Abuela India!

After 23 hrs of flight plus 7 hrs by bus from Delhi, I finally reached Rishikesh! The land of lord Shiva... sannyasins, ascetics, pilgrims, tapasvins... you name it!

very familiar atmosphere...

There is so much i can say in the little i have seen that i really dont know where to start... from the warm "anjali namaskar" welcoming of its people, everyone saying, "hari om" ,"hare krishna" to the exotic collection of animals that roam freely in the streets... bulls, cows, goats, monkeys, pigs, chickens, dogs, cats, etc... The goooorgeous devotional looking women with their nose ring and colorful sarees! to the very various kinds of religious people at Ghandi's airport; buddhist monks, jains, sikhs, vaishnavis, muslims etc and the funny way people move their head when they speak to you...

So, I first vowed and ask permission to pilgrim this land... receiving the right signs I walked from downtown Rishikesh to the great laxman jhula bridge (5km)... on my way there i counted at least 7 ashrams... while i was walking I approached an old ascetic man who was making a fire on the side of the road... he said some words in hindi and then gifted me his rudraksha counts (first token)... and with all sorts of hand signs asked me if i have already eaten... i said no... and he pointed to a building in top of a little hill and said that that is an ashram and that i could ask for food there... So I  went up some steep stairs... pass through a hall where some people where meditating, reading, doing puja... walked further and a boy greeted me... namaskar, **&^&%%^ (hindi)  so i bowed and showed him my begging bowl, and he said: Ohhhh ok ok, come come, please sit... so i did... and so i had my first successful alms meal in brahmananda ashram...dhal, rice and chapati (off course)... then passed through Omkarananda ashram where there was a swami named Chandrashekarendra i sat in ardha padmasana and he gave me drishti, couldn't communicate with him bc he only speaks hindi and sanskrit... hes 90 years old and took sannyas diksha 70 yrs ago, at least thats what he's disciple told me ... Later on i went to Swami Sivananda ashram (perhaps the most prominent and famous ashram around) and met the successor of Swami Chidananada, his name is Swami Sannyasananada...a very thin, kind spoken Swami... his reception was very beautiful, we spoke for about 30 min, then i handed him some sat yoga info and he handed me a ticket to come to eat dinner at his ashram at 7 pm... so far so good... much more to say though, but im tired...

For some reason i cant load pics from my camera... so ill try another day!

Now ill take my first dip at the Ganges, and then head myself to Ajatananda's ashram (which is where i might stay for a couple of days )...

"As he has cultivated contentment, he will not care whether it is the finest culinay art or plain village rice - it is all the same to him."

namo, namo, namo