In search of moksha in Mumukshu Bhavan, Varanasi

The Last Voyage by Edwin Lord Weeks. Many Hindus share the belief that dying in Varanasi is a route to salvation. (Image via Wikimedia Commons)

In holy Varanasi, the swirling waters of the Ganga flow close to a dilapidated building where older people live with older people in the hope to die and attain salvation in a city believed to be as old as Babylon.

The 65-year-old Mumukshu Bhavan, which lies close to the Assi ghat and resembles a broken army barrack, offers its cheek-by-jowl rooms to people on the brink of death and in search of Moksha.

Mumukshu Bhawan, Varanasi (Photo by Shantanu Guha Ray)

An estimated 14,000 people have died at the Mumukshu Bhavan in the last six decades, say officials who run this unique home.

Some Hindus have a strong belief that after death, the soul transmigrates and is reincarnated in a new body—depending on our deeds or karma, we are reborn as humans in the best-case scenario or animals or plants in the worst. Dying in Varanasi is believed to help the soul break out of the endless cycle of birth and death.

It is this belief that brings the old and the dying to Mumukshu Bhavan.

“My life is one big wait for death. For me and my wife (who lives with me here),” says Suryanarayanan, 92. He once worked with APJ Abdul Kalam in India’s missile programme. Around a decade-and-a-half ago, he came to Varanasi. He admits his and his wife's wait for death has been inordinately long, but he is ready to wait longer. “I am in the home of gods, awaiting the final call. It has not come in the last 15 years but can come very soon,” Suryanarayan adds.

Suryanarayanan, 92, and his wife. (Photo by Shantanu Guha Ray)

Suryanarayan and his wife share two tiny rooms. The next-door room is locked for around two months after the occupant, a tailor, died in his sleep and was cremated at Harishchandra Ghat.

Do older people benefit from living exclusively with other older people? I ask Suryanarayan.

Sometimes, he says.

And do the crowded quarters bother him?

“I have downsized my life from a huge bungalow to this small hole. At times it hits us, but we remind ourselves that we have nothing to offer to anyone,” Suryanarayan says.

Stay at the 116-room Mumuksha Bhavan is not about despondency or resignation for Suryanarayan, and others like him who volunteer to spend what they hope are their last days here.

Suryanarayan says he firmly believes in the concept of salvation. “I know the world I will step into with my wife. I will be engaged with the new world. It is heaven, a place created by God.”

Mumukshu Bhavan has approximately 300 people. All rooms have grab bars and other safety features. Interestingly, a large section of the residents are from Andhra Pradesh. Officials say there is no particular reason why many from this southern state land up to attain salvation in Varanasi. In the 16th century, Trailanga Swami, a powerful saint, made Kashi his home. He had many followers from the South.

There are many low-income seniors also in Mumukshu Bhavan; they settle for fewer and smaller options and live in the blocks which have one-room apartments. The motives for relocating are the same, except they eat frugal meals and are often told that they could lose their homes if they do not die fast.

“It is a challenge, and it is in the hands of the Gods. Can we do anything about it?” asks Vimala Devi, 93, from Ranchi. Her three sons and two daughters visit regularly. It is like a sad family reunion, says Devi. Her children cannot take care of Devi from afar; they come once a year.

Devi is very fragile and has to be helped for her morning ablutions. She does not remember when she lost her husband, she says it happened - probably - a quarter of a century back. He died of a snake bite.

“I pray throughout the day and wait for my turn to leave this world. I am waiting for God to ring the bell of my final journey,” Devi sobs. She has been waiting for over six years. “Bulawa aa jai, aur kuch nahin chahiye (“Let the call of God come, I need nothing else”).

Residents of Mumukshu Bhavan pay a fee of Rs 3,000 a month to stay. Would-be residents apply throughout the year, are shortlisted and then interviewed by a panel of experts who check to see that the seniors are not being abandoned at the facility by relatives seeking total control of family silver. There have been such cases in the past. Once admitted, the residents are at peace. There are no 24-hour aides and unlimited visiting hours, but a safety net awaits residents in the form of caretakers in charge of each block.

Ramakoti Sitaramaih (Photo by Shantanu Guha Ray)

Ramakoti Sitaramaih came to Mumukshu Bhavan in 2015. In the eight years since, he has been writing Shri Ram Shri Ram Jai Jai Ram in specially designed copies which he procured from his home in Vizag. Every time he meets a stranger in Mumukshu Bhavan, he offers the person a copy which has columns in English, Hindi, Kannada and Telugu. He asks people to write those same words and fill up the notebook. “That is the first step to moksha (salvation) and your connection with God,” Sitaramaih says.

You can either believe him, or ignore him.

He is extremely popular in Mumukshu Bhavan’s adult communities, and often cooks South Indian meals for them. Sitaramaih recites shlokas from Gita and tells everyone why the one-way traffic to God is important and why it is only in Mumukshu Bhavan that people can wait peacefully for their final journey to heaven.

Once the community meal is over, Mumukshu Bhavan turns into a ghost town, always quiet.

It remains an integrated, walkable, active, mixed use senior housing complex. Mumukshu Bhavan runs on strict rules and guidelines. Once the doctors certify the person is almost dying, that resident is offered a private room. They are mostly consigned to bed, their dwindling existence regulated by four-hourly nursing checks.

Those in a better frame follow the routine of prayers, meals, rest, prayers, meals and rest. In the morning, the frailer residents wait for someone to bring them breakfast. Some spend their days at the central table where they eat their meals, grouped together because their physical and mental state is about the same. Women in feebler condition spend the day in armchairs pushed against the wall. For the most part, no one says anything; they break the silence to eat. And then, a few newspapers arrive. Everyone has a shower and a hair wash once a week.

When someone dies, the body is taken to Manikarnika ghat and the rituals are done by both the Mumukshu Bhavan and the family. (Shantanu Guha Ray)

Officials at Mumukshu Bhavan say there are genuine constraints around looking after people who are inconsistent, confused and immobile. Medicine is distributed four times a day. About one-third of the residents are on antidepressants, to help cope with the prospect of death and waiting for the end. Every day, they tell officials that they are all right, that they can't complain, that the food is lovely and nurses are wonderful.

“Being surrounded by all seniors is very limiting but then, only seniors come to Mumukshu Bhavan. It is their strong belief that Varanasi is the gateway to heaven. So many come to Mumukshu Bhavan, some look for rentals elsewhere in Varanasi,” says social worker Debashisha Dass.

He has been interacting with the inmates of Mumukshu Bhavan for almost a decade-and-a-half. Dass says at Mumukshu Bhavan, it is a strange state of life with the inmates because they are all in a transition to something else. “There are a million different issues with inmates of Mumukshu Bhavan but no one wants to return home.”

Outside Mumukshu Bhavan, hordes of believers find space and hope to attain redemption in death in this ancient city.

A corner of Mumukshu Bhavan is earmarked for the saffron-robed sadhus. Swami Ishwaranand Tirtha has been here for over 15 years. He says Mumukshu Bhavan - for general visitors - is a revelation and it helps put your own life into a perspective. “You understand life and death and also the afterlife. And what happens after death. You accept many things without any arguments and questions. The 'I' factor, or the ego, drops the moment you walk into Mumukshu Bhavan.”

Darkness has descended on Mumukshu Bhavan. The residents have retired to their homes. They are unlikely to go anywhere else before they die.