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In this photograph taken on August 31, 2024, Hindu devotees offer prayers to the Sun god along the banks of river Ganges, in Varanasi. [AFP]
Some stay only days, others wait decades, but the crowds of elderly Indian Hindu devotees are calm and confident that their one-way pilgrimage to death will deliver everlasting peace.
Smouldering funeral pyres line the Ganges river in India's holy city of Varanasi, where thousands of Hindu faithful come each year to spend their final days.
Dying beside the banks of the Ganges guarantees theywill be cremated there and their ashes scattered in the water along the river's steps or "ghats", which Hindus believe ensures liberation from the cycle of rebirth.
Badri Prasad Agarwal, 92, travelled for days over 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) from the far western state of Rajasthan, happy to wait in peace knowing he was in the right place to die.
"This is god's own land," the 92-year-old said, resting at the near-end of a long and hard life.
'In god's home'
He says his god has told him he has five more months to live.
He is content to spend them in a hospice that serves those coming to spend their final days in quiet contemplation of their past and the future they believe will come.
"I talk with god every day," Agarwal said. "Soon I will be at peace, in god's home."
He has found space to live in a charity guesthouse called the Mumukshu Bhawan hospice -- "House of those Seeking Salvation" -- one of scores of "salvation homes" in the city.
The centre has 40 rooms serving some of the thousands of people who come to Varanasi to die.
Agarwal is pleased to be there, as it is one of the closest to the river, just a minute's walk away.
There the cremation fires blaze nonstop, as they have done since time immemorial.
For Hindus, the northern city of Varanasi, also known as Benares, is one of the holiest places in the world.
It is the city of Lord Shiva, the god of destruction, who Hindus say must destroy before he can recreate. People in search of "moksha", or liberation, have travelled there for centuries.
'Attain salvation'
At the Salvation Hospice, some come alone and are dependent on charity. Some are married couples.
Others use their life savings to pay their way or bring along relatives to care for them.
The Standard Group Plc is a multi-media organization with investments in media
platforms spanning newspaper print operations, television, radio broadcasting,
digital and online services. The Standard Group is recognized as a leading
multi-media house in Kenya with a key influence in matters of national and
international interest.
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