on returning to rishikesh

So am back in Rishikesh… reached last nite after an overnite train to delhi and then a train to haridwar…entire journey 24 hours… and it wasn’t bad at all….all ac sleeper so slept quite a bit... on reaching haridwar and getting out on the main street, you could feel the energy all around.

The inner street near haridwar station are parts of old haridwar with narrow lanes, and old carved houses. Sandhus and Sants everywhere. The railway booking counter has a special line for sants and sadhus…. We pass through har ki podi… have not seen it at evening and the whole area is full of lights…

The drive to Rishikesh takes 30-45 min in the tum tum (shared auto rick) and it passes through the rajaji national park (which touches Corbett) .. so its green and forested. The guest house is near the main market and is walkng distance from the main road…. Its got 26 rooms, I have room number 111, and it has hot water and a TV. Smoking and drinking strictly prohibited…. And am sure they mean it.

The guest house has a garden overlooking maganga, and that’s where I am sitting now with the comp…. watching the river pass by and surrounded by flowers. Yesterday evening , when in the garden did, this touching of all the petals in the amazingly different flowers that are around…. Then closed my eyes and touched and felt the entire flower, then each petal and then the leaves… it was amazing how it felt, when touched with no vision… the touching became much slower… fingers curved around the flower, so one got a feeling of how big it is, then it went down to touching and finding out how many petals there are, and then to each petal… the colours seemed to have different feel. Then to the leaves and how they are placed…..

Each flower was different, the petals shape, thickness and general feel….. recommend this as a nice meditative experience….. we are overly dependent on vision and the beauty and variety in the touch and feel of things seems less when we use our eyes…………without vision other senses get more heightened.

The food here is amazing. last nite at dinner there was roti, bajra roti, dal, kadhi, chole, 2 sabjis, rice, papad and gulam jamun. Today breakfast, it was aloo ka paratha, aloo sabji (the kind we make with puri) dahi and jalebi………… its really nice not to go to a restaurant and to have everything absolutely piping hot.

I think am just going to chill and have good food….served on time……… sit in the garden…. Am going now to find out about yoga and chanting classes…. Will go to haridwar tomorrow ….

Last nite when in the garden there was different chants coming from across the river… with drums, cymbals and it was so lovely… did stretching exercises and was barefoot on the grass….