The Level Playing Field

A walk in Pere-Lachaise Cemetry made me think of lines from Bhaja Govindam composed by Adi Sankara. And I experienced the same feeling that I experienced while watching the dead being cremated in the banks of Ganges at Varanasi.Yes, the dead teach you more about life in silence than the living beings who give away free advise, unasked.

Situated in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, the 110 acres of Cemetery also houses a crematorium and holds ashes of many. Probably this is one of the largest green spots in the city and will not be an over-statement if I said Pere-Lachaise is the lung of this neighborhood.

The famous and unknown, rich and poor, beautiful and ugly, intellectuals and fools, good and evil are all reduced to ashes and bones in the end, yet we all live a life of jealousy, greed and caught in materialistic pursuits in this world. Some places in the world are turned into a level playing field, and death is a great leveler.

I spotted individual graves, family graves, graves of small kids, graves of Air France flight crash victims, 1st World War soldiers. What surprised me was the grave of two men holding hands and the tombstone said that they were dead in a hot air balloon crash. Other popular cemeteries include that of Oscar Wilde, Napoleon's sister, Marcel Proust, Jim Morrison, etc. 

Some of the graves were artfully decorated with bronzes, marbles, terracottas, flowers, and stain-glasses depicting life and beliefs of dead, grief and hope of survivors. There are graves of various other religious denominations like Jewish, Orthodox Christians, etc. While some of them are turned into ashes and scattered in the lush green lawns.

Sometimes cemeteries are more beautiful than many of our homes. The life of dead are lessons and their cemeteries are like classrooms, but if only you want to learn. 

If you are in Paris, this must be a part of your itinerary. It is a good picnic spot on a sunny day, and from right below the chapel on top you get an unobstructed view of the city monuments: Notre Dame, Bastille, Montparnasse Tower, St. Sulpice, and the most visited Eiffel Tower. Entrance to the Cemetery is free, metro ligne 2 and 3 gets you there and map of the cemetery and flowers are sold at the entrance.

For more information: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A8re_Lachaise_Cemetery