RPE INDIA 2019 Day 3

  15th March 2019

The next day saw another early start and a six hour bus ride to Haridwar, a city steeped in Hindu Mythology and located on the banks of the sacred river Ganges. The journey was long but time was not wasted as the roads were packed with visual treats in the form of autorickshaws, buffalo carts, incredibly adorned Tata trucks and thousands of vans, cars and motorbikes all driving on the wrong side of the road. We reached Haridwar around mid afternoon and after a swift lunch made our way to the main ghat or steps known as the Hari Ki Pauri, a place where Shiva left his footprint and one of the most sacred locations in the Hindu world. All along the banks of the river devotional images had been placed in the waters half submerged and wahsed by the sacred flow. Haridwar hosts one of the most important Hindu rituals, the regular arti blessing of the Goddess Ganges and the reciprocal blessing by the Goddess Ganges takes place at sunset. The Brahmin priests stood over the banks of the river as thousands of pilgrims crushed and pushed in order to place their devotional offereings of a dvipa light and incense in to the fast flowing waters of the Goddess. Jai Mata Ganga!