I have just returned to North America after 4 powerful weeks in Mother India. Transformation, beauty, challenge, joy. Life goes technicolor in this land and I am so grateful for the opportunity to dig in…DEEP!

Just that day we were asked to sing before the evening Aarti at Tulsi Ghat in Varanasi. Little did we know that this would be the most enthusiastically participated in rendition of the Windblown Hanuman Chalisa – EVER! Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that we were playing right below Tulsi Das’ residence (the writer of the Hanuman Chalisa) 

The Ganga in Varanasi.

This sacred body of water is worshipped as a Goddess.

It is an incredible thing to witness how people utilize this river for everything from offerings, pujas,  clothes washing, bathing, boating, selling, toileting to submerging the dead, to blessing and purifying themselves.

The beauty and wonder of humanity at ever turn here in Varanasi

To have the opportunity to participate along the banks of the Ganga in a puja to Lord Shiva, the Transformer, the Destroyer, he who assists us in letting go of all that no longer serves us, was a great blessing.