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"There is a community of the spirit.
Join it, and feel the delight of walking in the noisy street and being the noise.Drink all your passion, and be a disgrace.Close both eyes to see with the other eye."
(Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī - Persian poet, 1207-1273)

I often take a few pictures of this sadhu along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).
This time he was walking on main ghat wher it is sometimes very noisy.
I tried something with Photoshop in order to focus on him away from this tumultuous flow going around...
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"The mystical bond of brotherhood makes all men brothers."
(Thomas Carlyle - Scottish Historian and Essayist, 1795-1881)

Those young men standing on the top of a wall are Shia devotees waiting for the processions with replicas of Husayn's mausoleum called tazia which were coming in this narrow street.
It was at the time of Muharram when Varanasi (Benaras) add a little more magic and becomes timeless.
The Eternal city has so many amazing sides, this festival allows to feel a warm bond of brotherhood among the inhabitants of this area.
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"What could have saved Indian society from the ponderous burden of omnifarious ritualistic ceremonialism, with its animal and other sacrifices, which all but crushed the very life of it, except the Jain revolution, which took its strong stand exclusively on chaste morals and philosophical truths?
Jains were the first great ascetics and they did some great work.
"Don't injure any and do good to all that you can, and that is all the morality and ethics, and that is all the work there is, and the rest is all nonsense."
And then they went to work and elaborated this one principle all through, and it is a most wonderful ideal: how all that we call ethics they simply bring out from that one great principle of non-injury and doing good."
(Swami Vivekananda - The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Volume 3, Buddhistic India - Lecture delivered at the Shakespeare Club, Pasadena, California, on February 2, 1900)

Jainism is one of the oldest religion, it prescribes a path of non-violence towards all living beings, its philosophy and practice emphasize the necessity of self-effort to move the soul towards divine consciousness and liberation with compassion for all life, human and non-human.

Digambara monks and nuns practice strict asceticism and strive to make their current birth their last, thus ending their cycle of transmigration.
They wear no clothes, following the practice of Mahavira, they do not consider themselves to be nude.
Rather, they are wearing the environment, that is the quintessential, akasha or space.
Digambaras believe that this practice represents a refusal to give in to the demands of the body for comfort and private property.
Digambara ascetics have only two possessions: a peacock feather broom and a water gourd, they walk barefoot and sweep the ground in front of them to avoid killing insects or other tiny beings.
They practice non-attachment to the body and hence, wear no clothes, travel on foot and do not use mechanical transport.

This picture was shot along a road located in the center of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh where several devotees were waiting for those monks.
Some were walking with them for a while, others were seeking for their blessings and spreading a devotional atmosphere everywhere.
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"Without an understanding of myth or religion, without an understanding of the relationship between destruction and creation, death and rebirth, the individual suffers the mysteries of life as meaningless mayhem alone."
(Marion Woodman - Canadian author, b.1928)

Manikarnika Kund is a sacred pond located next to Manikarnika Ghat along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).
Each year in November it is dug out from the dirt which covers it up from the holy river floods of the rainy season.
This large rectangular structure, with surrounding steps is mythologically related to Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva.
The Chakra-Pushkarini Kund or “Discus Lotus-Pond” is said to be so ancient that it was present before King Bhagiratha brought the Ganges to Varanasi and is supposed to have been dug by Lord Vishnu at the time of creation with his disc.
The word “Manikarnika” refers “Jeweled Earring” and this name was given because Lord Shiva’s earring fell into the well when it was a very large lake.
This historic place symbolizes creation, and the cremation ghat next to it is all about death, the hot ashes of the burnt bodies nearby makes one remember the inevitable destruction of everything in the world.
Many pilgrims take a bath here after performing the rituals of cremation. It is also said to be lucky for couples to take a bath together in this well.
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"A successful marriage is an edifice that must be rebuilt every day."
(Andre Maurois - French author, 1885–1967)

This picture was shot along the holy waters of the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras) where a new-married couple was getting the blessings from the groom's mother.
This ceremony happens the day after the wedding, early in the morning when the couple is coming to seek blessings from the Goddess Ganga.
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© All photographs are copyrighted and all rights reserved.
Please do not use any photographs without permission (even for private use).
The use of any work without consent of the artist is PROHIBITED and will lead automatically to consequences.