3. To discover the ghats and reach the nivarna!

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Approach quietly to the sacred heart of the town, which is beating wildly, letting some vibrations and scents float in the ambient air, which lead the pilgrim’s footsteps so far.

Finally reach the sacred lake of Pushkar surrounded by its 52 dazzling white ghats. 52 ghats for the 52 Maharadjas of India, as they say behind the scenes.

52 Ghats that allow pilgrims and families to immerse themselves in the sacred waters of the lake.

Each ghat would be said to have its own particularity – fertility, wealth, longevity… Would there be a ghat dedicated to successful selfies too?

There are the Brahma Ghat, the Varah Ghat, the Jodhpur Ghats…

The Gau Ghat, before your very eyes, has been renamed Gandhi Ghat since part of the Mahatma’s ashes were immersed in it.

In each of the ghats, one comes across many Hindu priests and a multitude of sadhu who live there all year round.

It is said that there are sometimes thousands of them on the occasion of the full moon in November for the famous pilgrimage which takes place at the same time as the Pushkar fair.

Eternal flamboyant mixture between the divine and the everyday, between life and death, between permanent movement and nothingness, between the feminine and the masculine…

Are there words to describe the infinity of India that we discover here? I’m not sure, as the experience is unspeakable. It is an experience that is lived first and foremost.

Legend has it that the lake was formed after Brahma dropped a blue lotus flower in it.

It is said that Pushkar means blue lotus.

It is true that the small town has all the charm of a lotus flower. Nestling in the middle of the gentle hills of the surrounding desert, it is home to a lake to which pilgrims descend and which takes our imaginations to the land of lotuses and serenity.

Now is the time to join the crowd praying on the edge of the ghats and the time to discover a little closer the magic of the place.

It is time to immerse oneself, not necessarily in the waters of the lake, but at least in the indescribable atmosphere that reigns in its surroundings.

Put down, next to the white dhotis drying on the steps on the way down, our Western mentalities and enter another almost surrealist dimension.

Each ghat is composed of stairs leading to the lakeside and basins dedicated to ablutions and ritual baths.

Symbols and offerings are omnipresent all around Pushkar Lake.

The pujas take place without interruption in broad daylight as well as at night.

All around, candles float on the lake in small bowls, incense sticks perfume the place, various and varied offerings are deposited in each ghat according to the benefits one wishes to obtain or as a sign of thanks.

The shores of the lake are lively and teeming with life. A fairy tale of colours springs up from everywhere, constantly reminding us how wonderful and abundant life is.

Admire the sadhus in saffron robes, the women draped in their brightly coloured ghoonghat who move so lightly that they seem to float above the waters of the lake.

To be astonished to see the generations that graze each other with the greatest respect.

Each person enters into a relationship with their beliefs, divinities, expectations, regrets and hopes in complete intimacy in the eyes and sight of all. This is also the alchemy of sacred India, mystery and seduction, fascination and questioning, illusions and reality mixed together in a bubbling whole.

Undertake a complete tour of the lake, accepting to let ourselves be jostled by what our minds discover about the place.

Then choose to get lost one last time in the crowd because you quickly get a taste for it and accept the gift – a « coup de coeur » – that will become an outfit for a day or an eternity, because to try it is to adopt it.

Wandering through the festive streets and finally decide to go and have a bite to eat at the Nirvana Café.

From its terrace, on the verge of touching the sky, contemplate the view…

…on the ghats …

…on the roofs…

… about the city …

… and on the temples.

Enjoy the monkeys that are everywhere on rooftops, in trees, in temples, in every nook and cranny…

…and still need to be hunted discreetly from time to time.

Appreciate the decor that relaxes and allows you to enter into a mode of relationships that becomes more and more enriching with each exchange.

Taste a curry accompanied by a spicy chai massala from the small kitchen and then savour the sweetness of a mango lassi.

Wondering if we have not managed to reach this Nivarna that we have heard about so often,

Suddenly feeling at home despite the change of scenery because you feel good and the vibrations are positive all around you.

Let yourself be carried away by this harmony of omnipresent and shimmering colours.

After so many discoveries, spend the evening in the outdoor lounge and appreciate the simplicity and charm of the place.

And then, one morning to tear ourselves away from Pushkar, this holy city where every minute was a mixture of loneliness and multitude, wealth and poverty, confusion and reason, splendour and decadence, silence and hubbub, colour and whiteness, stench and scent. To realise with emotion and happiness that it is all this that forms our humanity and that it is perhaps here in the middle of the Thar Desert, in the heart of Rajasthan, the largest Indian state, that we have been brought to meet it in all its magic, wonder, wonder, roughness, disturbance and intoxication. Turning around and telling ourselves that we will come back and never forget…

Par Nathalie

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