Tag: spirituality
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Thresholds of Kashi
There is no tradition that requires a door to be beautiful. A door is a functional thing: it opens, it closes, it keeps what is inside from what is outside. But here it is a portal, a portal to divinity. The deity above the door is not a warning or…
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Kashi
Where the Gods Live Among Us ॐ नमः पार्वतीपतये हर हर महादेव। There is a thing about Kashi that no guidebook quite explains. Kashi does not reveal itself all at once. It unfolds, slowly, deliberately, like it is deciding how much of it you are ready to see. The Gods…
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Kumbhashi : The Idol Nobody Carved
ॐ गं गणपतये नमः || I have been writing for about a decade now. I have sat inside temples where the air felt thick with something older than the building. I have stood at ghats at 4 AM watching priests move flames and at temples at 11 PM watching the…
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From Ash to Gulal: The Holi of Mahadev
भाग १: रंगभरी एकादशी Rangbhari Ekadashi is one of the most important festivals of Kashi. As the word “Rangbhari” literally means, “filled with colors.” According to Hindu tradition, after the marriage of Shiv and Parvati, Lord Shiv brought his bride to his beloved city Kashi. Rangbhari Ekadashi marks the day…
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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…