissolved oxygen exists in the water. Samples from the river show that the water has 1.5 million faecal coliform bacteria per 100mL of water. Water to be safe for bathing must have this number less than 500!! I don’t know how they drink this. If you have to get a holy dip in Ganga, you definitely have to share the water with buffalos!! One can imagine how holy the water is. Not a dip, even by touching the water, you may get septic. Ashes and smokes fill the air produced by the burning of bodies. In diwali season, more than 1 lakh butter candles are burnt in the banks.

We should not forget that Varanasi is also one of the main centers for studying classical Indian music, yoga, and meditation. Tourists and pilgrims come from all over the world to study under famous gurus, yogis, and instructors. Old Varanasi depicts the culture and heritage of our country. Even though weird and unusual rituals are performed in Kashi, the tourists count has not fallen until now, which is a bad thing according to me. There is something in Kashi which is attracting pilgrims. We may say we are living in 21st century; technology has made us to change. But the reality is that we are still in 18th or 19th century. We don’t know where we are from and where we will go after death, then why we are waste our time thinking of paapa, punya, janana, marana, moksha, mukti, tantra, mantra and all that??