With most yoga venues and schools closed for the summer and monsoon season and various teachers apparently out of town, there remained a number of possibilities and places to take class. My lonely planet guide listed and recommended about six ashrams and teachers in town. In addition to these there were countless flyers and advertisements for yoga classes and workshops. Many of these flyers were outdated and advertised classes from the busy period earlier in the yr. My first full day in Rishikesh I made it a point to visit as many of the recommended sites as listed in L.P. as possible, in addition to some posted on the walls around town. One such place that I visited and I previously had recommended to me was the Yoga Niketan, near the Ram Jhula bridge and the extremely lively and noisy taxi/rickshaw stand. Fortunately the ashram was located many steps up a hill, covered by fence and far enough away from the chaos of the street to insulate against most of the noise.
My initial experience in attempting to visit Y.N. and find out more about their program epitimized the ever occurring frustrations and difficulties in speaking with Indians using the English language. While practically all Indians seem to speak English to varying degrees of efficacy, their style and manner of communicating it can be quite frustrating. Upon walking up the flight of steps to reach the grounds of the ashram, there was a guard station overseeing checking in and out of the grounds. In speaking with the attendent at the station I attempted to express my desire to learn more about the ashram and find out who to speak to about pertinent information. Repeatably he would answer that "it is not possible" or something to that effect, along with the standard Indian bobbing of the head, which I have yet to figure out. I attempted to rephrase my request about 3-4 more times in more basic and simple language but was still met with "it is not possible." Finally after almost throwing up my arms in defeat and frustration he seemed to comprehend my purpose in being there and my desire to speak with the administrators, located at a bld about 50 ft further along a pass. I think initially he thought I wanted to walk through the grounds by myself and see things, which is not permitted. However at last I was admitted into the grounds and was impressed by the well maintained campus and very nice gardens. Apparently lots of work had been put into the place to make it look impressive.
As it took much uphill walking to reach the ashram from the street, it was located high up enough to provide excellent views of the Ganges River and the distant views of the festivities alongside other side of the river. I found out the minimum stay at the ashram was 15 days at 500 rupees per day, approx $12.50 a day. This included a room with a luxuriously rigid bed, good for the back and spine, 3 meals a day, and 2 yoga and meditation classes a day apiece. We also had access to a decent library during certain hrs of the day which had a nice collection of yogic and associated literature, as well as some magazines. First bell rings at 4:30am with meditation beginning at 5-6am followed by yoga from 630 -730am, then breakfast at 8am. In the evening yoga was 5-6pm, meditation from 7-8pm, then dinner at the late time of 8:15pm. Food was decent, traditinal Indian vegetarian cuisine referred to as "Thali." This consisted of white rice, lentils and beans, a cooked vegetable mix, fresh cucumber slices, and chapati, this being a thin, flat, circulate cooked dough. It was good stuff and very filling, but tiring eating the pretty much the same stuff each meal. Fortunately if u wanted you could leave the ashram pretty much whenever you wanted, as long as u back inside by 10pm, and eat elsewhere if you wanted some variety and didn't mind spending some more money. Breakfast was some kind of rice ghoulash which I didn't often portake in, although it wasn't that bad.
When I arrived at the ashram there were approx 25 people, or inmates as we are referred to on the ashram literature. An eclectic mix from the U.S., Europe, Australia, lots of Japanese, and some Chinese. Interestingly there were 2 people other than myself from Denver, CO. One was a hippie with huge dreadlocks who said he lived in LoDo and sometimes took classes at Corepoweryoga in town. The other was an interesting native Chilean who recently earned his PhD in electrical engineering and was now teaching at U Colo Denver. His current apartment in the capital hill neigh of Denver was a mere few blocks away from one of my previous apartments. He seemed like a cool guy worth keeping in touch with. He is also a big soccer fan and player who I can find out more about pickup soccer games. Other Americans included a woman named Sunshine from the hills of Georgia, a refugee from the Evangelistic Christianity of the south. She had some shoulder issues and asked if I would do some massage therapy on her after finding out I was a therapist back home. First time I had done massage in a while. Another guy, Adam in his mid twenties from Florida, arrived in India several wks ago and plans on staying for about a yr or so, primarily immersing himself in yoga and the spiritual of India. His yoga practice was very mindful and controlled, enhanced and shaped by several yrs of Tai Chi practice prior to picking up yoga several yrs ago. I hope to keep in touch with him through the yr to see what kind of experiences he encounters and recommends, as I would love to make it back to India in coming yrs. My time in India is much too short to get around to experiencing everything I would like to. Another woman from Ireland I felt sorry for as she broke her arm walking down one of the sidewalks of the ashram, attempted to break her fall when she slipped.
Another dude, Paul in his 30's from Ireland and I believe another engineer by trade, I had a chance to play chess with. This the first time for me playing chess since being in the islands of Thailand. He has an amazing time coming up for himself, as he is traveling throughout Thailand, down to Indonesia and Australia and New Zealand finding beaches to surf at. One of the Chinese girls, Unki in her late twenties, was one of the most beautiful Chinese ladies I have ever met. She does some kind of modeling work back in Shanghai China and while here practicing yoga is escaping the madness of the Olympics in China.
