Morning Prayer at the Ganges
Location:
Varanasi, India
The Ghats
December 2004

Photographer:
E.K. Schafhauser

What is it that we as humans create in prayer? Is it not a communication with that which is greater than the mortality of the physical self? Within each individual resides the solitude to communicate to that part which is greater than death itself. In the early morning fog thousands of human figures appear at the banks of the Ganges. Each worshiper stands seemingly in physical solitude. Within themselves they are deep in communication. This is prayer the world over made visible.


In the early morning hundreds of worshipers come to the Ghats of the Ganges River: The Ganges, or Great Mother as it is known to Hindus, provides millions of Indians with an important link to their spirituality. This woman, like millions of others, all over the globe, gives prayer and ritual in solitude within herself.