With A Sprinkle Of Golden Dreams

“Are you looking for gold, friend?
Look around you; anything useful to you is pure gold, pure silver!”
(Mehmet Murat ildan – Turkish author, b.1965)

This picture was shot at Scindia ghat in Varanasi (Benaras).
Two friends were finishing their daily yoga exercises in the river.
It was at dawn when reality is still foggy with a sprinkle of dreams and allows the holy waters of the Ganges to become gold…

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The Wizard of Gold

“What is magic?
There is the wizard’s explanation… wizards talk about candles, circles, planets, stars, bananas, chants, runes and the importance of having at least four good meals every day.”
(From “Lords and Ladies” by Terry Pratchett)

Sometimes in my enchanted dreams the eternal city is wrapped with a golden coat where fascinating people spread magic along the Ganges.
Some are palmists, others are fortunetellers, ice-cream sellers, sādhus or wizards.
Recently I met one at Shitla ghat, I still have stardust in my eyes…

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The Desire to Fall

“Anyone whose goal is ‘something higher’ must expect someday to suffer vertigo.
What is vertigo?
Fear of falling?
No, Vertigo is something other than fear of falling.
It is the voice of the emptiness below us which tempts and lures us, it is the desire to fall, against which, terrified, we defend ourselves.”
(From ” The Unbearable Lightness of Being” by Milan Kundera)

Sometimes daydreaming along the Ganges provides a sensory disorder or a sensation of being off-balance and then a strong desire to fall.
To fall and forget everything, to confide in the holy waters like this young man diving at Scindia ghat in Varanasi (Benaras)…

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With Gold At Both Ends

“Dare to love yourself
as if you were a rainbow
with gold at both ends.”
(From “The River of Winged Dreams” by Aberjhani)

This young man was diving in the river of golden dreams at Scindia ghat in Varanasi (Benaras)…

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The Mistress of Spices

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“Each spice has a special day to it.
For turmeric it is Sunday, when light drips fat and butter-colored into the bins to be soaked up glowing, when you pray to the nine planets for love and luck.”
(“The Mistress of Spices” by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni)

This lady was walking barefoot in a little street of Kashi, the oldest part of Varanasi (Benaras).
It was early in the morning, she came back from the Ganges and she was on her way to an ashram where she was probably staying while visiting the Eternal city.
She had turmeric on her feet, that spice is considered highly auspicious in various Indian ceremonies.
It is often used in Pujas to make a form of Lord Ganesha, the remover of obstacles.
Turmeric is also currently being investigated for possible benefits in Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, arthritis and other clinical disorders.

This lady was walking, she was not from the city.
We crossed each other, there was a beautiful scent made of several spices left behind which remained in the street for a while…

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Perfect Knowledge

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” “What would Buddha do to search for perfect knowledge ?”
“Your mind becomes Buddha.
Your mind is Buddha.
All the Buddhas’ ocean of perfect knowledge begins in your very mind and thought.”
(Amitayur Dhyana Sutra 17)

Buddha doesn’t have to do anything to gain perfect knowledge.
He knows he has it already.
He knows we have it already.
But someone we seem to be left out of the loop.
How ironic that we don’t know we have perfect knowledge !
What went wrong ?”
(From “What would Buddha do ?” by Franz Metcalf)

Those two Tibetan monks were under the Bodhi Tree which is behind the Mahabodhi Temple, the place of Gautama Buddha’s attainment of nirvana (Enlightenment), in Bodh Gaya (बोधगया), in the Indian state of Bihar.

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Singing Colors

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“Why do two colors, put one next to the other, sing?
Can one really explain this?
No.
Just as one can never learn how to paint.”
(Pablo Picasso – Spanish painter and sculptor, 1881-1973)

 

No one can explain why colors sing nor why Varanasi (Benaras) like the rest of the country is an amazing auditorium to listen to those blissful symphonies…
This picture was shot in a workshop nearby Sarnath where magicians display colors on sarees using the art of block printing.
This place which gives birth to unlimited shades is a treat for the senses…

 

 

 

 

In a Golden Coating

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“Yellow, mellow, ripened days,
Sheltered in a golden coating;
O’er the dreamy, listless haze,
White and dainty cloudlets floating;
Winking at the blushing trees,
And the sombre, furrowed fallow;
Smiling at the airy ease,
Of the southward flying swallow
Sweet and smiling are thy ways,
Beauteous, golden Autumn days.”
(Will Carleton – American poet, 1845-1912)

There is a private temple dedicated to Lord Shiva near Manikarnika ghat along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras), I often go there.
The angle that I get from the balcony allow me to take pictures of the people who are walking along the holy waters.
Season after season it became a kind of game, sometimes I feel I am watching a fashion show, some are walking with attitude, some have style…

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The Golden Fleece

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“Happy the man who, like Ulysses, has made a fine voyage, or has won the Golden Fleece, and then returns, experienced and knowledgeable, to spend the rest of his life among his family.”
(Joachim du Bellay – French poet, critic, and a member of the Pléiade, 1522–1560)

This is shot from the balcony of a Shiva mandir (temple) near Manikarnika ghat along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras) from where there is an amazing view over the city.
I often come there and enjoy taking pictures of the people walking under, sometimes they were timeless garments.

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Golden Wanderer

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“I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils.”
(William Wordsworth – English Poet. 1770-1850)

I often spend some time on the balcony of a Shiva mandir (temple) near Manikarnika ghat along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras) from where there is an amazing view over the city.
There I see people walking along the holy waters.
This man came and kept my attention as I realized that we were almost wearing the same garments…

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