Category: Blog
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The City Wears Its Gods
Gods live on every wall in Varanasi. काशीक्षेत्रपालः कालभैरवः Someone hung real marigolds on the doorframe beside him. And someone else, earlier, decided to paint garlands directly onto him, so he is garlanded twice, in two materials, by two different acts of the same impulse. His name is written above…
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The World’s Oldest Livestream
Ganga Aarti हर हर महादेव ! The river does not wait for the crowd. The crowd waits for the river. Come early enough, and you can still find a step or a chair to sit on. Come later and you stand wherever the crowd allows you to stand, which is…
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The Night of the Cosmic Chariot
देव दीपावली falls on the full moon night of Kartik, exactly fifteen days after Diwali. It is celebrated most spectacularly in Varanasi, and this is where you want to be to see it. You may think you know what light looks like, and you may see cities during festivals, streets…
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Adi Yogi
योग योग योगेश्वराय भूत भूत भूतेश्वराय ।काल काल कालेश्वराय शिव शिव सर्वेश्वराय ।शम्भो शम्भो महादेवाय ।। The eyes are closed. He is Shiva, remembered here not as a god to be worshipped but as the first yogi, the one who is said to have carried the science of yoga down…
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Where Lightning Comes to Pray
Chansari village slips quietly behind you. Apple orchards slowly surrender to forests of pine and deodar. Every turn steals a little more of the valley until all that remains is the climb, stone beneath your feet, mountain air in your lungs, and a silence that grows deeper with every step.…