Pilgrimage to Kashi — II

The City of Shiva — The City of Vishnu

VanamaliFollow

Jan 27

Hinduism has a trinity consisting of Brahma, the creator, Vishnu, the maintainer and Shiva, the destroyer. Once it happened that the country underwent dire calamities and its very existence was threatened due to a very severe drought. When rulers become wicked, Nature takes its toll. The gods appealed to Brahma to help set the world aright. With his divine vision Brahma realised that only the royal sage called Ripunjaya could set the country in order. However he had retired from his temporal duties. Brahma approached and appealed to him to take over the reins of the land. Ripunjaya agreed on the condition that all the gods would leave Kashi and let him govern as he deemed fit. Brahma agreed with alacrity and all the gods including Shiva, receded to their heavenly abodes. The king assumed the name of Divodasa and began his administration. Due to his saintly behaviour, Nature poured out her abundance on the land and everybody began to live peacefully and happily.

Lord Shiva loved Kashi and before he reluctantly quit the place he left his lingam to establish his right over the city. Even though he departed to his Himalayan abode, he was constantly thinking and planning of methods to get back to Kashi, especially after marrying the Himalayan princess, Parvati. Since Brahma had assured Divodasa that the gods would not return to the city there was no way he could go back. He realised that Divodasa could never be ousted unless some flaw was found in his behaviour. He despatched a group of sixty-four Yoginis in disguise to Kashi to tempt the king. The Yoginis worked hard for one full year to entice the king away from his saintly ways but they failed miserably. However they did not want to return and admit their failure so they settled down in Kashi which was indeed a beautiful city. Next Shiva sent Brahma to try and dislodge Divodasa. Brahma helped him to organise an Ashwamedha Yaga on the banks of the Ganga in the hope that it would be a failure and thus bring disrepute to the king so that they could oust him. Divodasa readily agreed and successfully completed ten Ashwamedha Yagasinstead of one, at the ghat which is now known as Dasashwamedha Ghat. Having failed in his attempt Brahma did not dare to return to Shiva and decided to stay put in Kashi. In fact there is a small temple to him in the Dasashwamedha ghat.

Shiva was quite desperate and sent his son, Ganesha to try his luck. Ganesha took the form of a young Brahmin boy who was also a fortune teller. He stayed at the court of the king for some time and realised that there were absolutely no chinks in the saintly armour of the king. Ganesha subtly crept into his mind and influenced him so that Divodasa suddenly felt that this world was not the place for him and that he should take up the life of an ascetic. Ganesha encouraged him in this noble desire and told him that very soon a learned Brahmin would come to the court who would be able to fulfil his desire. However Ganesha also fell a prey to the charms of Kashi and decided to settle there. He took on fifty- six different forms and established himself in a semi-circle round the city. In desperation, Shiva now begged Vishnu to help him get his city back.

In due time Vishnu made his appearance as a Brahmin at the place known as Adi Keshava. He told the ascetic king that as a prize for his exemplary behaviour he would be transported bodily to Heaven. Divodasa was delighted to hear this and a golden chariot appeared from the sky and wafted the king to his divine abode.

Having disposed of the king in such an appropriate manner Vishnu invited Shiva to return to Kashi and ceremonially presented the city to him. This important event is celebrated on Vaikunt Chaturdashi day in the month of Kartika. At that time it is said that Vishnu worshipped Shiva with bael leaves (loved by Shiva) and in return Vishwanatha (Shiva) offered tulsi leaves to Bindu Madhava (Vishnu).

Shiva was deeply grateful and donated half of the holy city back to Vishnu. Thus it is that even though we always associate Kashi with Shiva, the fact is that it is equally an important place of worship for Vishnu. Kashi is known as Shiva Kashi from Assi Ghat to the Manikarnika Ghat and as Vishnu Kashi from Manikarnika Ghat to the Adi Keshava Ghat. As a further gesture of gratitude to Vishnu, Shiva created the Vishnu Kund at the Manikarnika Ghat. He also proclaimed that any devotee who took a bath in this Kund at 12 midnight would be released from the shackles of birth and death. The Vishnu Kund is more popularly known as the Manikarnika Kund because one pearl from Shiva’s earring had fallen into the kund and thus the kund as well as the ghatcame to be known as the Manikarnika (pearl from the earring) Ghat.

