I always wonder what is that one thing which draws millions of Hindus from all around the globe to Kashi and that too from centuries? Now, I have the answer with me. This ancient city is a boiling pot of history, culture, tradition, rituals, spirituality, religion, faith and immense belief. There are so many myths and at the same point of time so many realities around it. This is the most significant place in the whole world where people can live and die at the same time. It is truly magical and exceptional. It is far more diverse and at the same time ahead of all our imagination. We cannot find its origin if we want to. Mark Twain said “Benaras is older than history, older than tradition. Older even than legend and looks twice as old as all of them put together.
It is a common belief in Kashi that “Kashi ke kankar Shankar samaan” or each pebble in Kashi is as sacred as Lord Shiva. They say “Kashi is the whole world itself. It is not of this earth. It is not on the ground.” They say “It is on the ‘Trishul’ of Lord Shiva. It is Shiva’s home.” Kashi is a sacred city and the cosmic axis of the Hindu faith. Sadhguru says “Kashi is a phenomenal ‘yantra’. Never before and never after. To create a city like that is a mad ambition and they did it thousands of years ago.”
Kashi epitomizes both ends of the Hindu spectrum. You come here to enjoy the pleasures of this world, ranging from music, art, food, and love. You also come here to renounce the world, be an ascetic and die ultimately. ‘Sanatan Dharma’ always moves forward and there is always life after the present life like a whole cycle. Hindus come to Kashi to get rid of this cycle of birth and rebirth, to attain ‘Mukti’ and ‘Moksha’. Dying in Kashi offers absolution, deliverance, freedom, liberation, and escape from the endless cycle of birth and death. It is also called “Rudravasa or Mahasmashanam” the great cremation ground where Shiva roams at night and whispers the sacred verse of liberation to the departing. “Kashya Maranam Muktihih” is a Sanskrit phrase which says dying in Kashi offers ‘mukti’ (liberation). It is the best place on earth for a good death. Have you heard something like this for a place anywhere?
Kashi is also called “Ananda Vana” or the Forest of Bliss, its most ancient name given by Lord Shiva himself. It is purely magical in the predawn darkness and dim lights outlining buildings resemble the outlines of trees and forest in a whole. There is a kind of calmness in the midst of the noise and sounds of a bustling city. Birds chirp, bells of the temple clangs, oars slap softly into the water, and “mantra” and “aarti” is going on in every temple at this time. That’s why Kashi also stands for “the luminous one” – The City of the Lights.
Therefore, Kashi is Shiva’s city, his chosen place, one that he vowed never to forsake for all eternity. Sadhguru says “When Athens was not even thought of, Kashi was. When Rome did not even exist in people’s mind, Kashi was. When Egypt did not exist, Kashi was. That ancient is Kashi. They build a kind of instrument in the form of a city which brings a union between micro and macro.” Kashi is one of a kind in the whole world which like this was never built before and will never be built after. It’s truly out of this world. You have to experience it on your own to understand better.
