burning and learning

After a clay cup of fresh yogurt and watching a local man practice his downward dogs, Rasha, my tout and guru on day one here, told me this---"Varanasi is the city of burning and learning"-the learning, because of the great university down river, and the burning, because people come from near and far to be put to rest with flames and prayers along the holy Ganga. My train rolled into the station seven hours late- (due to fog) putting me in close to midnight. Anxious about the intensity of this city and the fact that I hadn't booked a room in advance, added a phantom of the opera meets the sopranos feel to my arrival. After being turned away from the Hotel Surya, Mudhak and Swarika my leathered up taxi drivers, found me a shoebox room suitable for Stewart Little at the Hotel Buddha. After a short sleep and a tomato omelet, I made my way to the historic Ghats (ritual steps leading into the Ganges).These steps bring Varanasi its fame and promise of eternal moksha (liberation). There are no hidden ceremonies here at the ghats and in the river, our most private western rituals are exposed---bathing, urination, shaving, cremation...----the death ritual was explained in depth to me as I watched white cotton wrapped bodies covered in marigolds carried on wooden stretchers to the water...They were dipped for purification and then brought to the burning grounds--the flowers then removed, and ghee (clarified butter)drizzled on the body as it rested on split banyan logs and sandlewood (for the higher caste---a kilo of sandlewood costing 1500 rupees/30$, and 100 kilos needed for the cremation). A holy man then circles the body with a bundle of burning grass five times--the face is uncovered and blessed--more wood is stacked on top of the departed, and a lower caste attendant burns the body. During the 3 hour cremation, family members stand watching from a distance--the women not allowed, as their tears are troubling to the departed's soul. Faces are solemn, though children fly kites along the periphery of the ghat. Once the ashes of the fire smolder, the men bring water to dowse the ashes. Then their heads are shaved. When the family departs, and the ashes cool, lower caste members sift through the cinders for jewelry to sell.
I learned that two houses near by offer room and board to those waiting for their death------after making a donation to one of the death houses, I was blessed by an wrinkled and tired old woman waiting to die---Her sinewy hands on my head, "Long life, happy life, healthy life!" she wished, and then crawled back to her blanket in the corner waiting for another donor and her death. Most Hindus dream of such an auspicious departure---with the exception of brahmins, pregnant women, lepers, those bitten by cobras, and children under ten--their fate provides them a different ritual---for their bodies are too pure or too tainted for this rite---they have a stone tied to them and they are dropped to the bottom of the holy Ganges.
"Burning and learning.....Welcome to Varanasi, please, no photos of the dead."