The three presiding Deities of Kashi are Vishwanatha, Kala Bhairava and Bindu Madhava (Vishnu). All those who go to Kashi are well aware of the importance of Viswanatha and Kala Bhairava. However very few know of the unique importance given to Vishnu as Bindu Madhava. Unfortunately this temple is not even shown in the map of Varanasi. However a pilgrimage to Kashi is incomplete without the darshan of Lord Vishnu as Bindu Madhava.

I had heard that the Pancha Ganga Yatra is a most interesting yatra in which we would be able to go to all the five main ghats of the city and visit the two famous Vishnu temples at Bindu Madhava and Adi Keshava. What made this yatra more exciting was that it could be done only by boat.

The yatra starts in South Kashi at the Assi Ghat where the river Assi meets the Ganga. Actually one is supposed to take a bath at this ghat before starting the yatra and worship the Shiva Lingam known as the Assi-Sangameshvara (sangam means confluence and Assi Sangameswara is the Lord of the confluence at Assi). The Kashi Khand says that anyone who dips in this holy tirtha (holy waters) is cleansed of all impurities.

All the other ghats stretch from here in an arc to the northernmost tip ending in the temple of Adi Keshava which is where Vishnu established himself when Shiva asked him to go to Kashi and find a place.

From Assi Ghat the boat takes you to the Dashaswamedha Ghat. The Ashwamedha Yaga is one of the biggest yagas in the Hindu scriptures and as has been mentioned above, the ghat got its name from the fact that Divodasa, one of the ancient kings of Kashi, performed ten Ashwamedha yagas at that particular spot. This ghat is one of the most famous in Kashi and is very close to the Viswanatha Temple. It is almost in the middle of the city. The aratiperformed to the Ganga at night is most spectacular at this ghat. The Maha-arati performed on the full moon day in the month of Kartika is a fantastic event attracting thousands of devotees. There is a temple to Brahma at this place as well as the famous temple to Shitala. She is actually Durga and the temple is an important place of worship for newly –wedded couples.

Bindu Madhava

The next famous ghat is the Manikarnika but for this particular yatra we were not supposed to stop there at this time but to proceed to the Pancha Ganga Ghat where the five rivers Yamuna, Ganga, Saraswathi, Kirana and Dhutpapa flow under the lotus feet of Bindu Madhava (Lord Vishnu). This ghat is just below the temple of Bindu Madhava and one has to climb up some very steep steps to reach the temple. The rivers Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswathi come from Prayag Raj in Allahabad. The Kirana River is supposed to have originated from the sweat of the sun god, Surya who had undertaken severe penances to propitiate Lord Vishnu. Dhutpada was the daughter of the sage Devsheera who also did great tapas in order to please Lord Vishnu. The Lord then incarnated as Bindu Madhava at that very spot and declared that anyone who bathed in these holy waters and worshipped his form as Bindu Madhava would get instant liberation.

Another story about the temple is connected with a sage called Agni Bindu Rishi, who did intense tapas to Vishnu on the banks of the Gandaki River near the famous temple of Vishnu called Muktinath in Nepal. The Lord was pleased with his devotion and blessed him with many boons. He also told him to install his idol in the holy city of Kashi. He declared that his name there would have half of the rishi’s name and half his own. Hence the deity here is known as Bindu Madhava, Madhava being another name of Vishnu.

Actually there are five famous temples in India known as the Pancha Madhava temples all having this particular name of the Lord. Bindu Madhava in Kashi, Veni Madhava in Prayag, Sethu Madhava in Rameswaram, Kunti Madhava in Pitapuram near Kakinada, and Sundara Madhava in Trivandrum. The Puranas also say that these five idols of Vishnu as Madhava were installed by Indra in order to atone for the sin of killing a demon called Vritrasura, who was also a great devotee of Vishnu.

The temple of Bindu Madhava is the oldest temple in Kashi. It is actually a shaligrama (a kind of fossilised stone representing Vishnu), in which the Lord is shown in his four-handed form, holding the conch, wheel, lotus and mace and has Lakshmi standing beside him. It is indeed a bewitching figure.

