Back in India...

Well, here I am in Rishikesh. I haven't written in a while and there's a reason.

I was in Varanasi. A city I'd been drawn to come to for some years. I hated it. Every moment of it.

Now, when I realised I was sabotaging myself, which is always the case, I chose to change my mind and see things differently it got better and I was able to enjoy myself and the odd experiences there more. But it was still so hot that my brain wouldn't work. Also my laptop was too powerful for the wifi there, so I couldn't use it either. So the heat and that are enough to keep one from posting anything or writing too long of a blog, or a blog at all hahaha...

I am a temple whore. I love to go into temples and feel the energy, especially if its a deity I know about and have a love for their stories, but in Varanasi, maybe in the north of India as a whole, they are very different. In Mysore the deities are tucked safely away in their own sanctum sanctorum, or alcoves, the people are very respectful. They are open armed and welcoming and there is a certain protocol. These things don't exist here in the north, or in Varaasi anyway.

Once in the Kala Bhairava temple I was even yelled at and made to feel less because I wasn't giving enough money for this little ceremony they'd done for me which involved being beaten with a black stick btw, so it was not pleasant!

I wasn't even allowed in the Kashi Vishwanath temple, one of the oldest in the land, because I didn't bring my passport. How was I to know that would be needed?!? But after an aggravating night trying to get in there I went to a lovely temple on the way back home and the night felt redeemed. The people were lovely, welcoming and didn't bug us for cash.

The temples weren't my only experiences for sure, but they are some of the most dramatic. There was a lovely dosa place, there is Baba Lassi which uses a very old school family recipe to prepare and make different flavored lassis and boy I could use on right now! There were the ghats that led to the Ganga. There was this little South Indian temple in the lineage of Shankaracharya that was quiet, and felt like home. There was even a great Hanuman temple in the city more that was so quaint and the priests really involved us in the ceremony.

Then there was the night after that, we'd gotten full flower malls around our necks from this Hanuman temple and as we were coming home at dusk decided that they would just die in the room because it was so hot in there so we decided to put them in the Ganga. I was looking at these kids so happily playing in her, splashing and making lots of noise, that I neglected to notice there was a hole that the shit and urine from the above hotels was creeping out of there about three steps up and I stepped right into it, slid and landed on my left hip, elbow and shoulder. The same side I'd hurt when I was in my wreck in Mysore last fall, and the same areas again got injured. I bounced/slid down almost into the Ganga which is so filthy here that as a Westerner I would get sick from getting in. I was sort of in shock but all these kids came swimming over, oh, you are our friend, here, lets wash it off of you, and they helped me clean up as best as possible. But it still took three washings to get the shit and the smell of shit out of those shorts! After a few days practice the bruises were going away and only my shoulder now still hurts in the same place from the earlier mentioned wreck, but it's okay too.

Anyhow, my travel companion and I left early. Were able to get train tickets leaving this past Tuesday and came to Rishikesh.

Now the train ride was 24 hours, which is a miserable amount of time, but I met an older couple coming here for a meditation retreat at an ashram and a French clown who teaches children to juggle and is an avid meditator. He is staying in the same guest house as us, but the other two are are Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's ashram until today, then they go back home. Retired now they are enjoying pursuing the spiritual life and what it's bringing to their daily lives.

So even though its a long time to either sit or lie down it could have been worse.

Now I'm here in the foothills of the Himalayas, and with a clean Ganga to bathe in daily and many sadhus walking around and far too many Westerners walking around too! It's a bit too commercial for my liking with a yoga school on every corner offering Iyengar, Ashtanga, Vinyasa flow, tantric, and all other sorts of classes taught by 22 year olds who've not practiced much in their life. Very judgmental of me, yes, I know...

But its still better than my last location, and the trees, the temples, the people, even though used to seeing white faces are still a lot more soft and easy than in Varanasi. Not like in Mysore at all ,very different, but still nicer than that.

ok, off here to go to the Ganga for a swim and I hope you're enjoying your summer!