Sarnath

I don't have words to describe the feelings I've had at different sites. At Pragbodhi, at Bodhgaya, Varanasi and Sarnath, I've been overwhelmed by an intense awe that seems to fit the classical description of hair standing on the skin and the eyes welling. I don't expect any of the photographs to transfer that to the viewer, but at the very least, maybe people will be willing to do more research based on what the encounter here.

Additionally, since my camera was kaput (I couldn't find any reliable batteries in Varanasi), I used my iPad and have a Photobucket account that you can log into here to view the photos:

http://s1106.photobucket.com/albums/h380/John_Bodhgaya/Sarnath/

I don't quite get why, after renumbering them Photobucket doesn't reset the order. The photos seem to be stored for viewing in last to first order. That said, you may want to view these as a slideshow.

For the record, I like Photobucket. I'm thinking that if my posts start to feel top-heavy with images, I'll rely more on posting images to PB and point people that way.

On a completely different note, but perhaps one of interest to people who wonder about this sort of thing, yes, H.P. Lovecraft wrote a story called "The Doom That Came To Sarnath" (on page 430 of the download, compliments of the Internet Archive!). Upon being told that there actually was a place named Sarnath, Lovecraft was taken aback; he said he made up the name. I actually have no reason to doubt him; though I wonder if he had stumbled across the name in his reading and it just stayed with him subliminally.

And lastly, I point you in direction to "The Family Sarnath", a work of utter brilliance.

Lastly, I realize I have only a couple of days before I'll be maintaining radio silence. I'll be on a ten-day vipassana meditation retreat, so there won't be any updates from February 2 through 11. I'll post a couple of more things tomorrow and maybe on Monday or Tuesday. But don't worry, I won't have been swallowed by Cthulhu!