The eternal flames of Manikarnika Ghat: Where everything ends and everything begins

Note: As a writer, this is the first time I’ve felt that words are not enough to describe a place. Manikarnika Ghat, its history, its energy, and the things I personally felt there are impossible to express fully. You need to go there, stand there, and feel it yourself. Still, I’ve tried my best to do justice to this blog and this sacred place.

"मणिकर्णिका मोक्षदायिनी।"
Manikarnika is the giver of liberation.

This one line says everything and yet, somehow, nothing about Manikarnika Ghat. Why do I say that? Let me decode. It is said that if one dies here, their body is freed from the cycle of birth and death. A few years ago, when I first heard about Manikarnika Ghat, I had manyyyy questions. And this blog is about the answers I’ve understood (so far).

Located in the heart of a city older than history, Varanasi, beside the sacred Ganga, is a place where the fire never stops burning. The cremation pyres blaze 24x7, without pause. ‘Raam naam satya hai’ echoes constantly. This is not just a cremation ground. It’s a celebration of death. Aur mrityu ko aaj tak kaun samajh paya hai? According to some stories, this eternal flame is believed to be lit by Lord Shiva himself. It is said that the moment this sacred fire stops burning, time itself will come to an end.

No matter the journey, this is the final stop

In the Vedas and Puranas, you'll find various stories about Manikarnika. These are the most widely believed ones:

1. The eternal blessing of Kashi

It is believed that Lord Vishnu once prayed with deep devotion to Lord Shiva, asking for just one blessing, ‘that the holy city of Kashi (Varanasi) should never be destroyed, not even during the end of the world’. Pleased by his devotion, Shiva and Parvati came to Kashi and granted the wish. Since then, it is believed that anyone who dies here is freed from the endless cycle of life and death, they attain moksha.

2. Where Sati found rest

There’s also a legend tied to Goddess Sati. After her self-immolation, Lord Shiva carried her burnt body in grief, wandering across the universe. It is believed that a part of her mortal remains was cremated right here, at Manikarnika Ghat.

3. The kund and the fallen earring

One popular tale says that Lord Vishnu created a celestial bathing pond, now known as the Manikarnika Kund, for Shiva and Parvati. One day, while bathing there, Goddess Parvati’s karna-phool (earring) slipped and fell into the kund. Shiva asked a nearby Brahmin to retrieve it, but the man, tempted by its value, secretly kept it. Enraged by this act, Shiva cursed him and declared, “You and your entire lineage will be the rulers of the shamshan (cremation ground).” Today, that lineage is known as the Dom Raja.

4. The legacy of the Dom Raja

Kashi is believed to have two kings: one is Kashi Naresh (Bholenath), the ruler, and the other is the Dom Raja, the spiritual gatekeeper of the dead. The Dom Raja holds intense, ancient energy. They live at the edge of the cremation ground, where thousands of bodies pass by. Every funeral pyre begins with wood provided by the Doms, and the first five logs are always laid by them. Even in their own homes, they don’t cook using regular firewood, but they use the burning logs from the cremation grounds.

Dom Raja bringing the wood that starts every cremation

I got the privilege to be on Manikarnika Ghat on my 20th birthday with my mother. The place was filled with the scent of wood and ghee. We saw different bodies arriving one after another, wrapped in bright orange and white shrouds, carried by family members. Everyone stood quietly. No one cried. The Dom Raja was doing his rituals. Life was flowing around as if everything was normal. Dogs were sleeping nearby, cows were roaming, chaiwalas were selling chai… and the bodies were burning are forever gone, like they never existed. Bodies came, dipped in the Ganga, were placed on the pyre, and within minutes… everything was finished. (Or perhaps, it was just the beginning.) A new body soon replaced the old.

A view that holds centuries of tradition, stories, and farewells

That experience made me question the very idea of reality. Kya hai ye sab? It made me feel like life is everything and yet, life is nothing. It’s so ironic that you experience life at a place where death is so constant. I haven’t understood everything yet. Maybe I never will. But one thing I know for sure you need to experience this, at least once in your lifetime. Go to Manikarnika. Stand there. Breathe it in. Let it change something inside you. Because it will.

Similarly, Varanasi holds many secrets within it. Have you heard about the ghat that breaks marriages? No? Then you need to read this blog.

Har Har Mahadev!