(BANARAS CALLING)
Ganga
symbolizes eternal flow. Its religious sanctity owes more to its spiritual
halo.
Ganga
is probably the only river in the history of human existence that commands
spiritual aesthetics, right from its origin in the Himalayan Mountains (the
Gangotri glacier) to its final destination in the Bay of Bengal.
From
Kedarnath to Ganga Sagar, if Ganga is a sustainability factor for millions of
lives and evergreen religious business activities, it is also precursor to a
mystical tradition of spirituality. The major religious Ganga cities, i.e.,
Haridwar, Allahabad, Varanasi, Mirzapur, and Kolkata, have elements of
spirituality associated with the religious significance of Ganga but the
spiritual halo gets its full radiance only in Varanasi, the city of illumination, as one of its ancient etymological terms, Kasa, says.
What
makes combination of Ganga and Varanasi so special?
What
imparts its ritualistic religiosity such a brilliant spiritual discourse?
Varanasi
is as much the city of Ganga as it is synonymous with Lord Shiva, one of the
three supreme Hindu deities (the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh).
Shiva
creates. Shiva destroys. Shiva is a yogi and lives a life of sage at Mount
Kailash, Hindu scriptures say.
Shiva
brought Ganga to the Earth.
And
Shiva is the other name of supreme spirituality in the Hindu tradition and
mythology.
Varanasi
is among the oldest continually inhabited places and its association with Shiva
and Shiva’s association with Ganga was always the magnate to ensure generations
of civilizations to continue.
Ritualistic
religion is always susceptible to changes and attacks by time-oriented
generational transformations leading to the elimination of many overtly
religious centers. But association of Lord Shiva with Varanasi has given the
city a continued spiritual pedigree, and this, in combination with the ‘ablution
and salvation’ aspect of Ganga, has helped the ritualistic side of religion,
too, to survive and thus the city. Also, the sustained spiritual
quotient has helped the cultural tradition of the city assimilate the changes
and get along with what the transforming moments ask for.
One
basic aspect of life in Varanasi is the discourse on death. Death is something
that makes one free of all bonds, a point where materialism goes into oblivion,
even for a moment. It evokes spiritual vibes naturally then.
Varanasi
has seen generations built around this tradition. The city has been flowing the
way history has been written but has been able to sustain the course of
spiritual discourse that pertains to the questions of life, ways of living and
ethos of existentialism.
Like
Hindu scriptures and mythology (or like in any other religion), there have been
good and bad aspects; positive and negative elements, and life flows on in the
spiritual capital of the world.
Lord
Shiva and Ganga make the ‘Spiritual Trinity’ complete with Varanasi.