With the advent of the Moguls, the barbaric Aurangzeb demolished the temple along with thousands of other temples in Kashi. He used the pillars and other parts of the temple to build the Alamgiri mosque next to it. Fortunately the precious idol was whisked away by the priests and secretly kept submerged in the Ganga from 1669 to 1672 when it was re-installed by Chatrapathi Shivaji. In the 19th century the Maratha ruler Bhawan Rao had the temple renovated and this is the temple that we see today.

We only know about the original temple through the description of the French traveller Jean Baptiste Tavernier who was a dealer in jewels and had come to India in the mid 17th century. Apparently it had a cross shaped pagoda with towers on each of the four arms and a spire rising above the sanctum sanctorum. The deity is described as being 6 feet tall studded with rubies, pearls and diamonds.

The entrancing figure of Bindu Madhava is now kept in a temple that has a most unprepossessing exterior and looks more like a house. The entrance is through a modest door flanked by the idols of Hanuman and Garuda that have survived from the original temple. The idol was indeed enchanting and I could have sat there forever gazing at the Lord’s charming face. The priest was also very kind and gave us a lot of information about the temple.

Adi Keshava

From here we proceeded to the Adi Keshava Ghat which marks the northern most boundary of Kashi. It is also known as the Vedeswara Ghat and it is believed that this was the place chosen by Vishnu when he first arrived in Kashi. Here is the confluence of the Ganga and the river Varana. Thus the name Varanasi was given to the land sandwiched between the rivers Assi and Varana.

The five main ghats of the city are all associated with the body of Lord Vishnu. Assi is the head, Dasashwamedha, the chest, Manikarnika, the naval, Panchaganga the thighs and Adi Keshava, the feet. Lord Vishnu is said to have first placed his holy feet at this ghat when he entered Kashi. His footprints are still to be seen in the Adi Keshava temple. Another pair of his footprints can also be seen at the Manikarnika Kund. Interestingly this is the only temple which was left untouched by the greedy hands of Aurangazeb’s horde. It still retains its pristine beauty. All the others have to jostle with mosques either over them or just beside them.

Close to the temple is the lingam of Sangameswara — the Lord of the confluence. This is the last of the temples in Kashi. Close to that is the Brahmeswara lingam which is four faced and is said to have been established by Brahma himself. One who bathes in this confluence is said to be freed from the cycle of birth and death. From here we can see the huge bridge made by the British that spans the Ganga.

Manikarnika Ghat

From here our return journey took us back to the Manikarnika Ghat which we had skipped on our upward journey. This is also known as the Mahasmasana ghat or the cremation grounds of Kashi. It is the dream of every pious Hindu to die in Kashi or at least be cremated in Kashi for Shiva has promised instant liberation to all those who die there.

Before we got off the boat at the ghat we could see that at least ten pyres were already burning, lifting the jivatma through the rising flames to the regions beyond. We jumped off the boat to the ghat and climbed up to the Manikarnika Kund which is supposed to be older than the river Ganga. There are many stories attached to the making of this kund.

One such story mentioned in many Puranas has to do with the sacrifice of Sati, Shiva’s first wife at her father’s yaga when her father Daksha, scoffed at her husband. She immolated herself in the fire. Shiva was grief stricken at her death and carried her body around the whole earth. Vishnu went behind him and cut the body into fifty-one parts. The places where these parts fell are centres of great spiritual energy and are known as Shakti peethas. Apparently her earring fell off at this place and hence it is known as “Manikarnika”, the “pearl earring.” The other story has already been mentioned above. Next to the kund is the imprint of Lord Vishnu’s holy feet known as “Charanpaduka.” Lord Vishnu is said to have meditated here for many years.

Manikarnika Ghat, the main burning ghat, is the most auspicious place for a Hindu to be cremated. Dead bodies are handled by a certain caste known as doms. I walked up one of the alleys leading to the ghat and was amazed at the bodies being carried to the ghat on bamboo stretchers. The corpse bearers walked to the chant “Ram Naam, Satya Hey” — “The name of God alone is the Truth.”

