City of Light - Kashi, Banaras, Varanasi
I am fascinated by the city known as Varanasi. I became aware of it when I heard Prof Diana Eck speak of it at a conference in Boston USA in 1999 and when I read her extraordinary book – Encountering God. It has been a profound journey for me, coming from a very narrow Christian sect, to the awareness the Divine in all of reality - including traditions other than my own. My own exploration of other faith traditions, contemporary expressions of spirituality and science have deepened and expanded my own understanding and experience of Christ as a universal evolutionary creative loving Presence.
“Varanasi, also known as Kashi and Banaras, is a city in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh dating to the 11th century B.C.E. Regarded as the spiritual capital of India, the city draws Hindu pilgrims who bathe in the Ganges River’s sacred waters for prayer and ritual. In Varanasi, one is in a time warp where one is living in history as if time has never stopped, for the people, both residents and pilgrims, continue their daily practices and worship in ways relatively unchanged for millennia, a continuum of thousands of years. Being in Varanasi is like being on a thread pulled from a cloth that dates back to the beginning of time. Here, one doesn’t “see” a ruin, as one does in other ancient civilizations, but a living city where history hasn’t stopped.” David Scheinbaum.
This is a collection of photo’s from Nov 2019 when I was able to visit Varanasi during a north India trip, with the help of my son Matt, a seasoned traveller to India. I loved the light, the water, the fire and the devotion so evident in this place - the life-energy of the universe expressed in so many vivid and evocative ways.
