Varanasi - An Introduction
Varanasi, the dream of millions and millions of Hindus living in India and in the world, is a holy and sacred city. Every Hindu wants to go to this city at least once in his life time with the purpose of attaining Moksha. Moksha is libration or salvation. Hindus never want to take birth and rebirth and we want to stop this cycle. We believe that life on this earth is suffering and full of illusions. Moksha provides us permanent detachment of our soul and spirit from this worldly cycle. We believe Varanasi is Avimukta, provider of Moksha. Ganga, the divine and heavenly river flowing through the city, washes our sins and enables us to attain Moksha. This is not just a river; it is Goddess and Mother for us. We call this river as Ganga Maiyya, Mother Ganga. W...
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Varanasi, the dream of millions and millions of Hindus living in India and in the world, is a holy and sacred city. Every Hindu wants to go to this city at least once in his life time with the purpose of attaining Moksha. Moksha is libration or salvation. Hindus never want to take birth and rebirth and we want to stop this cycle. We believe that life on this earth is suffering and full of illusions. Moksha provides us permanent detachment of our soul and spirit from this worldly cycle. We believe Varanasi is Avimukta, provider of Moksha. Ganga, the divine and heavenly river flowing through the city, washes our sins and enables us to attain Moksha. This is not just a river; it is Goddess and Mother for us. We call this river as Ganga Maiyya, Mother Ganga. We also believe the river has descended from Heven to the earth with holy water containing divine power. The city is also known as Kashi, which is the religious name of the city. KashiI means “the city of light”. There are many other names of the city like Banaras, Avimukta, Anandvan, Mokshadayani etc. Varanasi, one of the oldest live cities on this earth was named differently in different periods. It is also popularly called as cultural capital of India. The culture, religion, believes, practices are still followed in the similar way as it was in the old times. We believe that this city was founded by Shiva and he is the lord of the city. He is one of our important Gods and one of our trinity, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. The Great Kashi Vishvanath Temple in the city is abode of Shiva. Banaras has been a centre of education from very ancient time. Pupils were coming to this city to learn the education from very ancient time and the system is still continued. Education like Yoga, Meditation, Sanskrit, Vedas, Music is taught in every corner of the city in different Ashrams in traditional way. Kashi resides on the semi circular western bank of River Ganga. The river front is full with Ghats, stoned staircases descending down to the water of the river. Ghats are spread in around five kilometers of river front. Plenty of local people and pilgrims take bath in the Ganga on this Ghats and they wash their all knowingly and unknowingly sins. There are two important Ghats specially for burning the dead bodies. Many families from different parts of India bring the dead body of their father and mother to cremate to this city on a special place called Manikarnika Ghat. Many Hindus like to come to this city to stay here in their old time and wait for their death. As they believe if they die here they will definitely attain Moksha. It is popularly told that Hindus die to die in Kashi. Banaras is also full of Temples and is also called city of temples. There are more than three thousand centuries old temples in the city. These temples are made of sand stone and beautifully carved and designed. The old city of Varanasi is also totally unplanned and unorganized. There are a network of busy, colorful streets and lanes. These lanes are indulged with each other in such a way that it makes a shape of labyrinth.
Apart from all above the most important thing is the carefree life in the city. People living with limited resources are amazingly happy. Varanasi is a happy city. The reasons are the tendency of carefree life, tolerance, patience, less desires and finally fearlessness from death. They know that if they die here they are going to attain Moksha hence they don’t fear from it. What can be more cause of happiness where fear of death is vanquished?
Now a day Varanasi is emerging as a must visit destination in India for the travelers from all over the world because Varanasi is real India. When a traveler imagine about India, they don’t exactly see the same when they are here in other cities of India but when you come to Varanasi, your imagination come true. Varanasi Walks & Activities is an effort not just to show this great destination but also to make you experience and feel the religion, culture, history and the divinity of this city.
