Spiritual Life at the Ganga River 🇮🇳 Hindu Ascetics in Varanasi

Varanasi is an ancient city by the Ganga River, with the riverside designed as stairs descending from the lanes to the water, known as the ghats. The ghats serve not just as walkways and parking spaces for boats but as sites for spiritual practices.

This is where Hindus bathe to purify their souls, like women in the image above.

And this is where you can witness Hindu dancing, singing, and performing.

The ghats are also a place of cremation. Being cremated in Varanasi gives a Hindu a great preference, and, as some sources say, can even bring full liberation (meaning no more rebirths but leaving life for blissful unity with God).

By the river, you can also see people worshiping gods and meditating, including those men who are called sadhus or babas. These are ascetics who decided to leave ordinary life for the mission of spiritual liberation. This determination alone deserves deep respect, even if you aren't Hindu.

There are different sadhu traditions in Hinduism. I am not going to lecture here as I am new to this topic myself. But I'll simply show those unusual characters.

This man is a naga sadhu (or a naga sadhu disciple). Naked, covered with ash, with dreads. The trident of Shiva is in front of him. It might be that this plastic bag on the table contains cannabis - sadhus smoke openly at the ghats.

Being naked, The Times of India writes, is a way of renouncing the material world for them. They are also known to be warriors defending Hindu people and temples.

This man was sitting at a very big and crowded place called Dashashwamedh Ghat. As you see, he hid his genitals with his legs, probably to fit the rules of this area. In a less official ghat, I saw a naga sadhu walking as he was, and that was completely fine for everyone.

By the way, about smoking cannabis: the bearded man is holding a chillum, a pipe for smoking weed. It is also obvious that he is in a good mood.

There are many types of sadhus, and you can't recognize them as easily as naga sadhus.

But you can spot odd characters who don't meet the usual idea of an Indian, like this mysterious man with orange beads...

Not far from the second cremation ghat (Harishchandra Ghat), they have a small beach with tents where several ascetics live; a bonfire decorated with marigold petals, miniature statues of gods... And that's inside:

Young men with dreads - sadhu disciples? No idea, but the view is colorful. The second tent is near the river, with two more young men.

Orange clothes are a sign that the person might be a spiritual teacher or seeker, but you never know for sure (until the person is naked and covered with ashes, as in the case of naga sadhus).

I took few images of sadhus and disciples - obviously, being intrusive would be inappropriate in this case and disrespectful. I guess, as people who renounced the material, they don't care much if someone takes an image of them. I just, first of all, don't want to be a circus performer with a camera myself - not in this case - you sometimes should protect the authenticity and peace of people around you, even if you are on a street photography mission.

At the same time, I never photograph those sadhu-looking people who actively ask me to do so. Because spiritual people aren't supposed to stop passersby with such requests. If they stop you, they want to ask for money for posing afterwards. If they do this, they may be entertainers - mimes axctually, dressed up like sadhus in order to earn money from naive foreigners. When I encounter this, I simply say "no, thank you" - I did it many times in Varanasi; and none of the images above was taken this way.

At the same time, knowing that the sadhu tradition lives on donations, I donated some coins here and there at the sadhu areas, to sadhus who didn't directly ask me to do so.

And that's my story from the banks of the Ganges...

Stay tuned - more stories from India are ahead!

The photos were taken with a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G on a full-frame DSLR Nikon D750 in January 2026, in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India.