The Ganges. Varansi. India. Enlighten me. {graphic links}

[Nero]

Has anyone been here? Has anyone seen this? is anyone part of this culture?

I am fascinated by this. I haven't been able to forget it. How do people live like this? How do they brush their teeth with water bodies are floating in?

I understand that it is some kind of religious thing? I am fascinated that they go to bathe while their fly-encrusted loved one may be floating by. This shows an acceptance of death that I wish I understood.

The links are graphic and depict bodies floating in the Ganges.

scroll for video
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=638_1345728105


Video of a corpse eaten by dogs on the Ganges, just matter of factly like:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=342_1329917450


http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=342_1329917450

Gross on one level, awesome on another. I mean, imagine waking up, bathing and brushing your teeth in the river. And there are rotting bodies just floating by. And they might even be someone you know! Your loved one!
These people must seriously have an advanced view and acceptance of death.

Thoughts? And if you have been here or have some understanding of this culture, please share!

[Jill F]

I have a degree in cultural anthropology and have taken a couple of courses that touched on this.

If I remember correctly and didn't kill these brain cells yet, the Ganges River in Hinduism is sacred and is seen as a manifestation of the goddess Ganga(?).  Contact with the river (eww!) helps to wash away sin or bad karma and facilitates the release from samsara, or the cycle of life and death.  Basically, they believe that if you are reincarnated, your karma wasn't so hot and you have to suffer a life all over again.  The trick is to be pure and break free.  The river can help you with this, floating stiffs and all.  Tossing a dead relative in the river can't hurt, right?

[Anatta]

Kia Ora FA,

Back in the early 1980s (on my big OE-travelling overland from Oz to Europe) we(my ex and I) had the good fortune to spent sometime travelling around the beautiful paradox called India,(we spent a couple of months there) whiles there we visited the ancient Holy city of Varanasi and the Ganges...We saw the works...

This link and short youtube doco might be of interest to some....

http://hinduism.about.com/od/temples/a/varanasi_banaras.htm



It's a place you are happy to be leaving but long to go back to....Therein lies the paradox....

Metta Anatta