QnA with Sri Sri

QnA with Sri Sri
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2014

Q: We were discussing about Kashi (the modern day city of Varanasi, India). It is said that if someone breathes their last in Kashi, or if the ashes of their dead body is cast into the River Ganga, their soul gets liberated. How true is all this?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: No, it is not like that at all. Kashi is also called as Varanasi, and it gets its name by being the meeting point of two rivers: Varuna and Asi.
Kashi is actually not outside but within us. The Ajna chakra (the sixth metaphysical centre of energy in the human body) is the meeting point of the Ida, the Pingala and the Sushumna Naadis (energy channels in the human body). So one whose prana finally flows in the Sushumna Naadi is one who gets liberated (freed from the duality of the material world to unite with the divine).
You should not understand this to mean that everyone necessarily has to go to Kashi only to die and attain liberation.
Where is Kashi actually? It is the region in the middle of the eyebrows on the forehead, the region of the Ajna Chakra – which is the meeting point of Varuna (represented by the Ida Naadi) and Asi (represented by the Pingala Naadi). So if one’s prana is steadily established in this region at the time of death, then one attains liberation. This is what is truly conveyed by these sayings.
There is another meaning attached to the city of Kashi. Kashi means one that is overflowing with knowledge. In the ancient days, it was a great seat of knowledge and learning. In those days, there were scholars in every street of this great city who would go about debating and explaining the meanings of the scriptures. People would discuss knowledge and scriptures.
In those days, people did not play card games by the banks of the river Ganga as they do today. The river was not so dirty as it has become now. There was no consumption of non-vegetarian food or slaughtering of cows in the city in those days. The city of Kashi in those days was renowned for overflowing with knowledge and intellectual discourses in every nook and corner. It was said that the city was so enriched with knowledge that even a Parrot and a Mynah would discuss knowledge. So one who sits in the company of such wise and enlightened ones surely attains liberation just by listening to the knowledge.
The environment here is so different. Everyone is happy, doing their meditation and are engaged in service. So places where people practice all these naturally become centers of knowledge. That is why all these things are said about Kashi.

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