my daughter is travelling/working/spending time, in india……..this is her thoughts/experiences sitting amongst the funeral pyres on the banks of the ganges…..
(whoar will be publishing more excerpts from this travel journal….filed under guest columnists..)
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Beloveds…….
I sit here with eyes burning and my spirit on fire.
I witness death and the maya of the physical form as corpses become engulfed in flames and are reduced to ash.
How incredible to witness death as a part of life.
I share a raised platform with cows , goats and a few mangy dogs.
They have seen it all before and they forage for food, scratch themselves and chew on cud absentmindedly as the bodies burn below.
Somehow only they keep me company and for a moment no one wants or needs my energy. I am free to witness. To see what, in my culture (what culture?) is always sterile and behind closed doors.
There is no makeup for the dead. No denial that this flesh is empty , finished. No formeldehyde , no wigs , no coffins.
The bodies are wrapped in cloth only. I see the weight of a lifeless body as they are placed on the flames. Wood is piled on top.
I stand in the smoke embracing this vision before me.
This smoke does not smell like flesh burning. It is thick , strong smoke, burning my throat and my eyes.
But I stand wanting to see this, wanting to feel this .
Very close by it is business as usual. Chai shops, postcard sellers , even restaurants.
In this land life and death are the same thing . They dance hand in hand .
Beyond the pits and platforms where the fires burn Ganga flows serenely. Boats piled high with wood , people swimming and making puja, the light playing warmly on the opposite shore.
Swallows fill the air performing arial feats above the cremation grounds.
I am cleansed by the smoke, released of the fear of death. And even as I sit here in this cybercafe the bodies pass by. Very surreal.
And in this moment I want to share with all my beloveds what I am seeing . I want to tell you all how precious life is and how temporary.
We are spirits having a human experience. Embrace life and embrace death because they are the same , interdependant and inseperable.
Bom Shiva, Jai Kali……