My initial experience in attempting to visit Y.N. and find out more about their program epitimized the ever occurring frustrations and difficulties in speaking with Indians using the English language. While practically all Indians seem to speak English to varying degrees of efficacy, their style and manner of communicating it can be quite frustrating. Upon walking up the flight of steps to reach the grounds of the ashram, there was a guard station overseeing checking in and out of the grounds. In speaking with the attendent at the station I attempted to express my desire to learn more about the ashram and find out who to speak to about pertinent information. Repeatably he would answer that "it is not possible" or something to that effect, along with the standard Indian bobbing of the head, which I have yet to figure out. I attempted to rephrase my request about 3-4 more times in more basic and simple language but was still met with "it is not possible." Finally after almost throwing up my arms in defeat and frustration he seemed to comprehend my purpose in being there and my desire to speak with the administrators, located at a bld about 50 ft further along a pass. I think initially he thought I wanted to walk through the grounds by myself and see things, which is not permitted. However at last I was admitted into the grounds and was impressed by the well maintained campus and very nice gardens. Apparently lots of work had been put into the place to make it look impressive.
As it took much uphill walking to reach the ashram from the street, it was located high up enough to provide excellent views of the Ganges River and the distant views of the festivities alongside other side of the river. I found out the minimum stay at the ashram was 15 days at 500 rupees per day, approx $12.50 a day. This included a room with a luxuriously rigid bed, good for the back and spine, 3 meals a day, and 2 yoga and meditation classes a day apiece. We also had access to a decent library during certain hrs of the day which had a nice collection of yogic and associated literature, as well as some magazines. First bell rings at 4:30am with meditation beginning at 5-6am followed by yoga from 630 -730am, then breakfast at 8am. In the evening yoga was 5-6pm, meditation from 7-8pm, then dinner at the late time of 8:15pm. Food was decent, traditinal Indian vegetarian cuisine referred to as "Thali." This consisted of white rice, lentils and beans, a cooked vegetable mix, fresh cucumber slices, and chapati, this being a thin, flat, circulate cooked dough. It was good stuff and very filling, but tiring eating the pretty much the same stuff each meal. Fortunately if u wanted you could leave the ashram pretty much whenever you wanted, as long as u back inside by 10pm, and eat elsewhere if you wanted some variety and didn't mind spending some more money. Breakfast was some kind of rice ghoulash which I didn't often portake in, although it wasn't that bad.
When I arrived at the ashram there were approx 25 people, or inmates as we are referred to on the ashram literature. An eclectic mix from the U.S., Europe, Australia, lots of Japanese, and some Chinese. Interestingly there were 2 people other than myself from Denver, CO. One was a hippie with huge dreadlocks who said he lived in LoDo and sometimes took classes at Corepoweryoga in town. The other was an interesting native Chilean who recently earned his PhD in electrical engineering and was now teaching at U Colo Denver. His current apartment in the capital hill neigh of Denver was a mere few blocks away from one of my previous apartments. He seemed like a cool guy worth keeping in touch with. He is also a big soccer fan and player who I can find out more about pickup soccer games. Other Americans included a woman named Sunshine from the hills of Georgia, a refugee from the Evangelistic Christianity of the south. She had some shoulder issues and asked if I would do some massage therapy on her after finding out I was a therapist back home. First time I had done massage in a while. Another guy, Adam in his mid twenties from Florida, arrived in India several wks ago and plans on staying for about a yr or so, primarily immersing himself in yoga and the spiritual of India. His yoga practice was very mindful and controlled, enhanced and shaped by several yrs of Tai Chi practice prior to picking up yoga several yrs ago. I hope to keep in touch with him through the yr to see what kind of experiences he encounters and recommends, as I would love to make it back to India in coming yrs. My time in India is much too short to get around to experiencing everything I would like to. Another woman from Ireland I felt sorry for as she broke her arm walking down one of the sidewalks of the ashram, attempted to break her fall when she slipped.
Another dude, Paul in his 30's from Ireland and I believe another engineer by trade, I had a chance to play chess with. This the first time for me playing chess since being in the islands of Thailand. He has an amazing time coming up for himself, as he is traveling throughout Thailand, down to Indonesia and Australia and New Zealand finding beaches to surf at. One of the Chinese girls, Unki in her late twenties, was one of the most beautiful Chinese ladies I have ever met. She does some kind of modeling work back in Shanghai China and while here practicing yoga is escaping the madness of the Olympics in China.
