Some keys to understanding
Banaras,
Kashi or Varanasi (no matter which one of these three names are chosen to call
it) is more than a city. It is, itself, a significant part of the soul and
vital energy of the country. It is one of the essential sites that allows one
to discover the mysteries of India.
. But how to understand this so complex city? The history of India, the tumultuous past of Kashi, religious texts, Hinduism, gods, rites, River Ganges, pilgrimages, cosmogony, lingams, mantras, malas, yantras, temples, sadhus, Sanskrit language, knowledge which is an ancestral tradition here, Ramananda the wise one, Kabir the poet, the bhakti, this philosophical movement precursory which is the syncretism of Islam and Hinduism disapproving the system of the castes, distinction between pure and impure, holy cows, the women’ status, castes, the everyday life, the festivals, the Indian food, the small trades, silk, the betel which is called "pan", the thandai bhang (mixture of milk and kneaded paste of fresh water and ganja leaves), the ghats, all these elements so disparate help us to better understand the city. The interviews also reveal us a part of the mystery.
. Around the area, Ramnagar, but also Sarnath, where Siddhartha Gautama, better known under the name of Buddha, pronounced his first sermon 2 500 years ago and gave the first teachings, are places which inform us about the significance of this thousand-year-old city.
. “Nothing makes sense to somebody who is not deeply grounded in spirituality and whose life is not centred in the divine.” Krishna Kant Shukhla