The Varanasi Slide

“Ram Nam Satya Hai”

Day and night, funeral processions transport the dead through Varanasi’s narrow, winding lanes toward the burning ghat, Manikarnika. Groups of men carrying corpses on decorated stretchers chant Ram nam satya hai (Ram’s name is truth).

At the ghat, dead bodies are bathed in the sacred waters of the Ganges river before being placed upon freshly constructed funeral pyres and ritually returned to the five elements as they are set ablaze. Manikarnika is constantly active; just recently I have visited this burning ground and counted no less than fifteen pyres burning simultaneously. A symbolically powerful setting such as this naturally leads one to contemplate the impermanent nature of human existence.

Sample of men chanting during a funeral procession.

Another body is carried through the streets.

This procession included more people than usual as well as drummers.

I was in the Universal

There is a man I bump into a lot when I am near the Manikarnika ghat and he is joyfully intoxicated almost every time I see him. Usually he waxes philosophical and jokes with me for a little while before running off again. I’m so glad that I had my microphones on the second time I met him when he decided to tell me a little something about where he came from.

Hearing this clip just makes me giggle; I really hope that I run into this guy again.

Aum Namah Shivaya

Shiva Bhaktas heading toward Ahilyabai Ghat to greet the rising sun

Heading out well before dawn, I traveled to Dashashvamedh Ghat hoping to have some quiet time while watching dawn rituals along the Ganges river bank. Things got weird when several large tourist groups appeared and crowded the ghat. Soon it seemed as if there were more foreigners snapping photographs than Indian people present. I decided to wander about and just as I was exiting the ghat area, I ran into an oncoming procession of devotees beating drums, playing kartalas, and singing Lord Shiva’s mantra: Aum Namah Shivaya. I decided to start recording and join them.

Recorded by the Ganges river. During the shouting phase at the end we were all holding our hands up with palms facing the rising sun.

A Vaishnav and an Aghori

So far, every Aghori I have spent time with in Varanasi speaks Bangla (Bengali language) which is a big help for me since my Hindi is very poor. I was wandering around the Manikarnika cremation ghat (Aghoris love their burning places!) when I ran into an Aghori in the empty building near the platform with all the pyres. We sat for awhile taking Shiva prasad and talking when a Bengali man wearing a large Vaishnav tilak (forehead marking) approached us and told me that he was thrilled to meet a westerner who spoke his mother tongue. Even though he is not really a singer, he offered to sing a few Bengali songs for me accompanied with kartalas which are a pair of small metal hand cymbals.

A short and sweet audio excerpt from our session.