rishikesh

Last weekend, I went to Rishikesh, with three wonderful women from the farm.  This photo sums up my experience...there was yoga, a sense of home, and a little bit more exposure to India.

This is the view from Anand Prakesh Ashram, where we stayed for three nights.  It was a beautiful place, with yoga studios on the top and bottom floors of the building.  The yoga guru flicked elbows and knees and anything else that wasn't in proper position, and said wonderful things like "straight your both legs" and "release your pancreas."

Here is the upstairs studio.  The first day there, we had a class in which part of it took place on the open rooftop, using nettipots (if you've never seen or tried this before, i can say that this experience would have been quite a surprise to you!).

We spent much of our journey walking back and forth between the ashram and the cities across the Ganges, over bridges that had monkeys, pedestrians, and all forms of motorcycle hurtling through.  They were harrowing to say the least, but the view was gorgeous and humbling, with the mountains rising up beside the banks of the river.

As we strolled along the banks of the ganga, we passed many many monks and sadhus.

On Sunday morning, we did karma yoga instead of asanas, which meant window cleaning on the top floor.  Two of the people staying at the ashram were in silence, and we had a lot of fun miming and cleaning and communicating without language through our chores.

On one of our many walks, we passed this lovely little place, but didn't stop by.  We did, however, stop here:

Gorgeous, no?

Here is the street on which we found the shop.

The amazing view of the ganga from near the ashram.  Our next adventure was to go to the aarti ceremony at the ganga on sunday evening, which was a feast for the senses, and a truly moving experience.  It began by removing shoes and depositing them at a stall at the entrance to the temple, and then finding a place to sit on the giant stone steps leading down to the ganga.

Here is a photo of a family we met while at the ceremony.  They are from Vancouver, and happened to be visiting relatives, and they encouraged us to buy a candle to light and send down the river to make a wish.  I didn't buy one (feeling a bit unnerved by the men directing the children to sell them) but I stepped into the river and made a wish nonetheless.

The entire ceremony took place facing this illuminated statue of Shiva, to the glorious sounds of harmonium, tabla, and voice.  The musicians played back and forth, joking and teasing, singing praises and complementing one another with musical challenges and suggestions.

Om, Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.