Varanasi. Holiest of seven sacred cities. City on the Ganges. City of lights. City of learning. Oldest living city on earth. And of course the city where many seek moksha, liberation from the cycle of life and death, through cremation at Manikarnika Ghat at the river’s edge. As the late afternoon light fades to dusk, we walk the Ganges edge from Assi Ghat to Scindhia Ghat, locations on “the divine cosmic road,” where it seems the whole world has come together in an intricate dance that never begins and never ends: kite fliers, pilgrims, boat builders, dogs, goats, cows and buffalo, musicians, sadhus, tourists, teenagers, touts, wood choppers, flower sellers and body after body after body brought to the riverside in brightly colored shrouds, placed on a pyre and set alight.
