#smashan

[ibelieveinbhairava-blog]

May i burn in the Smashan of my beloved Bhairava

[candleghost]

[shihab-alen]

Manikarnika Ghat is called Mahasmashan, the Greatest Smashan. Not even second passes there in idleness; there is at least one body burning at all times, around the clock. This has been going for untold thousands of years. The fire which is used to ignite this pyres has been maintained continuously for centuries; it is never allowed go out. People come for thousands mules to Benaras just so they can die there and be burned on Manikarnika Ghat. Every day dozens of bodies arrive by train, the bodies of those who died outside Benaras but yearned to be cremated there. There are too many bodies for them to burn down all the way to ash, so as soon as the skull pops open and most of the flesh is incinerated the priests recite the appropriate verses and push the corpse into the Ganges River to make way for another one. As soon as the body hits the river, packs of dogs fight each other for remaining morsels, and then the turtles and fish devour whatever is left. If you were to stay there ten months at a stretch like I did, and still not realize that you are going to die, well, then, there is no hope for you. You'll never realize it; you'll die in ignorance.

Vimalananda

Robert E. Svoboda, Aghora: At the left hand of god.

[candleghost]