Life Itself

“And what can life be worth if the first rehearsal for life is life itself ?”
(From “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” by Milan Kundera)

This picture was shot at Scindia ghat in Varanasi (Benaras) where a few young men were enjoying the freshness of dawn in the holy waters of the Ganges.

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Bathing in Unmined Gold

“Hidden in the glorious wildness like unmined gold.”
(John Muir – Scottish-born American naturalist and author, 1838–1914)

At sunrise, this young man was doing yoga in the holy waters of the Ganges at Scindia ghat in Varanasi (Benaras).
He was floating as quiet and still as possible in order to find a deep relaxation.

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Lui the Painter, Charles 55, and 3 other people added this photo to their favorites.

Being Happy

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“When all your desires are distilled you will cast just two votes: To love more and to be happy.”
(Hāfez – Persian lyric poet, 1325-1390)

This young man was bathing in the holy waters of the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).
The turquoise blue shades of Lal ghat were reflecting in the sacred river, calming down the deep greens and gold of the stream…

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A Heck of a Day

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“To me, there are three things we all should do every day.
We should do this every day of our lives.
Number one is laugh.
You should laugh every day.
Number two is think.
You should spend some time in thought.
And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy.
But think about it.
If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day.
That’s a heck of a day.
You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.”
(Jim Valvano – American basketball coach, Coach of North Carolina State U., 1980-1990; won NCAA championship 1983, 1946-1993)

Those men were having fun in the holy waters of the Ganges at Dashaswamedh (Main) Ghat in Varanasi (Benaras).
They gave a touch of happiness to this place where usually solemn ceremonies are happening.

Cosmogonal Bath

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“In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seems puny.”
(Henry David Thoreau – American Poet and Philosopher, 1817-1862)

This man was having a ritual bath in the holy waters of the Ganges at Munshi ghat in Varanasi (Benaras).
Maybe his mind was then connected to the study of the origin and development of the universe mentioned by Henry David Thoreau…

Wading in Cold Waters

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“It doesn’t matter if the water is cold or warm if you’re going to have to wade through it anyway.”
(Teilhard de Chardin – French Geologist, Priest, Philosopher and Mystic, 1881-1955)

This picture was shot a few hours ago at Ram ghat in Varanasi (Benaras) where the city has to bear the lowest temperature of the year since a few days.
This young man is braving the cold in order to take his ritual bath in the holy waters of the Ganges.
Nights couldn’t be colder and it seems difficult for the city to wake up every morning.
In a few days everyone here will forget this unusual weather when the heat comes again in the city of all excess…

Into Little Waterdrops

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“O soul, be changed into little waterdrops,
And fall into the ocean, ne’er be found!”
(Christopher Marlowe – English Elizabethan Poet and Playwright, 1564-1593)

Several men were bathing along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).
I was sitting on a ghat and I took several pictures.
Those anatomy close-up shots are a way to celebrate each part of what we are and to try to understand the amazing complexity concerning the human body which I often connect to CorpoReality…

Finding Happiness

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“It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere.”
( Agnes Repplier – American Essayist and Writer, 1858-1950)

This lady was having fun in the Ganges nearby Jatar ghat in Varanasi (Benaras).
It was early in the morning, during the only moment of the day when the air was more breathable and that might have been helping her to be so happy.
I remember that I felt the same happiness while I was taking this picture.
American radio host Bernard Meltzer was right when he said: “Happiness is like a kiss…you must share it to enjoy it”.
Let’s share this kiss all together, let’s be happy…

The Eternal Changing of All Things

“Other nations have aimed to conquer, to amas wealth, to explore, to discover.
For Indians, who over the past two thousands years have neither invaded any countries, nor conquered any lands, the aim has always been knowledge.
Not knowledge of the world, but self-knowledge.
To know oneself means to know everything, because the core of this self, they believe, is what remains constant in the eternal changing of all things.”
(from “India Notes” by Tiziano Terzani – Italian journalist and writer,1938-2004)

At the end of Assi Ghat in Varanasi (Benaras), after bathing in the holy waters of the Ganges, those two young men were processing a puja, celebrating life through the elements.
They belong to the Brahman cast (aslo known as Brahmin) which according Hinduism, refers to the priestly caste in the Hindu caste system.

“Contained in She”

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“Is God a Man or a Woman ?
The answer to this question is neither—- God is That.
But if you must give God a gender, God is more female than male, for he is contained in She.”(Amma (Mata Amritanandamayi Devi), Indian Hindu guru known as Amma “Mother” and the “hugging saint” – Born 1953)

Those women were bathing in the holy waters of the Ganges at Gai Ghat in Varanasi (Benaras).
The Hindi word “gai’ means “cow”, in many civilizations the cow was venerated as the mother goddess, in India it is a representation of wealth and it is obviously a feminine symbol.
For the Vedic man cows were ‘the “real life” substratum of the goods of life’ (JC Heesterman in The Encyclopedia Of Religion, vol. 5).
This picture could have been shot at any ghat but this place gives emphasis to the character of womanhood which arises from this image.

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