Reiki & Ashes

I have just completed my second level of Reiki! This evening, I will go perform my first practice on a patient and receive my Level 1 and 2 certificate. Lucky papa, arriving just in time to be my guinea pig for daily practice :)

The night of day 1, level 1, where I received a balancing and cleansing, provoking the release of negative bottled up feelings, I fell asleep with tears rolling down my cheeks. At the end of day 2, level 1, where I received my first attunement, the channeling of positive energies from master to student, I fell asleep with a smile on my face. Such is the power of this simple yet miraculous medicine.

Yesterday afternoon, after class, I ventured further than before along the ghats. I was headed to Assi Ghat, and asked the man at the front desk of my guesthouse whether walking along the ghats was the simplest way to get there. He said, "Sure, if you're willing to walk in this heat!" It was a 40-minute walk, peek sun, and I did it both ways, but not without a litre of water in each direction! I went to Assi ghat since it's one of the more famous ones, but also because the Open Hand Cafe was there. It's a cafe/boutique that sells goods made by underprivileged locals. Couldn't resist a few purchases. Along the sunny, hot walk there and back along the ghats, I saw a wedding, 3 cremations, a squatting man's dangling penis and balls, and a peeing sadhu. "Unapologetically indiscreet" indeed!

Last night was a very special evening. As you may remember, I have some of my grandmother's ashes with me. Back in Goa, I put a small portion of them in the ocean, as I swam in the waters of the most peaceful, serene beach I had been to. Then, last night, more ashes were offered to the sacred Ganga. I took a dusk boat trip along the river, my wooden boat rowed by the friendly 16-year-old Rahul, who was on summer vacation and rowing for pocket money (I tipped him as much as the one-hour ride cost, Rs100 - $2). First stop was the famous Manikarna Ghat - the burning ghat. This is where families from all over India bring deceased loved ones to be cremated and have their ashes put into the holy river. It is believed that if a body is cremated here, the person will receive instant Moksha, liberation form the cycle of birth and rebirth. Cremations here are quite expensive, at least Rs10,000 ($200) to buy the wood. Therefore, a little further up the river, there's the electric burning ghat, which is cheaper. (This was started in part to avoid half cremated bodies floating along the water - families who didn't have enough money to buy all the wood necessary for cremation. Yikes.) So there I was, sitting in a wooden row boat with Rahul, as darkness fell over the city, watching several cremation fires burning at Manikarna Ghat. It felt like a very bizarre dream. Incredibly surreal. Next, we boated a little further down to an old Tibetan temple, before turning around to head up towards Dasaswamedh Ghat for the 7 o'clock Ganga Aarti - river and fire worship. It was on the way there that I spread Grand-maman's ashes along the river, saying prayers for her as I did so. Rahul, who had been quite chatty up until then (giving me a lot of the info I just shared), gave me a moment of silence. And a beautiful moment it was. As I finished, and we approached Dasawamedh Ghat, I lit the small flower floater I bought from a little girl on the ghat before leaving, and set it afloat with the hundreds of others like it on the Ganga. We stopped, along with dozens of other boats, to watch Ganga Aarti being performed on the ghat (where hundreds of people were sitting), and I just took in the moment. Its energy, its vibrations, its sounds, its magic.