The yoga teachers, three of them in their late twenties and early thirties, were amazing yogis in themselves showcasing amazing strength, balance, flexibility, and focus in their demonstrations of various asanas while leading class. While the classes were only 1 hr long and occassionally going over in time, they were very challenging and styled in a way much different than I am accustomed to. One morning the yoga asanas were ended approx 20 mins into class and we were all led outside to a patio area holding some large buckets of salt water. Here we were to be instructed in the yogic practice of nasal cleaning, the exact term escapes me at the moment. We were handed miniature looking water pitchers. With these we poured the salt water into one of our nostrils with our heads tilted, the objective to have the water come out the other nostril. This I was able to successfully accomplish , thoroughly cleansing out my nasal passages of all snot and associated debris. Breathing felt much easier. The next practice was much more challenging. This involved pouring the salt water down our throats without swallowing, then bring it up and out our nostrils. After repeatably swalling the brackish water and unsuccessfully squirting it out my nose, I frustratingly gave up while beginning to feel a nauseous feeling in my stomach from the accumulation of salt water in my empty stomach. The 3rd practice we were led into was even more difficult. Here we were to insert a stiff string into our nasal passage with the intent of guiding it down the correct passageway into our throat and up out our mouths. The yoga structor made it look so easy executring with such quickness and skill. I myself didn't come close to matching his skill. I was completely unable to get the string into the proper passageway in my nose. Instead it felt like the stiff string was being guided straight up into my frontal lobe. It was an extremely uncomfortable feeling, although I'm sure I was not near deep enough to be close to brain matter. It was very difficult attempting to relax my face well enough to allow the string into the proper passage. I had one of the teachers helping me out in trying to insert it into the proper spot, but each time I would tighten my face up preventing any success. After about 6-7 tries with help from the instructor and him attempting to get me to relax my face, I started to get a very lightheaded and nausous and had to walk away. I starting walking back up to my room and almost fell over as my head and stomach were spinning out of control. Fortunately I kept everything in my stomach.
The meditation instructor was a skinny Swami with a huge beard in his 60's or something who I couldn't comprehend a single word when he was speaking for several mins before each meditation session. Fortunately I didn't enter the ashram with the intent of learning how to meditate, instead to merely deepen my practice and hopefully calm my mind down a bit more. It would have been nice if I could have understood some of his messages which I am sure were quite instructive and wise. It can be very difficult at times understanding the English spoken by Indians with their heavy accents.
My room I had assigned was spacious enough with a single bed and my own bathroom with hot water heater for the shower. The shower didn't have a traditional western faucet allowing multiple streams of water coming out. Instead it just gushed out of a pipe from the wall one thick stream. I was just grateful to have a shower in my room and not have to venture to a shared facility which often get quite filthy. It was extremely humid and often very hot during the days, making the need to shower sometimes 3-4 times a day. It was very difficult to get clothes to dry as the air was so thick with moisture. Even though I had a large overhead fan to keep things relatively cool in my room, i would still sweat much while sleeping, when I was able to at least. This would dampen up the bed and pillow sheet, which didn't typically dry too well. By the end of the wk they were smelling like strong mildew, not exactly the most fragrant smell to rest my head and nose to. Fortunately I had lots of company in my room in the form of insects to keep me from being too alone. One evening I felt something crawling on me, in turning in the lights I discovered a rather large cockroach on my leg which had crawled up from the floor. 2nd time for me in Rishikesh I have woken up with a coachroach on or around me, the previous time one tickling my toes. I was at least wearing a pair of loose pants, which I had taken up to wearing at night to protect from mosquito and other bedbug bites. It felt like I was constantly getting nipped up by something, hence wearing a pair of pants and a t-shirt for protection even though they kept me more warm than necessary I found necessary. Applying lots of tiger balm to my ankles and feet and arms had a very nice analgesic and cooling sensation, also possibly deterring insects from the distinct aroma.
I wound up ultimately staying for 17 days. Would have been nice to stay longer but felt like it way time to get moving along. By the time I was ready to leave there were few Americans or other westerners left at the ashram. Mostly Japanese and Chinese. It was still nice to be around others speaking clear English and I could get to know some during the course of several wks. Feels like the past several wks or more I had spent much of my time alone, although I am always meeting curious Indians and Nepalese while in Nepal. My yoga practice definitely felt like it was strenghened while at the ashram. I went to a few other classes and teachers while in Rishikesh but didn't feel too compelled to continue to stick around with them. I look forward to heading up north to Dharamsala and Mcleod Ganj, the headquarters of the Dalai Lama and a large Tibetan community.
I wound up ultimately staying for 17 days. Would have been nice to stay longer but felt like it way time to get moving along. By the time I was ready to leave there were few Americans or other westerners left at the ashram. Mostly Japanese and Chinese. It was still nice to be around others speaking clear English and I could get to know some during the course of several wks. Feels like the past several wks or more I had spent much of my time alone, although I am always meeting curious Indians and Nepalese while in Nepal. My yoga practice definitely felt like it was strenghened while at the ashram. I went to a few other classes and teachers while in Rishikesh but didn't feel too compelled to continue to stick around with them. I look forward to heading up north to Dharamsala and Mcleod Ganj, the headquarters of the Dalai Lama and a large Tibetan community.
No comments:
Post a Comment