The body is first bathed in the holy waters of the Ganga and then laid on a pile of firewood that has been already chosen by the relatives. Every log is weighed on giant scales so that the price can be calculated. The relations can choose the type of wood they want. Of course sandal wood is the costliest but I was told that this was a rare commodity now and people could only purchase a small piece to be put on top of the pyre. The doms know the art of choosing just the right amount of firewood in order to completely burn the body. After this the eldest son of the departed person shaves his hair and then goes to the Ganga and takes a purifying bath. Many barbers sit along the steps. After the bath the son or closest relative wears white clothes and goes to the top gallery where the “Moksha Agni” or the fire of liberation burns in an urn. This fire is quite incredible. Apparently it has never been put out since eternity. It has been burning from the time Kashi came to existence and no one knows exactly when Kashi was built. The doms take some of the burning embers from this fire and carefully wrap it in a sheaf of grass and give it to the son who lights the pyre with these embers. Very soon the fire becomes a raging conflagration. The body thus becomes a direct offering to Agni, the god of Fire.

Bodies are kept in certain directions to ease the transition from life to death. The feet are pointed to the south in the direction of Yama, the god of death and the head to the north. There is no attempt in Hinduism to prolong the existence of the physical shell which is only a cover for the “atman” which is eternal. The dead body should be disposed of preferably within five hours. There is no mourning or wailing here. Everything is very matter-of-fact. There is no fuss and nobody cries. After the body is totally burnt, the embers are extinguished with water from the Ganga and the “doms” push the ashes that have not been collected by the relatives, into the river.

Strangely enough there is a half sunken and tilting temple at this ghat that again proclaims the fact that all of us are in a way tilted since we all have one foot in the grave!

One of the striking things about this place is that despite the fact that so many bodies are burning simultaneously there is absolutely no smell of burning flesh. Another curious thing that we were told was that these fires would never go out until the whole body was burnt. Not even the fiercest rains could put out the fires!

There are some ancient buildings above the ghat that are reserved for old people from all over India who like to come and spend their last days here so that they would automatically be cremated there. In olden days many Bengali widows used to come and live in these ashrams since they led a severely restricted life in their own homes. Indeed they could only hope for an early death and thus they were brought to live in Kashi waiting for death to give them the freedom that they were denied in life.

One of the main offerings here is to donate firewood for people who are too poor to buy wood for the cremation of their dear ones.

Meditation at this ghat is a most powerful experience. The whole place breathes of the impermanence of life. I was mesmerised by the drifting smoke, the wheeling kites, and the logs piled up like stacks of grotesquely contorted limbs. Yet I felt no sorrow. There was nothing morbid there, just a sense of the inevitability of death and the fact that life goes on, no matter how many people keep dying. Hence in Hinduism “birth” and “death” are opposites since “life” goes on forever. Sitting on the steps and gazing at the river I felt that I was part of this universal life- a leaf floating down the river of life waiting to reach the ocean in which it would cease to be.

The wintry sun was on its way to set. Our yatra was over. I was deathly tired but felt a great inner peace and the oneness of life.

Jai Vishwanath

Pilgrimage to Kashi — III

Aum Namashivaya

Vanamali

Feb 7, 2019

This is the third in the series on Kashi. The first two were on the special yatrasthat can be done in Kashi. This article sort of clears up a lot of other little temples. Of course it would need a lifetime to visit all the thousands of temples in this mystic city but I can at least describe a few which I had the honour of visiting.

GANESHA

There are fifty-six Ganesha temples in Kashi. They are arranged in concentric circles starting from the Viswanath temple and fanning out right up to the western boundary of the city. I was anxious to visit all of them but the traffic was so fierce that it was impossible. However I was taken to the biggest of all of them known as Bada Ganesha (Big Ganesha). He is quite huge and what is more charming, he has a huge mouse standing on its forelegs in front of him, holding some sort of a sweet ball in his paws and gazing intently at his master. My thirst for Ganeshas had to be satisfied with this.

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DURGA MA

There are two special temples to Durga in Kashi apart from all the other hundreds that are scattered all over the place. One is the huge temple next to the Durga Kund on the road to Sankata Mochana Hanuman temple. It’s a beautiful temple with many murtis around it. There is another idol of Durga outside with tongue lolling out which is even more impressive. Meditation inside is really an unforgettable experience. The energy is so intense, I could feel the waves of alternating positive and negative vibrations rolling over my head in a most exhilarating manner.

