Walking around the ghats of Varanasi, death is a common sight. There are two main burning ghats where the deceased are brought, Harischanda Ghat the smaller, and Manikarnika Ghat the larger. The large piles of firewood tell their story of the volume of corpses daily burnt. If you are faint-hearted, I suggest not reading the blog beyond this paragraph.

Ten Meditation Objects

Visuddhimagga, an old encyclopedic Pali text, details ten different phases of the body that can function as meditation objects in what's technically called asubha-meditation. They are:

(1) swollen corpse, (2) discolored corpse, (3) decomposing corpse, (4) fissured corpse, (5) corpse gnawed by animals, (6) corpse with bones scattered, (7) corpse hacked up and scattered, (8) corpse still bleeding, (9) worm-infested corpse, (10) skeleton.

The Buddha recommends asubha-meditation, or the perception of the foulness of the body, especially as an antidote for lust and complacency. One of the classical Buddhist austerity practices is living at a graveyard, as there one can observe the reality of the different phases of the human body and be well in touch with the reality of temporary existence. Some of the specifics and merits of asubha-meditation are discussed in the Kayagata-sati Sutta (MN 119).

Views at the Ghats

While I haven't had access to the entire array given above, I've taken the available opportunities to make deep impressions on the mind. It is one thing to take a photo, and yet another to intently observe in a manner that etches an image deep into the mind. Clear images of the different facets of reality are assets worth collecting.

As the first among the sights I saw an elderly woman, recently deceased, lying on a bamboo stretcher with her mouth stuck wide open, showing the rigor mortis and the stiffness of the body after life departs. The sight that followed was one of the corpse of a man in his forties in the early stages of burning. The bodily fluids in his head were coming to a boil and forming large bubbles around his facial area, his legs were already roasted to the bones from below.

Today's walk across the ghats brought me to a pyre where lied a slowly roasting body with nothing but the skull with some flesh attached to it, clinging to the black and roasted chest by the spine. The two men, wishing to set the spirit on his journey, began beating the skull with thick bamboo poles, causing the roasted remnant of a carcass to dance his final dance.

Further down the ghats along the bank of the Ganges there was a corpse floating down the stream, heavily swollen and discolored. Perhaps he had drowned, or perhaps he was among the classes of people that aren't burnt but are discarded into the river in whole. As I watched the corpse float by, a crow took the opportunity to land on this floating human island, standing on the corpse's head and pecking off chunks of meat from around its neck.

The stay in Varanasi has so far checked items 1-7 off the list of 10 — not too bad for a three day yield! The rest are rarer to come by, as burning the dead is a common practice, and there are rarely discarded bodies lying around. No doubt my future adventures will cover the rest and leave me with sights of the whole spectrum of bodily destinies.