The ancient city of Varanasi is in the east of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, and lies on the western bank of the Ganges river. The most sacred area called “Kashi” does not include the whole city comprising Varanasi, but is bound by the northern Asi and southern Varuna rivers, and by Panchakroshi Road in the west. It is called “Kashi” by Hindus, which in the Kashi Khanda as cited by Diana Eck, is said to be “because light `shines’ (kashate) here, that inexpressible light which is the Lord, may be known by its matchless name Kashi, O Shiva”. Kashi shines, is luminous, because in its mythology it is “the place where the light split the earth” and brings universes into being.

Varanasi is connected to the north-west, and to the eastern states of Bihar, Bengal and Orissa by the Grand Trunk road, which is believed to have been in operation as a pathway or highway since ancient times. Varanasi occupies a central cross-roads, having for over 2,500 years drawn pilgrims from all over India. Varanasi existence can be traced to the sixth century B.C. as a continuous tradition,” but it is not the history of Varanasi which is of importance to its people, because it is the actual place itself which is so important. It is not “... an earthly city. Diana Eck tells us that Kashi is said to sit above the earth as a `crossing-place’ (tirtha) between this world and the far shore of transcendental Brahman”. Further, Kashi, according to local people, is such a powerful place because it is imbued with shakti: feminine power.

The sages ask, innocently, “Why does Kashi have a feminine name if it is linga?” Shiva tells them that “he” is both Shakti and Shiva, both the manifest and visible energy of life and the unmanifest, invisible spiritual essence. Taking form in the world, active and luminous in the world, is Shakti. Kashi as Shakti is a goddess, with a murti or “image” form. She is also a city, with a kshetra or geographical form. And she is the embodiment of chit, “luminous wisdom,” which is always feminine (Diana Eck).

Hindus all over the world believe that Kashi is the best place to die. Suspended in space, above the earth, it remains outside time in the satya yuga - the golden age of original time, and as such it is cannot suffer degeneration. Kashi’s identity as the place of Shiva’s conflagration and creation of the universe is mythopoetically envisaged as a giant cremation ground. As a microcosmos/macrocosmos of eternal indestructible light, Kashi is the place of final destruction of the body in cremation, and is also understood to be the body. This identification explains the belief that dying, or at least being cremated in Kashi results in immediate liberation (moksha).
This is just a little of Kashi that will open up to you and that you will experience when you visit sacred Varanasi in the care of LuckyLalita.