Ganga!

How to begin...

I think a little background is necessary to comprehend and feel the essence of such a big day. As many know, the Ganges River (which we will now call Ganga) is the most holiest of rivers in Hinduism and India. Pilgrims flock from far distances to wash away their sins, spread loved ones ashes, and pray for the best. Ganga flows from the Himalayas in the Northeast of India and basically travels east through the plains and deposits into the Bay of Bengal in Calcutta.

The place where we came to is where the river cuts through the mountains and meets the plains, a holy city called Haridhwar and close-by spiritual town called Rishikesh. It's quite beautiful scenery, foothills surrounding the river as it curves through the green mountains and hits the land. However, it's not the scenery which took a hold of us today, it was the people! The amount of pilgrims and abundance of energy is mesmerizing. Because of last night's fiasco, we missed the glorious aarti (ceremonious offering and prayer) which happens on the river at dusk. We decided to wake up at the crack of dawn and make it to the ghat (river bank) for the morning aarti (another 5AMer). The place where this happens in Haridhwar is called "Har-Ki-Pairi", which translates to 'Footstep of God'. (Samir - "Pairi" is pronounced exactly how South-Indian-capital-reciting-kid-on-Youtube pronounces the capital of South Dakota). Apparently when Vishnu took the nectar of immortality from the demons (it was a pitcher, called a "kumbh"), 4 drops spilled onto the ground, and they became current day Allahabad, Nasik, Ujjain, and Haridhwar.

If you want to know a piece if incredible knowledge and history I found absolutely fascinating, continue reading this paragraph - otherwise skip to the next paragraph (remember 'Choose Your Own Adventure?!). Every 3 years, there is a "kumbh mela" (holy gathering) of pilgrims to one of the 4 cities mentioned above. (We missed the kumbh mela in Haridwar by 1 year - this city will host in 2010). The dates fall on, as all Hindu dates do, significant astrological occurences. The Kumbh Mela is the largest religious gathering of people in the world. Let me say that again - the Kumbh Mela is the largest religious gathering of people in the world. Tens of millions of pilgrims gather to pray on these holy dates in these holy cities. Now, every 12 years, there is a Maha (great) Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, where nearly 100 million people gather to bathe in the Ganges, release ashes, etc. This is a third of the population of the US, or 30 times the number of people that do the annual Haaj to Mecca. This is also 10% of the population of India in one city. Simply incredible and enormous.

As I mentioned in a previous post, on the drive in last night we passed by hundreds of pilgrims all wearing orange carrying beautifully decorated and ceremonial water horses (think of the old pictures where you see people carrying water from the well on their shoulders with two buckets and a stick, but really nice looking). This morning, there were thousands of them! Everywhere! We got to the river bank at sunrise, which was surreal, and walked amongst all of the pilgrims who had made the trek for weeks to bathe and carry water back to their villages for the upcoming Shivratri pooja (prayer and offering to one of the Gods named Shiva) next month. It was an incredible sight; a festival of pilgrims all gathering in once place to pay homage to the Lord and celebrate with other people. There were so many people, again, all wearing orange sleeping, swimming, drinking chai, walking around, smoking bidis, washing themselves, eating breakfast, etc. We stepped into the muddy water (apparently its usually clear, but because of the rain its brown) and touched the water to our face and head, washed our hands - a pre-rinse if you will of what was to come ahead.

Tej and Vik at 5AM - you can see several of the millions of pilgrims walking to the Ganges in the background

Sunrise over Ganga. Local boy "fishing" out pilgrim-shoulder-water-holder-things out of the river. Really love this picture. You can see the thousands of pilgrims on the banks of Ganga in the background...

We were told that Rishikesh (an hour away) offered better swimming opportunities, so we packed up and headed there, passing hundreds of pilgrims on the way. Rishikesh is a stunning place: Ganga cutting through hilly vistas and temples, ashrams, hawkers, cows, monkeys, incense, music, and throngs of pilgrims. Its also a very spiritually hipster place to visit for Westerns as its claim to fame is 'the yoga and meditation capital of India'. There are ashrams everywhere, and apparently the Beatles spent months at an ashram here where they practically wrote the White Album.

We changed into our swim gear, made sure we had our cameras, and headed over the footbridge to the ghats. It was a great feeling to get into the water and submerse ourselves, swim, play, etc. I definitely felt something when I got into the water - at first I thought it was my sins washing away, but since I don't have any, it must have been the water being cold as shit! The water was freezing since it had come straight from the mountains, but the adrenaline and experience of bathing in the Ganges made us forget that part fast.

Anyone up for a dip?

Vik and Tej in the Ganga

R

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