Chapter 5 – Ganga Arti

Vanarasi holds a very significant place in the hindi religion. It is known as Shiv Ji's town and being here itself made me feel so blessed. I still remember that our tour guide had given us two options – either to watch Hema Malini’s dance performance or to participate in Ganga Arti. The group with no hesitation let go of the first option of seeing a live dance performance of a famous Indian actress and choose to participate in the Ganga Arti.

We arrived at the Ganga ghaat at dusk as people were settling down finding places to sit and witness the ganga arti which was about to kick start. Not only the locals, but quite a number of tourists were present at the location to witness the famous Ganga Arti of Varanasi. Blessed was I to be part of such a spiritual moment. The drum beats started rolling and the ganga arti with few chanting of mantras started being played on the speakers surrounding the place.

I felt totally blessed and the feeling was such that I could not hold the tears from rolling down my cheeks. There was a brief shower of rain but I wasn’t even bothered to take shelter. It felt like these drizzling raindrops were the shower of blessings. I had seen Ganga Arti being performed in movies and songs but I had never thought that I would ever witness this with my own eyes. I started crying as I felt so connected spiritually and just sunk into the moment. I did not take much photos of this place as the moment was spiritually amazing to be captured in the photographs. One has to be physcially present to feel the vibe and spiritual divine of the ganga arti. This is one of the

most memorable moments of my life which I will cherish throughout my entire lifetime.

We were later escorted to one of the oldest temples in Varanasi – the Kashi Viswanath Temple. This temple is amongst one of the 12 jotilinga hence the significance of this temple is very high. It is said that this was the town setup by Viswanathji (Shivji) himself and when the dooms day is near, Shivji will destroy everything saving this town alone. I still remember how I feel sick and vomited in the middle of the street however this did not stop me from visiting the oldest and holistic temple of Kashiviswanath. Luckily Shebane was just by my side as our group had taken the lead and we were felt behind. I would have easily been lost alone as the place was too new for me. I truly feel so blessed that I had been to two of the most significant places in Vanarasi – Ganga Arti and Kashiviswanath Temple. If you are into

Shiv then you will understand my sentiments.