The river as it flows, blobs and bubbles, pushes forth and
back an arena of emotions,time, materialistic beliefs and sounds of life. On a
larger scale it is a sea of drifting waters. To me earliar it was just a river,
but now as I sit there pondering upon the time, I have dealt with this faith
taker, I see deep within. I realised it is not just the water that moves with
it has moved the belief, the faith of the people, the sustenance it provides to
the people of Kashi, and to those who have been believing in it is what makes
this river holy.
It is a teacher in itself, I look within and it reflects my
own self, shows me the selflessness. All these years it has been a provider and
shall continue to be one. The image of you in it, is blur and sometimes still,
but gives you the essence of life as you see yourself in it. A complete absorber
and a reflector at the same time. I see the sun shine bright on it, Ganga ji
reflects back and absorbs to give you the dark silhouette, and yet is
transparent. A mirror to myself, to analyse or understand oneself you require a
mirror and it is that one being that breathes with you, moves and never stops
flowing.
A dip in the holy water, a belief that has overpowered man,
and has been the legacy for ages. On the outside it rises, and just flows with
waves that crash at the ghats, but within this voluptuous vastness it provides
you calmness and freedom from your sins. It is an untangible vision,
transparent yet only felt within.
I would have never learnt the metaphorical meaning of this
river, it reflects upon me. The very first day when I was so troubled and
distressed by the fact that the water is dirty and polluted and how people
could drink it and not notice its deteriorating cries. But as a part of kashi, I
now know that people will still perform the rituals, still destroy the river
but the river shall flow on….
Throughout the journey of these amazing ten days spent in kashi,
talking to few people about our mother
Ganga, different views, different
beliefs aroused and I was amazed to get the reactions varying. Rahul
Sahani, a seventeen year old boy who lives at the ghats and goes to the little
star English medium school, although in his eight grade he has a vision that one
expects from the youth. He was the only one person who was openly true about his
city, the pollution of ganga, the thugs in the city, loot with the foreigners.
Innocent but true and showed such concern that I could see hope rising in the
city towards saving the grace of the Ganga.
“CHILDREN CAN’T DECIDE WHAT TO DO, BUT FAMILY DECIDES
WHAT TO DO. PURA DHANDHA HAI..KALYUG HAI YEH KALYUG”
He inspired me to believe that questioning is not going to
help, realisng it yourself and putting yourself at blame is the best way to
find a solution.