Buddha came to Sarnath to preach his first sermon.  A city of great wealth an religious importance when the Chinese  traveller, Hiuen Tsang, visited it in the 7th century.  The rays of the rising sun burnish the river gold, glint on ritual brass vessel, and shower benediction on thousand devotees who stand waist deep in the sacred Ganga, hands folded, heads bowed.  The Vishwanath Golden Temple is the nucleus around which the life of Varanasi swirls and ebbs. This is the abode of the great God Shiva whose symbol -  black stone lingam – is enshrined on the original site by a Maratha Queen, Ahilya Bai, in 1776, but the lingham dates back to the earlier times.  That ghats at any time of the day present a unique and moving sight.  Thousands of pilgrims throng the water’s edge, bathing, worshipping, meditating.  On stone platform under palm, the Pandas – Brahmin priests preside over the rites and rituals.  The two cremation ghats are the Manikarnika and the Harish Chandra where funeral pyres day and night.  Because every Hindu believes that to die in Kashi and to be created on the banks of the Ganga is to attain release from the cycle of birth and death.