If you die in Varanasi in north India, some Hindus believe, you can skip the
cycle of reincarnation, and directly attain salvation.
By this directive Socrates means that to become like God we should live virtuously in order to escape the
cycle of reincarnation and achieve a specific, fulfilling kind of immortality.
Modi is the first prime ministerial candidate to stand inVaranasi, a 3,000-year-old city built around the river Ganges where several religions mingle but is best known forthe Hindubelief that to die here allows souls to escape the
cycle of reincarnation.
(Sheikh has never printed at very large scale; his portraits might be twenty or so inches high--which, however, is four times the height of the new works.) The photographs were taken in Varanasi, India, a pilgrimage site for Jams, Buddhists, and most of all Hindus, who bathe in the Ganges River there for purification and believe that to die in the city is to be released from the grinding
cycle of reincarnation. Many therefore go to Varanasi when they understand they are dying, and the city is known for the riverside ghats where their bodies are cremated.
Devotees believe that taking a dip in the River Ganga during Kartik Purnima cleanses them of their sins, speeding the way to the end of the
cycle of reincarnation.
Certainly the whole
cycle of reincarnation as it applies to the lives of the rest of us is addressed in a brilliant way.
"Samsara," -- a reference to the
cycle of reincarnation or rebirth in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and other related religions --Aa opened at the Opera on Wednesday with a warning from the images that would be screened.
This effectively reinforces the cyclic nature of the narrative and reaffirms the
cycle of reincarnation that has just started one more time.
Lives were ordered by the gods and governed by fate, the
cycle of reincarnation, or divine providence.
En route, we get passing explanations of holy-fire rituals, the third eye, and the
cycle of reincarnation that mystics hope to transcend.