Varanasi — Spirituality & Scams
Varanasi. The holiest of the seven sacred sites in Hinduism. Also known as Benares, one can observe life and death by the Ganga river. Walking along the ghats of the Ganga, I would watch people bathing, washing laundry, aartis (prayers) in the evening, and cremations throughout the day. The ghats are best explored serendipitously.
I took a boat ride one evening, and the perspective gave the Varanasi ghats a cinematic feel. The scenes felt surreal.
I originally planned on coming here solo, but I ended up having some of my Manav Sadhna friends here with me. Lots of fun and silly moments. I’ve forgotten the joy of going somewhere with friends over the past year — usually I’m going to places and then making friends.
However, Varanasi being a large tourist attraction, to Indians and foreigners, makes it ripe for scams. More than any other city in India that I visited. Here are the four scams I ran into.
Scam #1 — Donate Money for Firewood for the Poor
Serena and I were walking along a cremation ghat, and one man was standing overlooking the process. He starts chatting with me in Hindi, explaining the cremation process. He describes his role as a manager of the men working below. He asks me if I am comfortable with him talking to me, since he is of the “untouchable” caste. I tell him I have no problem with it.
He continues to describe the cremation process. I assume he is sharing this information with me since he has free time to do so. At one point he mentions how it takes 300kgs of firewood for one cremation. He asks Serena and I to follow him back to a large pile of firewood, twice my height. At the end of this 15–20 minute interaction, he asks Serena and I if we want to donate money for firewood for the poor. I don’t fully trust him, but I want to help, so I give Rs. 200 ($3.09). Serena gives a nominal amount as well. I see in his eyes that he is expecting more, but he senses our hesitation and walks away.
Later I read on Wikitravel that yep, this is a scam. No money goes to buy firewood for the poor.
Scam #2 — Photo License Scam
Serena and I are at Manikarna ghat, the main ghat for cremations. It’s quite a surreal scene, seeing bodies in white sheets being carried around, and ultimately set on fire. We are standing on a platform above, overlooking the whole process from a comfortable distance.
Since we were at some distance, Serena snaps a photo, and bam! — someone sees this. This someone approaches Serena and asks her if she has a license to take a photo. She says “No”, apologizes, and says she will delete the photo. He commands that she has to follow him to the office and pay a fine. Serena refuses again, and he threatens to take her to the police and have her put in jail.
I then approach the man and he begins talking with me.
Scammer: “Do you know her?”
Me: “Yes.”
Scammer: “Where are you from?”
Me: “Gujurat”
Scammer: “Ok, I’ll let her go, but tell her not to take photos!”
Me: “Sure.”
That was enough to get him to go away. I’m not sure where he would have led Serena, but definitely not to any legitimate office. Later I reflected that he wasn’t in any uniform — he was of no authority to be policing.
Funny enough, one of our friends from the hostel was shooting photos right in the ghat below, with a huge DSLR. Serena and I thought he had gotten a license to be shooting so close and intimate. Later we asked him if he had gotten a photo license, and he wasn’t even aware that was a thing.
Personally I feel that shooting photos from a distance is fine, but up close I’d prefer not to, to respect the family’s privacy, even though these cremations are happening in public.
Here is the photo that Serena snapped from the platform overlooking the cremation area. There are about several cremations going on simultaneously below.
Scam #3: Free Massage
One evening after Ganga aarti had finished, I stood up and began walking. An older man grabs my hand and begins to massage it. I say “No”, sensing this is another situation to get money from me. He then says, “No, no, don’t worry, no money”. No money? I’m confused. First I thought maybe he wants to do seva (selfless service) for some reason. Then images from a moment when I had my backpack stolen in Bangkok years ago flash through my head, and I become more defensive as I think that he is distracting me while another accomplice is around prepared to steal my wallet or phone.
The old man then starts massaging my head, messing up my hair. He then grabs my arms and starts pulling me towards some wooden bed on the ghat, probably where he wants me to lie down and give me a full body massage. I felt uncomfortable and said “stop”. I forcefully pull away my arm and he says, “give me a little money.” I then get upset and say, “You lied! You said no money!” And I walk away.
I think this isn’t a scam as much as a “forced” method to make you pay for a massage. Indians in general likes to test how assertive you are.
Later Serena shared photos she had taken of this interaction.
Scam #4 — Shri Kashi Vishwanath Temple
The ultimate hustle comes from an incident at the Shiva temple in Varanasi. Many Indians make a pilgrimage here, at least once in their life. Visiting this temple, and bathing in the Ganga nearby, is believed to lead one on the path to salvation.
In 1835, a king named Ranjit Singh donated one-ton of gold to plate three domes — hence the temple is highly guarded.
Serena and I start walking one morning to this temple. We arrive at the first gate, and the police officer says we need to go to Gate #2, which is for foreigners. Ok.
Somewhere an old man casually walking by says, “I’m going there, follow me”. Hmm, ok.
We follow him for 10 minutes, walking through the maze of narrow alleys. I’m unsure if this man is going to ask us for money. Eventually we arrive to Gate #2. He tells us to put our backpack and phone into a locker at this shop. No backpacks or phones are allowed inside the temple due to the strict security. This shop says we need to buy an offering to take to the temple, in exchange for the free locker. The usual. I pay Rs. 250 for a basket of some sweets and a red chuni (cloth women cover their heads with, but this one is offered to a goddess). There is a VIP guide from the shop who then walks with us. Ok.
The guide says we need to hurry since the temple is closing soon. At noon? Ok.
We pass a line of Indians sitting on the ground, waiting 1–2 hours to get in to the temple. At the front, there is a small office for foreign visitors, where police take down Serena’s passport information. They ignore me since I’m Indian.
