Varanasi and Gaya continued

We did not bathe in Ganga at Gaya. It was flooded and we were told it was risky to step in to those waters. But at Kedar Ghat we sprinkled the holy water on our heads and washed our feet. A variety of people were taking the holy dip. I think only Rao bathed in Varanasi. After being blessed by Ganga, we climbed many steps to go to the Temple. Nirmala was a fast walker. She had always been. Rao had to help me climb the many steps. I was getting breathless too quickly. The steps were very colorful as though freshly painted. I did not take the camera and hence no photos of the ghats.

The next session after we returned to our choultry (accommodation) was discussing the ritual of pinda pradanam ( a ritual performed as part of the conduct of last rites to a deceased person) in Varanasi. Rao did this in Brahma kapalam. The second one was in Varanasi and the last one in Gaya. But this one was more elaborate. There were other families doing the same for their ancestors. The cooks in the kitchen had separate sets of the meal for each family because we are all different families (and in the practical sense, we were charged separately). Four to five brahmins were selected for each family. We were to feed them after the ritual. Rao participated in the ritual and I prepared 64 pindams (cooked rice made into fist size balls) in total. This was done for Rao's parents, two sets of grand parents, aunts, uncles and for my parents, my brother-in-law (sister's husband) and for my younger sister, who was a spinster. I personally served the food to the brahmins allocated for us. We received their blessings in return. It was a very peaceful event. Also, we did this ritual for ourselves also. (just in case no one does it for us after our passing???).

We, along with the main priest, took the pindams to a remote place and left it on a wall for the crow to come and eat. When we felt there was not a single crow in the vicinity, Nirmala noticed a crow fly by and eat our pindam. That meant the ancestors were pleased. Prior to that Rao fed the cow in the choultry compound. There was a huge banyan tree which we were told is indestructible in any calamity and we did some pooja there. I don't exactly remember what we did there. The priest said that the root of that tree is stretched up to Kolkata (Calcutta). We were supposed to take an oath at this place by selecting a fruit, a vegetable and a leaf and not to eat those in any form for the rest of our lives. Those items should be what we like most. The priest said that Rao and I should give up the same items (perhaps for practical reasons). Rao said I could choose and he would be happy to give them up. Nirmala said she would join us in that. I chose Dondakaya (Telugu word) for the vegetable, Jack fruit and the priest suddenly decided the Banyan leaf for us. We would never have thought about giving up that leaf. Anyway, the three of us gave-up the same items.To know more about the 3 items, please click on the word.

Then we returned to the choultry and had our meal later. Our next destination was Prayaga near Allahabad or was the original name for Allahabad and thriveni sangamam where the three rivers Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswathi meet. One doesn't see the river Saraswathi here. Remember I wrote about it in my Brahma kapalam post? Prayaga in sanskrit means "place of sacrifice".

Will write about it in the next post.