54/ 100 Ghat Puddles Dog
What Happens on the Ganges
I must have mentioned Varanasi and the sacred river Ganges a hundred times, but what do people actually do when they visit the second most polluted watercourse in the world? I thought I would have a few days of posts that run through just a few things I think are interesting about the river and the activities that happen in it.
One of the practices that we saw every day in Varanasi was one where visiting pilgrims, often arriving by boat, would buy and prepare a small ritual offering in a little foil and paper bowl called a diya offering. Sometimes the bowl would be an eco-friendly version made from leaves, but most commonly it was good old tin foil.
Inside the small bowl would be a few marigold flowers or rose petals and a little candle made from cotton wool soaked in oil or ghee. I also saw small tea-lights used as the candle as well as lumps of what I am guessing might be tallow.
Once you have either bought a ready-made diya, or constructed your own from the various components that are readily for sale up and down the ghats, you head to the water’s edge, light the diya and release it onto the surface of the river where, hopefully, it will bob about and travel away from the shore.
Mostly these little floating smokey lights wouldn’t make it very far from shore and would congregate in amongst the boats that are moored all along the edges of the ghats.
The practice serves multiple spiritual purposes:
- To honor the river Ganga, considered a goddess (Ganga Maa)
- To offer prayers for ancestors
- To seek blessings, particularly during important life events or festivals
I can imagine, a very long time ago, just a few pilgrims each day would travel to the water’s edge with their clay or leaf diyas and set them free, praying as they did so, with very little impact. Today, however, your diya will be one of millions adding just a little bit more pollution to an already damaged river that also happens to be a holy Goddess.
Incidentally, I have noticed on my travels around the world that marigolds seem to be the go-to flower for just about everything. You can read about how the Mexican people use them for their own celebrations here.
