When Faiths Travels Barefoot - Co'Report

When Faith Travels Barefoot Numerous pilgrims from many different towns and villages of India make the sometimes long journey toward the Holy Cities. Their purpose, apart from offering their prayers to their Gods, is to wash their sins away by visiting the river. One of these Holy Cities is the magical Varanasi, the oldest one in India, where one day, hundreds ofyears ago, the people there decided to stop time and keep celebrating such ancient rituals. Around the city, various hostels offer a place to stay to those travellers who carry their belongings on the head. Women with golden jewellery and shy smiles dressed in colourful sarees, travel with their husbands or brothers, most of whom are barefoot with no aspiration but to gain spiritual rewards.

by Sheila Torres

photographed AndrĂŠs GutiĂŠrrez

lthough archaeologists date Varanasi back to the IX century B.C., the legend says it was founded

by Lord Shiva, Hindu God of destruction, about 5.000 years ago. This was the reason why the city earned the title of ‘the official capital of Shiva worship’ and a golden temple was built there in his honour. This, with the Ganges River, are the most memorable attractions of this sacred place.

Amongst its hundreds of rambling and chaotic streets, the most unusual smells await in each corner, from the stink rubbish to the intense scent of saffron. The area surrounding the Ghats (the stairs just beside the Ganges) is a crisscross of streets where buffaloes, cows, monkeys, dogs and people (many of whom are on loud motorcycles while others simply are on foot), are passing by with no written road rules. The smoke, emitted from lots of small temples in the street, naturally blends with the

fragrant incense coming from numerous small temples around the city.

Already worn tiles, beaten up even more by countless pilgrims, cover the floor of a city which was once the capital of the kingdom, the center of culture and arts and the Holy City of temples. With many ancient stories to tell, the shores of the Ganges river invite to spirituality and mysticism.

Any Hindu believer should visit Varanasi at least once in their life. Dying anywhere near this sanctuary and having their corpse burned in one of the crematories would be a privilege for their soul and a direct passage to Nirvana that frees that person from the reincarnation cycle.

Varanasi is one of the seven sacred cities in Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, according to the scriptures and Puranas, and is the oldest in India.

Millions of pilgrims make a stop in this city each year and spend their time worshiping Shiva in the Golden Temple, having a bath in its revered

Ganges River and wandering through Totally detached from the material the City’s magical streets. world, the people have a gleam in their eyes which expresses such From every corner of the country happiness and a naked smile that cothese travellers come and go by train, mes and goes highlighting their devobus or even on foot carrying their be- tion. It is this faith that inspires and longings wrapped over their heads. gives them the strength to deal with Most of them stay in hostels like the adversity in their normal everyday Dharamsala Lachi Ram Seth, whose lives and to face this hard trip. services are very basic and rudimentary. The rooms have no beds, no clo- The first thing the believer does in the sets and no trace of amenities, just a morning is to purify their soul with roof that covers the guests while they body cleansing. The penitent reaches are sleeping. The building still preser- the banks of the Ganges to plunge in ves the original lamps from the time it its dirty waters and liberate their soul was built 110 years ago, when there from sin. Just after, they enter the was no electrical energy in the area Golden Temple, where the endless and candles were in use. From fifty to queue takes up the whole morning one hundred people usually occupy before they can start their prayers. each large room. Pandey Gannat has Close to this place there are other been the manager of the place for temples of interest like the Durga more than fifteen years. He claims Mandir, in honour of the Goddess that these type of places help the pil- Durga, protector of the city, and the grims a lot, since they are very cheap. Manas Mandir, dedicated to Lord They usually spend one only night in Rama. the hostel (all men are allowed, but the women have to prove they are When Religious obligations are fimarried to get in). Every evening, nished, each pilgrim returns to the most of the pilgrims leave after sho- hostel to prepare some food together wing their gratitude to the manager by with their fellow pilgrims. The kitchen bowing and touching his feet, giving is just a walled courtyard, blackened way to new guests. As Pandey says, because ofthe smoke ofthe fires, with Varanasi is always full of pilgrims so a covered area that has small piles of his hostel is in demand. He gets satis- stones randomly distributed. Some of faction in helping out the low income the guests wash vegetables while visitors.

others make bread and rice. Downstairs there is a well that supplies drinking water, right next to the stones used for grinding the masala, a spicy mixture of intense flavour which is an essential ingredient in most Indian dishes.

Each one acts as if their instructions are recorded in memory and the result is a flavorful vegetarian lunch, accompanied by rice and bread. After lunch, it is time for chai, an Indian tea with milk and spices. At the end of the meal, women with their colourful saris, collect and wash everything.

Then, men and women both collect and sort the clothes hanging from one side of the courtyard to the other on makeshift clotheslines. In between, some of them take time to rest or prepare their luggage for the next stop on their journey, which usually is Allahabad or Gaya, also holy cities where people pray for their dead relatives.

Most ofthe pilgrims are very poor and can only afford to be away from home for six or seven days so they can hardly visit three or four holy cities each trip.

During the pilgrimage, they consume just enough to survive. Accommodation and food cost about 50 Indian rupees a day (less than 1 euro) and the trains are between 70 and 100 INR per ride (less than 2 euros). A whole week costs no more than 900 INR (less than 13 euros).

However, the average expenditure for each devotee is above 5000 INR (above 70 euros). The difference is spent on cash gifts for the Gods they worship. People usually donate from

1000 to 1500 Indian rupees (14 to 20 euros) to each temple they visit. Many of them have to save money for years before starting their trip, since the average salary of a villager is around 1500 INR per month (about 23 euros). But despite the hardship, pilgrims face each day with the belief that their souls will be enriched so it is more than worth it in their minds and hearts.

Ratha is a 30 years woman who came from Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, with one of her brothers. Her face expresses her happiness for having the opportunity to do her pilgrimage to the holy cities. She has traveled by train from her hometown to Allahabad, and spent two days there. Then she went to Varanasi to worship Lord Shiva and to bath in the Ganges. After one short day in the ancient city, Ratha continues her trip to Gaya, near the capital of Bihar, where she will stay for another three days so she can

pray for her dead relatives. After visiting Gaya, her spiritual trip will have finished and she will go home with her brother. By the time they arrive home they will have traveled over 1700 km in distance; but spiritually their faith will have traveled farther.

A festive atmosphere awaits every purified and blessed pilgrim when they come back home. Relatives and friends and a group of drummers welcome them, singing and dancing through the streets until they arrive at their local temples.

This tradition seems to have stopped time at one point in history, very far away from the ticking clock ofthe 21st Century. And, like many other traditions, its foundation is totally rooted in the hearts and souls of each believer, passed down with fervent enthusiasm from one generation to the next.