Lakshman Jhula
The morning of the last day in the Himalayas, even at its bottom hills, was dedicated to Rishikesh so I started in the morning with a tuk-tuk ride, or whatever they call it in India and got to Lakshman Jhula, the second pedestrian bridge in the town. The views from the road are astounding. Close to main road there were some interesting Shiva temples, from whose terraces the views were even better. Ganga by itself starts in the Himalayas but its final structure, after it collected its main effluents, is beginning here in Rishikesh. This part of the city is the place where are located the ashrams. It is way more westernized, all the stores catering mainly for travelers. The town itself is way south and has not resemblance with the meditation atmosphere of its northern sector. I crossed the bridge and visited a temple that stands right on Ganga’s shore that is built with many floors and has inside rooms with statues dedicated to all the main Gods and consorts. Each room has three statues. You have to walk around the perimeter of the building in order to ascend the next floor and this is a ….loooong building. But the views from the top are astounding, well worth the effort. In the Indian temple you have to walk barefoot, and ideally with no socks. The exit of the temple turned out to be in the other side of the building, so I found myself walking barefoot in a market area surrounded by cows, motorbike and stalls to get to the shoe stall and recuperate my sandals. It was quite of an experience, and the first of the day. Getting down I started to inspect the stores in that area. The two main shopping areas are around this bridge and a larger one around Raj Jhula, the other bridge. Unfortunately, the stores were closed at that hour so I rushed back to get a tuk-tuk and go back to the hotel to join with my friends and go together in several places.
On the way I had another experience, an “Indian incident” when I felt on my foot and sandal something soft, warm and mushy and I realized that I stepped in a huge cow dung. I was at a loss contemplating my options, not being in this situation ever, but amused in the same time by the ridiculous of my puzzlement. After trying to no avail to clean myself on the even dirtier pavement one guy pointed to me the water tap on the street, probably used successfully by many who had such an “unfortunate” incident. I rushed to the hotel where Emil made some surprising arrangement to meet a swami who lived dressed with a loin cloth in the Himalayas for 15 years. Swami Ram Kripalu was accepted as a disciple by his guru under this condition and he did not hesitate to cast away all his possessions and join his guru in the cave. We took a tuk-tuk and after buying some gifts we started to look for his address. In his small ashram on the shore of the Ganga Swamiji was in a puja that proved to be very interesting. After the puja he received us for a darshan and my friends pointed the connections they had with him through another friend who stayed at his ashram. It was impressive to meet him, mainly by his feats but also for his …long hair that was 1.5 longer than his height.
After the darshan we went to eat the prasad offered by the swami at the puja that played as lunch for the day, got a tuk-tuk and with a small stop at the hotel we went to Sivananda Ashram, me first followed by my friends. Unfortunately we came latter than 12pm and all the halls , including the library and the Sivananda’s tomb were closed but Bhajan Hall was open and that one was the one we were looking for being then most important. There, since the death of Swami Sivananada, it is continuously recited a matra, the place being energetically charged accordingly. I stayed for a while listening to the matra and inspecting the place, decorated with pictures of gods, prophets including Jesus, Mary and swamis. It was already very late and we originally planned to leave at 12pm.
Kankal
In the end after all sorts of delays we finally left at 1:30 pm and we stopped for almost one hour in Kankhal, several kms outside of Rishikesh at a temple dedicated to Daksha Mahadev and the 10 manifestations of the Godess. The three temples were impressive, especially the one for the godess with the wall covered in mirrors. More interesting was a tree that was used as a Shiva temple, surrounded by lingams and nandi bulls, whose branches were covered in the strings sold at the temple to adorn this kind of trees. There were three trees in one that symbolizes the three manifestation of the reveled God, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Around the tree were lots of people but the funniest was a swami that started to film us with his cellphone, instead of us filming him… The majority of the swamis, if not all, carry cellphones and take pictures with them. After a short stop on the Ganga’s canals near the temple we left because it was already 2:30 pm and we had a very long road ahead. But the road proved to be OK, the 7 hours promised between Delhi to Rishikesh were now exact almost to the minute getting in Ashwani beautiful place at 9:30 pm. On the road we stopped in the same beautiful Chetal Grand to eat, surrounded by flowers buckets and the entire road was a debate about Hinduism, swamis, sidhis, yoga, meditation without a dull moment, the ideas flowing continuously. The only thing worth mentioning from the road was one man who was doing parikrama on the road’s asphalt in prostrations going to Kumba Mela. A real act of devotion! In Delhi, Ashwani came to meet us and after a quick tea we made the arrangements and the payments for the second part of the trip that I will do solo based on a schedule that was more clear now than when I arrived in India. I asked for the driver to leave at 7:00 am. During this time I was fighting with the Internet that worked so well last time but it was as dead now.
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