Varanasi

Varanasi, a city situated on the western banks of the Ganges River in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, is a cultural and spiritual hub for all of India. It is the one of the holiest places and the center of earth in Hindu cosmology.

Kashi, as it is also known, is said to have been residence to Shiva (The Hindu God of Rejuvenation) and his consort, Devi Parvati, where they lived and offered blessings and boons to devotees. It is no surprise then, that located within this vibrant city are numerous temples and holy sites dedicated to the Hindu Gods and Goddess.

It is an important pilgrimage site where people pour the remains (ashes) of cremated ancestors on the River Ganges, for liberation of their souls.

Etymology

In Sanskrit we have a proverb: “If you die in Varanasi, you will achieve liberation!”

“Vara Nasi” means, the space between your nose and eyebrows. The very Sanskrit word means, “Third Eye”. If you leave your awareness on the Third Eye, if you leave the body while your awareness is on the Third Eye, you will become enlightened. Varanasi on the banks of the Ganga in Uttar Pradesh (India) is a very powerful spiritual center.

This is most fascinating city. If you understand the chaos and the order and all, this is the most fascinating city; if you don’t understand and resist, most frustrating city. This city is like me, always in extreme. If you understand the order, most fascinating; if you resist, most frustrating. I can say this city is literally DNA of Hinduism, it is DNA of Hinduism. That is the only word I can use.

History

Daksha Prajapati, after getting the sense, by Veerabhadra, went away to Varanasi for Enlightenment. Daksha Prajapati spent his last years in Varanasi searching for enlightenment; Mahadeva’s blessings, because just human value based lifestyle is not ultimate.

Avimuktha Kshetra

The original Kashi is called Avimuktha Kshetra – never given up, never forsaken. It means that the people who live there, and Kashi itself will never be forsaken. When the whole world is destroyed during Pralaya (the great deluge), Mahadeva declares that he will hold and protect Kashi on the tip of his trishul. His protection is called Urdhvamnaya.

Only People Whom Can Fly Lived in Kashi!

The city of Kashi is most fascinating! Varanasi’s streets are very famous, consisting of small, gully-like lanes that are only two-and-a-half to three feet wide. The city was designed and built in the days before bullock carts were invented. You may ask, why such small, narrow streets? Kalabhairava revealed to Paramahamsa Nithyananda that Kashi’s streets of today were not streets but used for drainage! They did not have streets because you could only live there if you have mastered the science of flying, levitation! There were three ways of flying in those days: Mani, Mantra and Oshadha. Mani – Is the technology of small, personal flying machines, sometimes larger like the Pushpaka Vimana (flying chariot). Mantra – By mastering the science of Pranayama and balancing the flow of the breath, large amounts ofsamana energy are absorbed in the system and the body will simply rise and move.

Aushadha – These are special herbs that, when held under the tongue, will help contain the prana inside the body, making it become weightless and the body will rise and can be moved.

In the Vedic Tradition, the technology, Mani, is described in the Vaimanika Shastra. It clearly describes the different flying machines, from one man’s private flying machine, to machines in which around five thousand people can fly.

‘Kalabhairava says that only the people who can fly live in Kashi. This means Kashi was full of people who were capable of levitating! I was just resting in samadhi with this one thought – “How can a city full of people be able to levitate? Come on! Looks too much!” I had the answer – “When you feel Advaita (everything is an extension of you) with the air, the energy-flow in your system, you can either make yourself very heavy or very light!”

Anything is possible!’ ~ Paramahamsa Nithyananda

The Golden City Of Kashi

The city of Kashi, or modern day Varanasi, was established thousands of years ago by Mahadeva Himself. Once, the bhoota ganas and pretas requested Mahadeva to establish a community on the planet Earth. That is when Mahadeva came down on the planet Earth with His disciples, followers, bhootas, pretas and ganas and established the city of Kashi. Only after that did the Ganga flow to Kashi. Kashi is much older than even the Ganga river. The present day Kashi has seven layers of cities under it. It was built and sunk and then rebuilt and again sunk seven times. Even if you dig a bore well in Kashi, seven layers of cities will be found. The whole city is a consolidated experience of the principle of Advaita! It is the consolidated Advaitic experience of millions of enlightened beings. With that the city is built. That is why it is called the “Suvarna Bhoomi”. The city is the “Golden City”.

Boon of Liberation

Kashi was created by Lord Shiva and is an independent intelligence called Kashi Devi. After He created Her, Kashi Devi asked a boon of Lord Shiva, Mahadeva, “Bless me so that whoever enters Kashi (Varanasi) will obtain liberation.”

Mahadeva then gave three boons: ‘First, whoever comes into Kashi and gets into the Ganga (the Ganges River) to take snaan (sacred bath), will have all their sins washed away. Second, whoever dies in Kashi will be liberated. And third, whoever’s body is brought and burnt in Manikarnika Ghat or Harishchandra Ghat will also be liberated.’ Kashi Devi was really happy with these three boons.

But Devi Parvati interfered and said, ‘Mahadeva, don’t you feel you made liberation very cheap and enlightenment so easy? Everyone can get it!’ Mahadeva said, ‘Don’t worry, I will take you to Kashi and show you. Come.’ Meanwhile, this boon that Mahadeva gave to Kashi Devi became very popular. In the next few days, almost the whole world had gathered to take a bath in the Ganga.

Mahadeva and Devi arrived in Kashi. Mahadeva said to Devi, ‘Now let both of us become human beings. I will lie down pretending I’m your dead husband and you sit down here acting as the widow, crying. If any person without sin touches me, I will come back to life. If somebody with sin touches me and tries to bring me back to life, they will die.’

