My Journey to Varanasi…part 3

The birds were white and gray. Golu told didi they come from far from a snow and cold country. Golu was innocent like the birds. Within few minutes he became very close to me. I took all the bhujia packets from him and paid for all. He was very happy because all the bhujias were gone. Whenever you will go to banaras please dont forget to give bhujias to the birds..  They will bless you. They will talk to you.. they might tell you their stories .. stories of their journey from their land.. how they reach here to avoid cold.. how they struggle to survive.. so please make sure to buy all the bhujias and give it to them…Nature’s most beautiful gifts…birds…

We came across a lot of ghats. Some of them are Brahma ghat, kedar ghat,  Ganesh ghat, gaya ghat, Lalita ghat, Narad ghat,   mani karna ghat , Trilochan ghat , gola ghat, Nandiswar  ghat and many more..   I understood that there is a different story related to all the ghats in vanaras individually.  To collect all stories you need to stay in each ghat for a day or two or else you need to stay in kashi for more than 15 or 20 days. Each mythological story is powerful enough  to drag you to trance if you want to float in that fairy world of saints and rishis and munis. So I was able to collect one story which was related to manikarnika ghat.

            The story goes like this. Lord Shiva and Devi Parvati once wanted to take a bath in the holy Ganga.  So Bhagwan Vishnu pierced a small pond you can say by taking the water of Ganga.  His Chakra  Sudarshan did the digging job. So both devi and Bhagwan  had a holy bath. After that they slept for long hours.  In between their sleep  , one kundal or kanka of Maa and one mani of Shivji lost in that water. It is said that after loosing those Mata Parvati got angry and wanted to curse. By seeing this Bhagwan vishnu took the tortoise form and searched for the mani and kundal  and found them finally. From that time onwards the main ghat is called Manikanka ghat which is also called manikarnika ghat.  This story is believed by the locals. When we reached and went to the ghat the driver bhaiya showed me the small kund which was made by Sudarshan chakra. But I saw that there was no water in that kund now and cleaning was going on. There were full of mud. 

Manikanka ghat is the oldest and famous for cremation.  It is believed that the soul gets mokhya or  liberation . There were several dead bodies which were burning and there  were several waiting for their turn. Piles of woods,  flowers, agarvatti,  all were shattered in the ghat.. man’s eternal journey… mysterious  and unseen journey… RAM NAAM SATYA HAI…HARI NAAM SATYA HAI… It was echoing every where.  Sadhus were sitting . Some were chanting. Some were just sleeping and some were taking dip in the holy Ganga.   

me and golu…