The guide then takes us inside the temple, and Serena and I are whipped around. He explains the significance of the temple in Hindi. He then tells me to translate this to Serena. We then offer prayers to various statues, and there’s a small “donation” that you need to give in exchange. So I’m pulling out Rs. 100 notes left and right. Serena and I then get seated with a priest, and he has both of us say shlokas (religious phrases), asking our names, and our parents names. Shit, I know what’s coming, He then asks me to pay Rs. 6000 ($92.64) to feed three Brahmins for a year. I say “that’s too much”, and negotiate it down to one Brahmin (Rs. 2100). Somehow I felt emotionally blackmailed, as it would be bad luck if I didn’t pay the priest after we had said the special shlokas. I then think of a way of getting out of paying entirely, and I say I just don’t have enough cash. The priest says, “No problem, ATM.” Our VIP guide gives the priest Rs. 2100 from his wallet. Damn. The priest then asks Serena for money too. She refuses, and he says, “ok, come back when you’re married.” With that we leave.
The VIP guide returns us to the shop where we started. He then asks for a tip, as he had saved us two hours, blah blah blah. I sigh and give him a Rs. 500 note. He balks, but that’s all I gave him for his “service”, which I feel is beyond generous.
Feeling scared of any more hustling, Serena and I flee. The shopkeeper sees this but still asks Serena if she is interested in any exotic oils. As we are fleeing, the old man who had guided us to Gate #2 walks with us. At some point, he too, asks us for money. Sigh. Here’s Rs. 50. My wallet is nearly empty at this point.
Flustered, Serena and I walk to a chai shop to relax. Both of us feel shocked and taken advantage of. The chai shopkeeper starts chatting with us.
There was another man sitting at the chai shop, who happens to be the priest of another temple. Serena says something like, “I’m feeling scared. Watch out, that temple takes all your money.” The priest laughs and says he isn’t scared, they won’t ever ask him for money. He then opens his fanny back and shows us bricks of money — Rs. 500 notes. The oppressor is right there, laughing at us. No shame!
It takes me a few hours to shake off the emotions. I’m disappointed for letting myself be taken advantage of. Later I talk to my friend Aakansha, who mentions that days earlier, her parents had gone to the same temple and were swindled out of all their cash. A few days later I talk to my mom about this scam. She tells me how she has experienced the same in India, but she tells me to just blow them off next time and not fear any negative repercussions. Sometimes they will blackmail you by saying it’s bad luck, but in return my mom says, “We’ll let god decide”. Some Indian priests are corrupt!
Welcome to Spiritual India
At some point I tell Serena, “you have experienced the real spiritual India now.”
Many foreigners come to India, and they see the good parts, seeing things like many Indians singing aarti, the performances by the Ganga river every evening, the beautiful architecture. They see the devotion that is there, but that’s part of it.
My criticism is going to apply to the Hindu population and temples, because that’s what I know.
What foreigners may not see are injustices like Indians being denied entry to a Ganga aarti because they want to make space for foreigners. This was observed by one of my friends at Parmath Niketan, the most popular ashram in Rishikesh.
Foreigners may not hear about temples having an immense wealth of “black money” hidden in their bank accounts (black money is money that is hidden from the government, usually for tax-evasion purposes).
Foreigners may not see the transactional-based devotion, and this is what bugs me the most. Indian spirituality can be weak. It revolves around money. People go to the temple, offering money in exchange for blessings. It’s a transaction at that point. People focus on worshipping the idol, but where is the spiritual enlightenment? I believe this energy could be more well spent meditating and aspiring to higher spiritual planes.
Here’s someone in India who dropped an iPhone into a donation box at a temple. The temple says they bury phones offered as donations. I don’t understand the spirituality in this.
It’s easy to see that many Hindus in India are devoted. Let’s look at the output of all this devotion. Do we have a mass percentage of people becoming more loving, patient, compassionate? No, it seems we still have way too many families that are close-minded, abusive, controlling, greedy, etc. Yet the masses keep the temples busy and celebrate all the religious festivals with great pomp.
It’s then quite easy for priests who take advantage of this transactional mindset. As a rule of thumb, the most popular temples are also the ones that manage to extract the most money from visitors, thanks to such priests. These temples have an unnecessary amount of wealth. This is what makes me reluctant to visit popular temples, the expectation of money is there, and it ruins the energy of the place for me. Popular temples also have security cameras placed by the government to deter priests from asking for such donations, but this is easily circumvented by going to another part of the temple outside of the view of cameras.
Later as I was walking down the ghats of Varanasi, I saw people begging for money. I could have made one of them extremely happy handing them a Rs. 2000 note. It would have been money more well spent. Sigh.
Still, Visit Varanasi!
I’ve told of some scams I’ve experienced, but I still recommend going to Varanasi. It’s a unique and special city in India, and being aware of the scams will make it easier to enjoy. Also visit Rishikesh, as it is a spiritual complement to Varanasi, and the Ganga river is much cleaner there being closer to the source in the mountains.
I’ll leave you with two videos that I recommend watching about Varanasi.
- Here is one documentary I watched many years ago about Varanasi, which may inspire you to visit. It’s beautifully shot, and you can learn about interesting babas called aghoris. (45 mins)
2. Here is a short clip about a hotel, Mukti Bhawan (3.5 mins). People on the verge of death check in here, hoping to die in Varanasi. The belief is that dying in Varanasi results in liberation from the cycle of life and death (moksha). Guests who arrive at Mukti Bhawan can stay up to two weeks; if they do not die within that timeframe, they must leave, for there is a long waitlist of people wishing for the opportunity to die in Varanasi.