Mahadeva lay down as a dead body and Devi sat there crying extremely loudly. All the people who had come to take a bath in the Ganga came and asked Devi, ‘What happened? What happened? Why are you crying? Why is such a beautiful lady sitting and crying in front of such a beautiful man?’ Devi said, ‘My young husband has died. If anybody without sin touches my husband’s body, he will come back to life. But if you have done some sin and you touch him, your head will burst and you will die!’ From morning to night, millions of people took bath in the Ganga, but not a single person dared to touch this body! Late that night, one drunkard fellow came. He also asked Devi, ‘What happened?’ Devi said, ‘If anybody without sin touches my husband, he will come back to life. But if a person with sin touches him, that person will die!’

Devi thought that this man will start running away like all the others. But that drunken fellow looked at Devi and said, ‘Wait, wait, wait …. I heard Shiva has given some boon.’ So he gets into the Ganga, takes a bath and comes out. Then he said, ‘I have done all types of sins. But now, after taking bath in the Ganga, I am free of all sins because Shiva gave this boon.’ Then he touches the dead body of the husband! Naturally, Shiva comes back to life and gives darshan, liberating him. Then Mahadeva asks Devi, ‘Do you see now? Millions may take a bath but do they create the right context?’ Understand, only the power of completion creates the context for any great thing. When you get into the Ganga, naturally all your self-doubts will come up and you will think, did Shiva really bless the Ganga? Will the boon work for sure? Am I even qualified for this blessing?

Complete with all your self-doubts and get into the Ganga! You will come out as a sinless, pure being. But, understand, you may still have doubt. Fortunately, the second and third boons are absolute boons that also work – whoever dies in Kashi will be liberated and anyone whose body that is burnt, in Manikarnika Ghat or Harishchandra Ghat, will be liberated. Both these boons still work! How? Because, when you are dead, you don’t have the mechanism of creating incompletions! Because of that, these two boons are absolute boons – whether you create the context or not, they work on you.

Understand, while you are alive in the body, anything great can be achieved only by creating the right context. The right context-creation happens only by LIVING in the space of completion!

H.H Paramahamsa Nithyananda’s Death Experience in Varanasi

Death is a mystery, but more importantly, it is a man’s greatest fear. In Vedanta this is one of the most used techniques for enlightenment. In Buddhism, anyone initiated into Sannyas has to spend three months in the cremation grounds and continuously observe bodies being burnt while visualizing him being burnt. Almost all mystical traditions on the planet use this technique to achieve the highest possibility. Logical mind finds it difficult to understand how one simple experience can give such courage.

Swamiji himself had this particular experience in Varanasi. When Swamiji went to Varanasi, Swamiji saw that per day three hundred dead bodies were being cremated in a place called Manikarnika Ghat. Traditionally, it is believed that if somebody leaves the body in that area, or if their body is burnt at Manikarnika Ghat, they will be liberated. Ramakrishna confirms this and says that he saw Mahadeva himself going to every pyre and liberating every soul from their karmas or in-completions. The men working there would carry the bodies to the Ganga River, reaching there by evening. As they walk, they keep chanting ‘Ram Naam Satya Hai’, which means that Lord Rama’s name is the ultimate truth. There is no special ritual involved. Three times the bodies are dipped into the Ganga as they say ‘Raam Naam Satya Hai’.

Swamiji sat there to watch what was going on, and an hour later, death was no more a strange incident that happens once in a blue moon to a distant relative. Bodies of all size, gender, age, color, community and religion were burnt in that hour. When one sees so many bodies, it feels like there is nothing to it. Everyone has to leave their body some day and the breath that goes into them does not come out, that is all.

Knowing that death is inevitable will bring down the respect that one has for the ego. Whatever that one thinks should not leave them is their ego. When one knows for sure that everything is going to leave them, the respect for the ego goes down immensely. Being a very straightforward person, Swamiji immediately dropped his ego and decided that if he’s going to die after all, he should have a death experience now itself and live without the fear or die and see for himself. He sat down in a small Shiva temple nearby and started watching the dead bodies being burnt. The big ‘click’ that he remembers even to this day happened when an old lady’s body was being burnt and he could see the fat from her stomach melting. This fat made the fire burn brighter and this made him think that the very same thing is going to happen to him. This opened up a deep, terrible fear of death in him and he faced it consciously. The fear was spreading all over his body and when it met his awareness, it became a death experience. He saw clearly that his body was dead. For two and a half days, he did not sleep, eat, drink or think. Suddenly the ‘click’ happened that his body is dead but he still exists. This was such an intense ecstasy that the fear of death just left. Slowly he opened his eyes, and the first thing he felt was a deep gratitude. He performed a small pooja for Vishwanatha (name of Lord Shiva in Varanasi temple) and he could see clearly that Vishwanatha was alive. When he died, Vishwanatha became alive to him. Till the previous day, because he was alive, Vishwanatha was a dead stone.

When a fear is suppressed, it stays inside the person. When one does not consciously face the fear, it shakes his whole nervous system. However, when it is faced consciously, it becomes a death experience.

As Mahadeva says in the Shiva Sutras, “Visualize the fire rising out of your body slowly, let your form be burnt, let your body turn to ashes, but not you”.

References

http://nithyananda.org/video/seeking-awakens-super-human-you#gsc.tab=0 http://nithyanandatimes.org/secrets-of-kashi-revealed/ http://nithyanandatimes.org/the-boons-given-to-kashi/ http://nithyanandatimes.org/kashi-the-city-of-moksha/ http://nithyanandatimes.org/kashi-vishwanatha-temple-varanasi/ https://innerawakening.org/july2016/ https://nithyanandaspeaks.com/2016/07/28/wow-how-can-i-describe-varanasi/ http://nithyananda.org/video/third-eye-awakening-nithyananda#gsc.tab=0 http://www.nithyananda.org/video/varanasi-dna-hinduism#gsc.tab=0