Take the Trip, Change your Life

The Riverfront in Varanasi

While traveling in India, I got some disturbing news from back home and I almost cancelled my journey to Varanasi (otherwise known as Benares). I met a girl in the yoga shala where I was staying and she convinced me that this was an opportunity that was going to come around only once, and no matter what was going on, I should take the trip.

I took the trip and it really did change my life.

‘When meditation is mastered, the mind is unwavering like the flame of a lamp in a windless place.’ ~ Bhagavad Gita

Having your cremated remains ceremoniously cast into the holy river Ganga (Sanskrit for the Ganges) that runs through Varanasi, India, is considered auspicious and the ghats along the river are filled with the smoke of incense carrying messages and spirits to the sky.

Running from the Himalaya Mountains in northern India to the Indian Ocean, the culturally significant river is considered to be a goddess. To ritualistically bathe in her, is to be cleansed of all sin. Read full article