Varanasi – Dev Deepavali: When the Gods descend to earth..

River Ganga or the Ganges is a major river of the Indian subcontinent, associated in myth and reality with the land and people of India as well as neighboring countries like Bangladesh.

                                                       

 In Hinduism, the river Ganga is personified as Goddess and holds an important place in the Hindu religion. In Hindu mythology, it is believed that bathing in the river Ganga causes the remission of sins and facilitates the attainment of salvation or nirvana. This deep-rooted truth is proved by the fact that people travel from distant places to immerse the ashes of their kin in the waters of the Ganga at Varanasi or other places located on the banks of this holy river. Some of these sacred places, located on the Ganga, are Varanasi, Haridwar and Prayag (Allahabad). 

                                                         

One of the world’s oldest living cities and contemporary of Thebes and Nineveh, Varanasi was already ancient when the Buddha visited around 500BC. Locally, it is called Kashi, “The City of Light”. Situated on a magnificent curve along the western bank of the Ganges, India’s holiest river, Varanasi is the citadel and the nerve center of the Hindu faith. Its opulence and divinity, its numerous temples and shrines, and the omnipresent gods contrast starkly with the all-pervasive poverty and misery. It is a magnet for the millions of pilgrims who flock here during the passing seasons and years to bathe in the purifying waters of the Ganges to escape the cycle of rebirth, and pay obeisance to the gods.

                                                                      

Dev Deepavali takes place during the month of Kartik, usually November, and on the occasion of the full moon known as Kartik Poornima. It is observed with infinite faith, great fanfare and feasting as this is the day the Gods descend to earth. The major celebrations take place at Dasaswamedh Ghat on the banks of the river Ganges. On the eve of Kartik Purnima, a large congregation of pilgrims gather by the riverside. Both pilgrims and devotees decorate the entire riverbank with tiny earthen lamps known as diyas. These oil lamps are lit to welcome the Gods as they descend from the heavens. This is followed by the sunset “Aarti: ceremony, conducted by priests chanting prayers and holding aloft immense lamps lit up with traditional oil wicks. As the ceremony ends, several thousands of diyas, each ensconced in a leaf cup, are set afloat on the scared waters.

                                                                   

"The Ganga, especially, is the river of India, beloved of her

people, round which are intertwined her memories, her hopes
and fears, her songs of triumph, her victories and her
defeats. She has been a symbol of India's age-long culture
and civilization, ever changing, ever flowing, and yet ever
the same Ganga". - Nehru.