Dead kids and dogs in the Ganges

(Lauren) I realize that I am writing about a lot of horrible things, but I assure you we are having a wonderful time and yes, Jannon, many third-eye openings!!

That night we sat at the main cremation ghat (where they burn bodies) and have for thousands of years. In fact, Varanasi is over 3,000 years old! Steve was overwhelmed by this as having never confronted human death in this way. We watch human heads and feet and everything other part go up in flames. This might disgust some of you who are reading this, but I am a firm believer that the way we hide death in the USA is destructive. Many of us are so out of touch with our mortality and therefore taken this precious fleeting life for granted. Anyway, we sat for a long time and learned that the only people who are burn in the pyre are married Hindus everyone else is thrown directly into the ganges. So children, unmarried women, pregnant women, holy sadhus and priest whole corpses chucked in. We watched this happen... a boat carried several children out into the middle of the river and dropped them in. Steve and I are amazed to think of how many hundreds of thousands of bodies are sitting there in front of us at the bottom of the ganges!

Our last morning we took a boat ride at sunrise to watch the bathers and all the religious rites take place. There is really no place like this, and today the energy is again calm and wonderfully peaceful in town. A furry carcass floated by and I asked the boat wallah what is this?, A dead dog floating down the river.

So get this, countless human and animal bodies floating in the ganges here... AND people bath daily here, swim here, DRINK the water here, brush their teeth in it, wash their clothes and everything else you can imagine. Did I mention that the sewage is also emptied into it. I cannot seem to expand my mind to really get how this all works, but this is Varanasi and there are dolphins. yep, a special fresh water ganga dolphin that is only found here! I have seem them jump next to a corpse bopping around out there. Yes you must come here to believe this insanity.

I must admit I love Varanasi and so do the people who live here. It is believed among Hindus that if you die here you will stop the cycle of reincarnation and find moksha or liberation.

Now the evening train to Bodh Gaya...