Tension Inside Shiva's Shrine - a photo on Flickriver

"The oldest living city in the world".

On the top of Ahilyabai Ghat along river Ganga In Varanasi (Benaras) there is a Shiva Mandir (temple) where I like to come during winter only as the monsoon floods are usually covering it in summer.

Year after year I became a friend of the music shop owner nearby who has an amazing selection of Indo-fusion CDs; he keeps an eye on my shoes whenever I want to go inside the temple.

I took this shot inside the shrine which is dedicated to Lord Shiva, the God of the city.

On the left stands a big lingam, the priest on the right wasn't happy that day but I don't know why.
As a ritual of worship Hindus offer flowers, incense and a coconut in order to show respect to their chosen Gods or Goddesses and after blessing those things the priest is normally returning back some offers to the devotees who usually take them back at home and shares them with their close ones.
On the left there is the hand of a man who was asking for his offers, after a while a lady came and gave him instead of the Pundit.

Puja consists of meditation (dhyana), austerity (tapa), chanting (mantra), scripture reading (svadhyaya), offering food (thaal) and prostrations (panchanga or ashtanga pranama, dandavat).
The individual also applies a tilaka mark on the forehead with sandalwood paste, and then a vermillion (kumkum) dot (chandlo) in its centre.
This signifies submission to the Almighty and also His Omnipresence.
The priest didn't do it neither so as I was the oldest I applied tika on my friend Rajiv's forehead and on my brother Manish's one.

We never knew what was this tension about...

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Taken in: India / Uttar Pradesh / Varanasi (show map)

Taken on: January 1, 2008

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Camera: CASIO COMPUTER CO.,LTD. EX-Z1000, f/3.4, 1/160 sec, 11.5mm (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	CASIO COMPUTER CO.,LTD. EX-Z1000
Aperture:	f/3.4
Exposure Time:	0.006 sec (1/160)
Focal Length:	11.5mm
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Gain Control:	High gain up
Contrast:	High
Saturation:	High
Sharpness:	Hard
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS4 Macintosh
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