The Ganga Arti
So continuing with Benares, the mystic city filled with tales of spirituality and wisdom..
After a view of all the Ghats via a boat ride, we finally arrived at where we started off, the Dashashwamedh ghat,to witness the Ganga Arti..
Ganga Arti is performed daily in the evening by a group of priests at the Dashashwamedh ghat..
It was around 6.30 in the evening.. preparations for the Ganga Arti were on full swing..There were huge crowds gathered to witness this beauty which takes place everyday, at different few selected ghats along which the Ganges flows..
I was privileged to watch this spectacle twice…
Huge crowds gather around the place, few witness it from the Ghats seated on the steps, while few want to enjoy it from the boats, from the river front…
I was lucky to witness it from both ends but I prefered the steps cause it is much closer and the view, while seated on the boats was not good enough for me, as you have people all standing up to take pictures and the fun is gone..
Ganga Arti is an event which cannot be explained in words!! You should be there to watch it live, to experience and feel it.. So hopefully rather than me explaining things, my pics will do the talking..
It all starts off with the priests who have to perform the Arti dressed in the same traditional attire, the dhoti and kurta..
First they make preparation for the Arti by offering puja to the Goddess Ganga and then they go take their respective places on the platforms meant for each person, where beforehand all the arrangements for the Arti would have been made, like the decked elevated planks, multi tiered oil lamps, an idol of the Goddess Ganga, flowers, incense sticks, a conch shell, a big and heavy brass lamp having a snake hood, all are kept ready and amidst the chime of bells and Shlokas( hymns) the Arti starts..
The whole event takes around 45 minutes..
An announcement at 7.00 pm indicates the beginning of the aarti…Music in the form of chants and Shlokas is played.. Devotees present there sing along,in between you have the Priests blowing the conch shells,the atmosphere is filled with chants and smells of incense sticks..After completing the chants, the priests do aarti with the multi-tiered brass lamps using burning camphor..
You should watch it Live for you to feel it..I was all bumpy with goose fleshπ
Until next time feel away..ππππ