F5 Escapes has been doing this trip for many years now during Dev Deepawali and I myself have been
involved in planning and remote execution for a couple of times. This year I could be there physically. And what changes with that? – The whole perspective to understand that city and to feel the energy it has to offer.
“This is how our local guide summarized Kashi: काशी चौबीस घटं चलता है और जलता है (Kashi is alive and burning 24 hours).”
Trip started with meeting all the amazing people who were there to understand and to soak in all the energies that Kashi has to offer. Along with the honking & crowd too 🙂 Starting with the evening Ganga aarti on Day 1 to ending it with a day in Sarnath, every day, every hour holds something different. How different this could be?
Subah-E-Banaras:
Where you think you are the first one to get up at 4AM in this cold morning and able to make it to Assi Ghat for the Aarti but not to your surprise 🙂 You see so many like you to experience the morning Ganga Aarti where a group of girls chant the mantras and boys offer prayers & aarti. Where yajna is happening on one side and dawn is waiting on the other side for you to experience the best boat ride to see Banaras waking up.
The Temples:
As many steps you take in Kashi you will find that many temples there. Each temple holds its own value , its own story. Kashi Vishwanath, Sankat Mochan, Maa Durga, Kaal Bhairav and many more. All the deities & their devotees make it all alive & beautiful.
The Dev Deepawali Day!
The city looks in rush and by rush I mean a lot of rush. Everyone running here & there adding to the excitement to see how the ghats would be all decked up for the evening. As you sit in the boat and the sun would have been going down with that comes alive the ghats of Kashi. You can imagine a director saying – Light, Camera & Action & yeah this action is real & spectacular. How much we tried to capture the beauty in the phone or cameras, we failed. We all were feeling blessed & in complete awe of what we were witnessing at that time. After almost 2 hours of boat ride as we got down from the boat, we walked through the ghats staring at endless diyas, holding & taking back with us the blissful experience we just captured in our mind & soul.
Bodhgaya & Sarnath:
These both places take you into Buddha’s world. The way our local guide explained things in Bodh Gaya & Sarnath can actually make you visualize that Gautam Buddha is just part of us, present there and doing what we were explained about. Bodhgaya itself has so much to offer. The monasteries from different nations present at BodhGaya can make you realize that the whole world can be put together at one place with that One Belief.
The Food:
Yes of course – if we talk about Banaras, food has to be a part of it. 🙂 The chaats, paan, litti chokha, Malaiyo, kachori jalebi, kulhad chai and much more. Keep relishing the food & keep walking in the streets of Kashi and that’s how you will absorb more of this city.
Thanks to the beautiful group who made this journey to make it a memorable one and a big thanks to all our local guides who were there throughout explaining us about every inch of Kashi.
Whatever I wrote here is just a glimpse of what Kashi can bring to you. It has endless stories about temples, the ignite used for cremations, the leaning temple, importance of each ghat, Kashi Devi, the spiritual souls who guided mankind and much more.
As we were talking to one of our local guides , that’s how he summarized Kashi “काशी चौबीस
(24) घटं चलता हैऔर जलता है” (Kashi is alive and burning 24 hours). So apt he defined the city in one line, this fact really hits hard when in the spectacular view of Dev Diwali with firecrackers, lightning, hundred and thousands of Diyas, laser light shows all around, you also see fire from the multiple cremations happening at the Manikarnika & Harishchandra ghat adding to it. I think that’s what summarizes the complete cycle of life which we forget at times. And that’s how Kashi keeps us in balance with all the emotions.
