VARANASI - AT A GLANCE

Kashi is the original name of this more than 3000 years old mythical and mystical city. It is also known by the names of Varanasi or Banaras. The former is its most explicit, most beautiful and most peotic name: Kashi, the city of light. The meaning of the word Kashi is: concentration of the cosmic light. This name is to be found, in text from the 15th. century BC: Kashi shines and illuminates the universe. Kashi covers everyone with Moksha or liberation and gives wisdom. That is Kashi, the luminous one.

The name Varanasi comes from the two tributaries of the Ganges, Varana and Asi, it is located between the conflunces of both. The legend says that Varana and Asi would be, the right and left leg of Vishnu respectively. It has been the administrative name of the city.

This city is also called the city of the God Shiva but, above all, the city of light. It is on the banks of the Ganges, which provides it with the energy of a mystical flood. Kashi - as we prefer to name it since it is its original name - is the place of a prayers, but it is also, itself, a prayer. It represents the city of Hinduism par excellence, and the Holy City where all Hindus dream to make their pilgrimage to, wish to die and to be cremated. Dying in Varanasi, having your ashes thrown into the holy river is the ultimate wish of each Hindu, as it means reaching the Moksha, the release, i.e., the end of the cycle of reincarnations, known as samsara or the world.

Source: A day in Kashi (published by Pilgrims Publishing, Varanasi