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Yoga schools and teachers are plentiful in Varanasi; even your hotel will likely have a morning yoga session. If you’re more serious, however, contact Dr. Vagish Shastri at his residence behind the Bread of Life Bakery (Vagyoga Chetanapitham, B3/131A, Shivala; 0542/227-5706; vagyoga@hotmail.com) between 7 and 9am. He operates a range of courses in yoga as well as kundalini meditation and Sanskrit; as he’s always on the move, it’s worth contacting him well before you intend traveling to see if he will be resident while you are here.

Note: If you take a cycle-rickshaw for the evening aarti ceremony, you will encounter terrible pollution. Additionally, because the supply of electricity to Varanasi is erratic, most hotels and restaurants use diesel generators. Unfortunately, their exhaust pipes are often at face level, spewing diesel fumes into Varanasi’s narrow streets as you walk or cycle by. Carry a cotton handkerchief/scarf with you, cover your nose and mouth with it, and breathe through the cotton to make your way through an otherwise suffocating environment.

Cruising the Ghats

Drifting along the Ganges, admiring the densely textured backdrop of 18th- and 19th-century temples and palaces that line the 84-odd bathing ghats, you will be confronted with one of the most spiritually uplifting or downright weird tableaus on the entire crazy subcontinent: Down below, waist-deep pilgrims raise their arms in supplication, priests meditate by staring directly into the rising sun or are frozen in complicated yoga positions, wrestlers limber up, and disinterested onlookers toss live rats from the towering walls of the Old City, among other assorted goings-on. Note that you’ll need to get here between 4:30 and 6am (check sunrise times with your hotel, as well as the time it takes to get to the ghats), so plan an early wake-up call. You should be able to hire a boat anywhere along the ghats, but most people either catch one from Assi Ghat, the southernmost ghat, or—particularly if you’re staying in the Cantonment area—from Dasashwamedh (literally “10-horse-sacrifice,” referring to an ancient sacrificial rite performed by Brahma). Situated roughly halfway, this is the most accessible and popular ghat and is always crawling with pilgrims, hawkers, and priests surveying the scene from under bamboo umbrellas. Boats operate at a fixed rate of Rs 100 per hour (one to four persons)—this hasn’t changed in years. The following descriptions of the 100-odd ghats assume that you will leave from here; note that it’s worth traveling both north and south. You can do another trip in the evening as the sun is setting, but don’t travel too far—boating is limited after sunset (except at the time of aarti, when you can sail up to watch the ceremony from the water).

Heading North from Dasashwamedh Ghat From here, you pass Man Mandir Ghat, which, along with the beautiful palace that overlooks it, was built by the Maharaja Man Singh of Amber in 1600. Jai Singh, who built the Jantar Mantars, converted the palace into an observatory in 1710. Hours are 7am to 5:30pm; entrance costs Rs 100. Next is Mir Ghat, where the New Vishwanath Temple, Vishalakshi shrine, and Dharma Kupa (where the Lord of Death relinquished his hold over those who die in Varanasi), are found. North lies Lalita Ghat, with its distinctive Nepalese Temple, and beyond it is the “burning” Manikarnika Ghat, the principal and favored shamshan ghat (cremation ground) of Varanasi, where you can see funeral-pyre flames burning 24 hours, tended by the doms, or “Untouchables”—touching the dead is considered polluting to all but these low castes. Boats are requested to keep their distance as a sign of respect. On this ghat is the venerated Manikarnika Kund, the world’s first tirtha, said to have been dug out by Vishnu, whose sweat filled it as he created the world as ordered by Shiva. Some say that Shiva shivered in delight when he saw what Vishnu had created, dropping an earring into the pool; others say that it was the earring of Sati, Shiva