12/02/2010 Varanasi - Mystic and burning bodies

My train ride to Varanasi was long. Very long. 14h plus 5h delay. And with some hysteric Swiss people. So far, I always thjought all people from swizerland are diplomatic, polite and nice. But thios night, I learned, steriotypes does not fit for everyone. In mz waggon, there were a family from Swizerland. Father, mother and a 20 year old girl. They mother was hyusterical yelling and complaining about the quality of the train. As I mentioned before, I assessed the indian trains as very comfortable. Not so this lady. she made a huge theater, she needs air, she is sick, she cannot stay with other people in a partel, where is the roomservice and so on.firsat, it was entertaining, than only ennoying :) I mean, you get what you book. That is life.

Here my silent pray: Lord, give me the condition to change the things I can change. And give me the power to accept what I cannot change.

So, now more to Varanasi. Noone of my friends wanted me to go there. They tried a lot to keep me away from that place. Why? I do not know. Varanasi was the city where I saw the most tourists. It is a very old (5000 years) and holy city, with more than 10 mio temples. People, who die there went directly to Nirvana. A good thing in Hinduism. In the city is the Ganges river. At the bank of Ganges, the dead people are getting burned by their families, before they sent their rests to the river. Sounds a bit wierd, or shocking. But it is not. In the evening I rent a boat and drove on the river, to watch the spectactle and the ceremonies. I really felt the mysthic and the peace of this procession. No smell, no dead blowed up babybodies in the river, or anything I heard before. Just peace and meditative prays.
I let 2 flower candles to the water, for my family and the people I love. And was covered by a warm freedom and happyness.

The next day I stand up at 5:00 to go back to the Ganges, take the boat again and see the people washing theirselfes in the river, by sunrise. They do this to get the sins away and clean their soules. They were happy and joking with me, how cold the water is.
After that, I went with Christopher to the main temples. Christopher is the owner of my loooooooooow budget hostel (single room for 1.69EUR) and the only christian indian I met so far. Even being indian, he knows a lot about Hindusim, the temple and all the stories. I was really impressed and enjoyed the tour. Most suprising was, that if the people give milk to the god Shiva, they do not give the milk on a statur of him. No, they put the milk on a big black obelisk, which is sourrounded by a white non regular thing. The black stone is Shivas penis, who is sticking in a white vagina. Ahaaa. I am wondering how they explain this to their kids.

For all my doubting friends: the 1 EUR something room was small and simple furnitured by a lamp, bed and a chair. But it was clean and the people so helpful! they arranged all my other trips and welcomed me as a family member.

The city itself is very very poor. The streets are crowed and covered by shit from the animals. A good experience after all the nice live in Delhi.