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Cremations in Varanasi
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# : |
19612 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
10 / 1991 |
4,162 Words |
| Author
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Pramesh Ratnakar
Pramesh Ratnakar is a lecturer in English at Atma Ram Sanatan
Dharam College, Delhi University. |
Death, funerals, and cremations are to Varanasi what films are to Hollywood. They give the city its identity. Located on the western bank of the Ganges in northern India, Varanasi today is the foremost Hindu sacred city. Here death is transformed from a mere ending to the greatest blessing that life can offer. More than a million pilgrims visit the city every year. With a recorded history of three thousand years and an unrecorded one going still further back, Varanasi (also known as Benares and Kashi) is one of the oldest living cities in the world. The Hindus think of it as their greatest tirtha (ford), a place where devotees can easily cross over from the physical world to the spiritual. It is believed that by the grace of Lord Shiva, great ascetic and destroyer of the universe, all those who die in the city achieve moksha (liberation from the endless cycle of births and deaths).
To help the dying
Thus, for centuries, people from all over the subcontinent have come here to die. Many move to the city in their declining years to ensure that they breathe their last in this sacred place: For them, this is the final stop on a pilgrimage that has lasted many lives. Others are brought, on their deathbeds, to the city by their relatives. The dying individuals come for Kashi Labh (the profit of Kashi). They either stay with friends or relatives, or are placed in one of the many special charitable institutions meant exclusively for them.
Kashi Labh Mukti Bhavan is one such institution. Its two-story building is located near Gadowlia crossing, the city's main market. Around a central courtyard are small bare rooms, which are allotted to the drying and their family members free of charge. Uncooked food and utensils are also provided. To help the dying think of God, devotional songs are sung or played throughout the day and night.
There are no medicines or doctors. Only those who truly wish to die are allowed to stay. The rules are clear: The guest is allowed to stay for fifteen days, and if he is not dead by then he must get special permission from the manager to stay on. If by some misfortune he has begun to recover, he must go home.
According to Bhairon Nath Sukul, the manager of the institution, the ten rooms are full throughout the year. Between twenty-five and forty people die here every week. Ashok Kumar Verma, a 25-year-old goldsmith from Unnao about 63 miles north of Varanasi, who was with his ninety-year old father in one of the
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