An image of India for many, conjures up images of ascetics in bare minimum with locks of hair towering above their head like a coiled serpent and a trident or a metal casket in their hands. Needless to say, such saints are in plenty in this birthplace of Hindu religion and though the India showcased to the world today is vary of this image, it is still an undeniable and ingrained part of this country, just as much as the smart professionals who are revolutionising the IT sector of the world with their proven genius.

While modern India is self confident and optimistic and every inch the replica of any other western country, the mammoth cultural heritage of a thousand years or more, cannot be forgotten either. Look a little beyond the showy malls or past the concrete expressways and you can still witness the India of the nineteenth, eighteenth or seventeenth century co-existing with the modern globe.

Some cities are especially a rewarding experience for those in search of the India of fables and fakirs and one such destination is Haridwar. Known as ‘The Gateway to the Gods’ this city has remained for the past thousands of years the focal point of devout Hindus who want to exit the vicious circle of life and death to attain nirvana. And that all important status has been given to Haridwar by its glorious past and the holy river Ganga.

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Haridwar is the first city where River Ganga enters the plains. Leaving her carefree playfulness behind, Ganga descends from mountains and through valleys to transform into the feisty incarnation of power and composure. She is the secret gateway to heaven, the holy excelsior on Earth that can erase the sins of a thousand births in one drop and take your soul straight to heaven. For Hindus, there is no greater desire than to be soaked in the mystical power of Ganga and it is for this reason that many spend a lifetime wishing to come once to Haridwar and wash away their sins on the banks of the holy river.

Legend says that Haridwar is one of the 4 places in India where a drop of immortality nectar (amrit) fell from the skies when it was retrieved by the churning of the oceans by Gods and demons. That raised the status of Haridwar to a pious strata from where it has never descended. Rather every 12 years the status is all the more glorified when almost 15 million people participate in the Kumbh Mela drowning their sorrows and sins in the biggest communal bath ever witnessed in the world.

Haridwar is also one of the most ancient cities of the world. Archaeological discoveries have shown rare artefacts between 1200 B.C. and 1700 B.C.buried in the depth of this sacred land. It finds its mention in ancient scriptures as Gangadwar, Kapila, and Mayapuri. Indeed from the time when Lord Budhha traversed these paths to the Britishers who came to colonise India, the city has witnessed the rise and fall of many emporers and empires.

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Har-ki-Pauri – The main ghat on the river Ganga where devotees gather to bathe and pray. Evening time is especially a treat with floapting lamps covering the entire area with an ethereal glow.

Maya devi Temple – Temple in honor of the presiding Godess of Haridwar after whom it is also known as Maypuri.

Mansa Devi Temple – Atop a hill that can be reached by a cable car. The view from here is breathtaking.

Gurukul Kangri University – A centre of vedic knowledge where teaching by gurus is in traditional oral style.

Riverside bazaars – Mostly selling items related to their religious significance and thronging with small eateries.

For travellers coming from beyond the shores of India, Haridwar is a place to decipher Hinduism. To watch closely how confessions are made not to a priest, but immersed in the vastness of a sacred river that ironically is becoming blacker by the day carrying the burden of so many sins.

Courtesy NID chick via cc/Flickr

The priests chanting hymns, little urchins pulling your shirt to buy a rupees worth flower basket or the brass pitchers filled with the sacred water, the mystical hermits who can tell all about your past births and present gastrointestinal problems in one breath, the thousand and one burning incense sticks camouflaging the smells of wilting flowers, burning pyres and waste, and the flood of human mass all converging to the ghats to find their passageway to salvation, in all these cacophany of sounds,you might just find the answers.The ravaging waters of the cold, torrential Ganga might just be able to dissolve your idea of what it is to be a human being. The cleansing of the body and the soul among a strange gathering might just help you look at life from an Indian’s point of view.

As described Sri Aurbindo once, “This physical world which for us is so real and absolute and unique, seems to them (Indians) but one way of living among many others, In short, a small, chaotic, agitated and rather painful frontier on the margin of immense continents which lie behind the unexplored. “

The Haridwar experience might just help you understand yourself a little better.

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