In the early morning glow, a sadhu and woman bathed and prayed on the banks of the Ganges. (Sophia Chang)

“Going to the Ganges is like going to church. But church is a matter of choice, and the Ganges is a religious obligation.”

This was the introduction to the spirituality of the Ganges River from our guide, Onkar Dubey, on a pre-dawn bus on Day 12 of our journey. We were driving toward the river to observe the Hindus of Varanasi bathing in its sacred waters. Varanasi is a city of early risers and morning ablutions in the river are considered one of the most sacred and auspicious of Hindu rituals. They are so valuable in Hindu mythology that when some men and women get older, they leave their families and move to Varanasi, where they bathe daily in the river until their deaths.

Dubey explained that sadhus, holy men who renounce family and material possessions to seek a greater spirituality, are particularly drawn to the river’s sacred waters. Many sadhus ritually bathe in the Ganges early each morning, get a blessing from a priest, receive a mark on their foreheads, then sit for an hour or so reading the Bhagavat Gita or pages from their own prayer books. They may visit one of the 2,000 temples that dot the banks of the Ganges for the seven kilometers that stretch through Varanasi. Praying to the rising sun, said Dubey, brings light and life to people.

From a rowboat as the sun was rising, we observed sadhus bathing along with locals and spiritual westerners; monkeys, considered holy in Varanasi because of their relation to Hanuman, the monkey god, chasing each other along steep ghats; two rams butting heads repeatedly; a man floating on his back in the river, surrounded by candles and marigolds. Dhobis, or washermen, soaked clothing in the polluted waters of the Ganges, then slapped the pants and shirts against rocks by the river bank, knee-deep in water.

Dubey pointed out that no houses are built on the east bank of the Ganges, and that the temples and guest houses along the west bank are submerged when the water rises 40-50 feet in the rainy summer months. A local myth says that if someone builds a house on the flood-prone east bank he will be reincarnated as a donkey.

Varanasi is sometimes called a city of burning, and cremation ceremonies take place 24 hours a day along the Ganges, with people coming from all over India to burn their dead on funeral pyres and scatter the ashes into the holy river. Hindus believe that if the body is cremated on the Ganges, the soul goes directly to heaven and achieves moksha, or freedom from the cycle of birth and rebirth. To build a funeral pyre takes about 360 kilograms of wood and costs around Rs 3,000 (or nearly $70). In the funerals we witnessed, bodies wrapped in red and white shrouds burned silently. No one wept or displayed grief as they felt blessed to provide their relatives a burial in the Ganges, Dubey explained.

Aruna Viswanatha, our Hindu student journalist, felt more connected to Varanasi than to any other stop on the trip. She was taken with the authenticity of the city, among both the long-time residents and foreigners alike. “In the U.S., capitalism co-opts culture,” she said. “But in India, India co-opts culture. It’s captivating in the way that it’s such an openly spiritual experience, it’s open but personal and not in a contrived way. And that seems really hard to do.”

After checking out of another hotel (“if it’s Saturday, it must be Varanasi!”) we traveled the 10 km to Sarnath, a famous site of Buddhism in India. Buddha was born Siddhartha Gautama around 600 B.C. in Lumbini, Nepal and achieved enlightenment in Bodh Gaya in the Himalayan foothills. He gave his first sermon to five disciples in the deer park in Sarnath. Sarnath was destroyed in 1197 by Muslims, according to Dubey, and became a buried, forgotten city until the 1830s when it was rediscovered and excavated by the British.

Sarnath has a touristy feel, but inside the Buddhist temple built on the site of Buddha’s cottage in the deer park all was peaceful, and colorful frescos depicted the important moments in Buddha’s life. At the end of the temple an altar held a giant statue of Buddha surrounded by flowers in vases.

Buddha was originally a Hindu, and his teachings are in part a response to Hinduism. Buddha sought to do away with the caste system, and to abolish temple rituals, priests and animal sacrifices. Instead of these, Buddhism pointed to a middle path, a life of moderation that avoided extremes. Jesse Ellison was taken with the connection between Hinduism and Buddhism. “I thought it was so telling that Hindus believe Buddha was a reincarnation of Vishnu,” she said later in the Varanasi airport. “The way Hindus embrace the Buddha as part of their ancient faith speaks to the complexity of Indian culture. India and Hinduism are like giant sponges. They soak everything up and make it their own.”

A lot of the artifacts found at the temple during the British excavation are on display at a nearby museum, including the four lions of the Asoka Column that are featured on all rupee notes and coins. Sophia Chang and some others observed a group of Thai Buddhist monks, clad in yellow robes, chanting in front of a statue of Buddha. Chang found their chanting beautiful. “It was nice that they turned the museum into a place for prayers and redefined what a shrine or temple has to be.”