Parmarth Niketan Ashram, Rishikesh Day 10

Friday, October 9, 2009

After a hair-raising drive from Chandrigarh, we arrive just at sunset in Rishikesh, serenely located on the banks of the Ganges amid lush, wooded hills. We try to check into the largest ashram there, Parmarth Niketan Ashram, only to discover our double-confirmed reservations have vanished into the night air.

So we attend the Ganga aarti (more about this later) while things sort themselves. Soon rooms materialize, and we haul our belongings to our rooms for the week. Rishikesh is known for its ashrams and practice of ancient knowledge, such as yoga, ayurveda, and meditation. Situated on the confluence of the Chandrabhaya and the Ganges, Rishikesh marks the start of the holy Char Dham pilgrim route.

Parmarth Niketan Ashram
Parmarth Ashram, headed by well-known guru, Pujya Swamiji, has accommodations open to all tourists. With about 1000 rooms, the ashram is a blend of modern amenities (running water, showers, and sit toilets) and traditional spiritual simplicity. Known for its clean, pure, sacred atmosphere and gardens, pilgrims flock here from all over the world.

Basically, the ashram is a cross between college dorm and Australian youth hostel, each room about the size of a hospital room. The bathrooms intrigue us--the shower is situated next to the john with no separation or shower curtain. Thus each shower use yields a thoroughly soaked john. But once we find a bar of soap, tp, towels, and two sheets each, we're in business. We mostly ignore the mold and dirt embedded everywhere.

If we want three meals a day at the ashram, it's included. Much like our dorm of more than 40 years ago, we have a curfew of 10 pm. If we're not in rooms by then, we're told the doors are locked and it's up to us to find someplace else to sleep for the night!

Daily activities at the ashram include universal prayers, yoga, meditation, Ayuravedic treatments. It operates a boarding school for about 125 boys (saffron-robed), mostly from impoverished backgrounds, whose education consists of the study of the ancient languages of sanskrit and Hindi, their traditions and chants, blended with the study of English and computers. The aim is to raise these boys to become men who sow the seeds of wisdom and tradition throughout the world.

Pilgrims come from across the world to take intensive courses on yoga, meditation, pranayama, stress management, acupressure, Reiki, and other ancient Indian sciences. According to their literature, Parmarth Niketan's charitible activities and services make no distinctions on the basis of caste, color, gender, creed, or nationality. Instead they emphasize unity, harmony, peace, global integrity, health, and the holistic connection between the body, mind, and spirit.

After the initial confusion about rooms, we're amazed to be treated like royalty. Before dinner we're invited into one of the special meeting rooms for a private audience with the chief spokesperson in residence at the ashram. She explains the significance of the Ganga aarti and the many programs we're invited to beome involved in, then invites us to participate in an early morning walk with the school boys and be special guests at the aarti ceremony the next evening.

Lively Nights
We go to bed to the strains of crickets chirping loudly and monkeys screeching even louder. I awake at 3:30 am to church bells ringing, bongos thumping, chanting, and an instrument resembling copper pipes banging together. All seem to emanate from below our windows. By 4:00 am I 'm too curious to further attempt sleep and go out to explore the source of the commotion. Find the courtyards and meeting hall alive with people worshiping and walking around as though it were noon. These rituals repeat every night, but the following nights I make more of an effort to get some sleep.

Even more sleep-robbing than these activities, every night it sounds as though hospital multi-tray food carts are hurtling down a ramp--crash, boom, thud--smashing into a wall at the bottom. Mystery solved, we discover monkeys chase each other over the corrugated tin roofs above our heads each night and raise a horrible racket. They also plop themselves on our windowsills and peer through the bars during the night. Our roles have reversed. Now we're the ones behind the bars in the zoo. A bit unsettling!

Ah, but more adventures await us in the morning . . .