Foot Dog
100 Dogs of India Project - Day 39
Connecting to the Earth
The incredible and ancient city of Varanasi is seen as one of the holiest cities in India, and also possibly the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world with its old name, Kashi, being mentioned in the Rig Veda, one of the oldest known scriptures written circa 1500 BCE. I’ve visited three times and still need to go back again.
Walking around this fascinating place it is very common to see a great many people walking barefoot and this really fascinates me. Given that the streets are mostly covered with a substantial crust composed of dirt, ash, faeces, spit and just about any other nasty substance you can think of, you wouldn’t catch me walking without shoes. In fact, I made a pact with Fiona that if I slipped and fell into the sludge she would just put me down immediately.
It got me wondering about why exactly some folk – lots of folk in fact – weren’t wearing shoes, so I asked around and, predictably, everyone had a different reason.
Some people said it was because many people there were too poor to afford shoes. I have no doubt that this is the case in many instances, but that doesn’t explain why so many people were also carrying a pair of shoes. Someone even suggested that it was because they didn’t want to get their shoes dirty, although I would have thought that the purpose of wearing shoes was so that you didn’t get your feet dirty.
I think the most likely reason is to do with religion. Varanasi is, by its very nature, a hugely spiritual place. It seems that just about every building or street corner has some connection to religion, or a religious significance. Then there’s the river Ganges herself, and the holy ghats leading down to her murky riverbank. You really don’t get more spiritual than those waters and they flow past the entire length of the city.
Walking barefoot in places of worship is seen as a way to stay grounded and humble before the divine, and most of the area in and on the ghats is, in some way or another, a place of worship. In Hinduism and Jainism, going barefoot is a form of penance and devotion, often done during pilgrimages which is the main reason so many people are actually in the city in the first place.
Varanasi is believed to be the home of Lord Shiva, and Hindus see it as a place where moksha (liberation) can be attained. Walking barefoot is a way to show respect for the sacred ground, especially along the ghats and in temples like Kashi Vishwanath. Many people bathe in the Ganges River as a purification ritual. Going barefoot before and after the ritual is seen as keeping that purity intact. Then there is the fact that some pilgrims walk barefoot as an act of penance, believing it earns them spiritual merit in the same way as their animal-feeding karma efforts.
Whatever the reason truly is there is no doubting that there is some kind of energy in Varanasi. Even sitting on the steps of the ghats somehow connects you to the place and an amazing amount of time can pass by while you simply look out over the busy river and imagine the immense amount of history that has taken place in that exact spot. Who knows, perhaps next time I will take off my shoes and socks and see what happens.
As for the dogs, they don’t have any shoes so they don’t have to worry about it. They also seem to have perfectly healthy feet and nails without any human intervention whatsoever, which is more than I can say for my dog Chip who is only ever one ball-throw away from a broken claw.
Fascinating!