Varanasi, the holy city, is touched by spirituality. It is a city that is sacred to Hindus around the world, and it is said that dying in the city is a sure shot way to attain moksha (getting rid of the cycle of birth and death). So, it is here where people from across the country come to die, and making their way towards this goal is a guesthouse called Moksha Bhavan.
Housed inside an old red building, Moksha Bhavan is occupied by visitors, who are awaiting their death. Inside the building, there are 12 dimly lit rooms, with minimum furnishing, and bare essentials. Here in these rooms, time is the only evil. For people living here temporarily are seeking to attain moksha, and they have exactly 2 weeks for it. If death does not come to them in these 2 weeks, they are politely asked to leave. Yes, not everyone is lucky enough to die in Varanasi.
Death is not an adversary here in Moksha Bhavan, in fact, it is the ultimate truth that people seek here at the end of their lives. Thousands of people come each year hoping to get a final victory in their short lives on earth. It is sacred, and it is an honour to die by the Ganges here in Varanasi, and there is no better place than Moksha Bhavan.
On the steps of the River Ganges on any given day, you will find funeral pyres burning endlessly, and the grey smoke filling the sky over this old city. Of course, there are tourists, the curious visitors from West, pilgrims, and explorers, but everything else takes a step back in Varanasi, and the philosophies of life and death take the forefront. It is stoic for sure, but there is a sense of radiance. It is unlike a place of death, it is more like a place of liberation, a place to wash away your sins. Purity takes centre stage, life takes centre stage, and death is celebrated like no other place on the planet.
Moksha Bhavan is at the centre of it all, and its occupants are left with the remnants of our complicated life; so perhaps, death is after all liberation.
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