VIDEO-Land of Enlightenment

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We had a lot of expectations for Rishikesh, the “yoga capital of the world”. Arriving early one brisk morning at dawn, we crossed the pedestrian bridge over the Ganges river as a heavy mist/smog settled on the water. There are many ashrams in Rishikesh and we were excited to try yoga and meditation classes at some and pick where we would set up camp for the next 2 weeks. This is the same place where the Beatles spent two months post Sergeant Peppers to delve into their spirituality and write songs for what would become the White Album. Since then, Rishikesh has become a mecca for foreigners. Being on the banks of the holy ganges it also attracts a large amount of sadhus, beggars, and pilgrims. The caves in the hills that overlook the town are filled with baba’s and others seeking enlightenment and make for a very interesting hike. However, upon taking our initial stroll through town, the reality of the situation dawned on us. This was not the beautifully idyllic place, where you could “sip ayurevedic tea, while taking in the good vibes” as lonely planet had put it. It was a cow shit infested concrete ghetto. The ashrams felt like prisons and were surrounded by imposing walls, the grounds inside were not conducive to calming the mind, often filled with ugly plaster statues of the Hindu deities. The rooms in San Quentin must put the rooms in these ashrams to shame, they were horribly depressing. I guess we had really envisioned an inspiring place like some places I have visited in California like Esalen, but this was not the case. We took some yoga classes and were not impressed by the teachers. We have had better yoga classes at the YMCA in Los Angeles and this is supposed to be the yoga capital of the world. It became apparent that our time here would not be as long as expected and we would have to get our yoga and meditation fix elsewhere, because staying at a place like this for 2 weeks after being in Mcleod Ganj, one of the highlights of our trip so far, was not appealing.
We mustn’t discredit the place entirely though, because we did meet some people there who were enjoying the place and the yoga, it was not for us though. The highlight of the trip for me though was getting into the defunct and derelict ashram of the Maharishi, where the Beatles stayed. You can see the video for that in its own entry that we will post soon. It all worked out well though, because it freed up time for us to head west to the colorful desert of Rajastan, in Western India, which was not on our itinerary initially as well as adding days to our trip to Nepal.