The other Durga temple which stands out in my memory is on the other side of the river which is not as old as the first one but still most powerful. We had to cross the Ganga and go across some deserted sand dunes in order to get there. It’s actually built of stone but shines as if it’s metal. The whole structure is most impressive and has hundreds of beautifully sculptured figures of various gods and saints. There is a barricade before the door to the inner sanctorum that forbids all but the priest and the royal family from entering. We had to stand outside and peer into the gloaming since the inside is quite dark. After waiting patiently for some time the figure of the goddess Durga emerged with startling clarity and brilliance. It’s quite an incredible figure. Her eyes especially held me in thrall since they seemed to gleam through the surrounding darkness and bore into my inner self. What did she discover I wonder?

The sanctum sanctorum was actually a huge hall with doors opening to three sides. There was no door at the back of the Durga idol. The other two directions had a different deity since the vehicles in front of the doors were different. The lion was facing her as could be expected but as I went round the temple I noticed that the eastern door was guarded by Garuda, the eagle vehicle of Vishnu. The door was closed and I tried to peer through the crack in the door but couldn’t see anything. There was a cute looking Rishabha (bull) on the western side so I presumed that there was a Shiva there. There was also lovely idol of Gaja Lakshmi flanked by two elephants in front of the tank.

The whole temple was on a raised platform overlooking a huge tank which had been beautifully built with steps on every side, something like a huge step well. The temple was actually quite new compared to the ancient monuments I had been visiting. It was only 500 years old and had been built by the Raja of Kashi. It was really a mysterious place, filled with all sorts of strange vibrations that I could not quite cognise.

From there we went to the main market which is next to the palace of the Kashi Raja. Apparently he had built this because his palace on the opposite bank had to be abandoned due to the fact that the family had gone through a lot of bad luck.

Our great Prime Minister — Lal Bahadur Shastri hailed from this place so there is a university and some other monuments in his name.

The whole visit to this side of the river was something that I had not planned at all. It was another of those things that had been arranged by the divine force which was behind everything else in this incredible journey. I had been taken on a scooter by a friend over the bridge at the northernmost point of Kashi near the Adi Keshava temple. After traversing the whole of the road on the eastern side of the Ganga we returned by the bridge at the Assi Ghat which was the southernmost point of Kashi. It was only when I got back to the hotel that I realised that I had actually done a parikrama (circumambulation) of the Ganga and completed the huge parikrama of the whole of Kashi. We had done the western part during the “panchkrosha yatra”. Tears streamed from my eyes as I thought of all the amazing grace that had been pouring over me for the whole of this unbelievable pilgrimage.

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It is said that all the great temples of India can be found in and around the precincts of Kashi. Dwaraka is in the south- west outskirts of the city at a place called Sankodhara, Rameswaram is along the Panchakrosha road and has already been described. The Badrinath temple is inside the Kedarnath temple and the Jagganth Puri temple is also somewhere towards the west from Visvanatha. Unfortunately I was not able to go there.

The magical sojourn in Kashi ended with a spectacular boat ride down the Ganga. We went by car to a point about 35 kilometres up river and then came down to Kashi in a rowing boat. It was an unbelievable experience. There was nobody on the waters but a few playful dolphins. The banks were deserted and the only sound you heard was the lap-lap of the oars as they dipped in and out of the water. I just lay and looked at the sky and the river and the birds and allowed the incredible peace to soak ito my very bones.

We reached soon after sunset and the boat took us past the aratis along the river where huge lights of different shapes are lit and shown to the river as an offering. Despite all the temples that exist in Kashi the eternal deity of this city is indeed the Ganga eternally flowing down the locks of Shiva. Every ghat has an arati to her every evening as the sun goes down. Some are elaborate and some are small. “Hara Hara Viswanatha Gange” — — the chants swept over us like the booming of Shiva’s “dumroo” (small drum). The burning fires of the Manikarnika ghat offered another type of arati to the holy river in which the fire was made of human bodies. The whole of the history of Bharat (India) had unfolded before her compassionate eyes. How much more was left for her to experience? Slowly and leisurely she flowed on her way to the sea where she would lose her individuality and merge into that glorious ocean of compassion that was Shiva!

Aum Namashivaya