Varanasi, India --- On a clear day you can see all the way to Mt Everest and the Himalayas as you fly to Varanasi from New Delhi. Fortunately, it was just such a day recently when I made the flight, to the sacred city of Hinduism on the Ganges. The peaks of the great mountains were covered in snow and they gleamed white against the azure sky. There are many pilgrimages on the ground by foot and bus to reach those mountains, which Hindus consider as the symbolic heartland of their spirituality. The water that flows from the melting snow of those mystical mountains and down the valleys between them eventually form one of the holiest rivers in the world – the sacred Ganges. As the Ganges gathers width and depth on its trip, it gradually turns southeast on an epic trip through the Indian countryside, eventually passing the ancient city of Varanasi. This is a city of shrines and temples dedicated to the gods and goddesses of Hindu legend. Pilgrims bathe here in the waters of the Ganges, believing that they will achieve moksha--the cleansing of their sins and liberation from the continuous cycle of birth and death.

In the morning thousands of people gather on the ghats--the steps built along the banks of the Ganges--to offer prayers and perform the symbolic washing away of the burdens of this life. All along the river too are places for the cremation of bodies, so that the ashes can be commited immediately to the care of the great river. Boats ply their way through the early morning mists, carrying people who place candles on fragile leaves to be floated on the gentle Ganges, a representation of the passing of one's soul through life. Then the people gaze in silent contemplation as their boat rides the waves past the great ghats and temples that stand like gateways to Hindu paradise all along the river's banks.

In the evening, there are pujas--the chanting of ancient Hindu prayers to the accompaniment of Indian musical instruments--at different ghats along the great curve of the river past the city. Sadhus, or holy men, join local people in chanting prayers whose origins are lost in the mists of time, as the music and prayers echo across the river in the dusk. And all along the river one can see the lights of uncountable candles and oil lamps like fireflies, carried by the thousands who have gathered on the ghats at sundown to clear their souls through prayers and sacred songs. Some chant the thousand names of god as the sunlight fades.

The ill also gather, hoping to rid themselves of physical infirmities; hoping to gain the compassion of one or all the gods. In Varanasi are several communities of people who have been affected, and cured, of leprosy. Many of these people have deformities or visible scars from their former disease. While they are now completely cured, thanks to multi-drug therapy, they continue to face the stigma of rejection by larger society, and must struggle for acceptance as human beings following their cure from leprosy.

Our group visited one such community, nestled near a famous ghat. The people there also gather in the evening with their musical instruments, chanting and singing songs of inspiration and hope. A clinical psychologist who works with them, Dr. Tulsi, comments that music heals the wounds of the heart, making the people whole in a different sense than the simplistic view of those who just see the old leprosy scars.

Afterward, on the banks of the Ganges, I offer up my thoughts on my visit to the community of people affected by leprosy to the gods and goddesses who are said to gather in Varanasi. If there is hope to escape the cycle of birth and death in this sacred place, than surely there is hope for those who have been affected by physical and mental ill health such as leprosy to find solace and a deeper healing for themselves here.