A lot has happened over the past two weeks. After the week of trekking to Dzongri, we had two weeks to recover from our aching feet & sore muscles by spending time in Darjeeling & Rishikesh– both in very different ways.
DARJEELING:
While in Darjeeling, we recouped anyway we saw fit. We all found some much needed rest & relaxation by doing whatever we wanted to do with our three days there. On the first day, everyone helped me celebrate my birthday which turned out to be one of the best birthdays I’ve had in a while thanks to all the amazing people on this trip. Since Darjeeling is a tea town, we all treated ourselves to freshly picked teas ranging from oolong to chai to green & to white. The Happy Tea Plantation was one place we visited that showed us the process of picking & making tea. On one of the later days, we all rode the much overrated “Toy Train.” It was highly recommended to us since it is a World Heritage site due to the fact that it was the first train built on a mountain. Instead of the peaceful scenic ride we were expecting, most of the time we spent cringing as the train’s horn blew our eardrums out every five seconds (or so it seemed). Whether someone spent their day shopping for Tibetan or Nepali jewelry, tasting different kinds of tea, exploring the zoo with some of our Israeli tourist friends, eating the cheapest & most delicious momo after momo after momo, treating ourselves to classy high tea at a fancy hotel, visiting some more beautiful Buddhist monasteries, or simply taking the time to relax & explore yet another amazing city, we all highly enjoyed our time spent in Darjeeling.
RISHIKESH:
Rishikesh was another week for us to unwind, but in a different, more spiritualistic way. The first day we arrived, we explored the city a bit, getting souvenirs for our families (or ourselves), & eating delicious foods. Some of us had our first experience with bathing in the Ganges. The beautiful, bright blue, chillingly cold water was intimidating at first, but after the first head dunk in the water, everyone was hooked. The peaceful calm that we first experienced in the mystical river was only the beginning of the week to come.
The second day, we made our way to the beautiful Phool Chatti Ashram, located far away from the city & right on the edge of the Ganges. We were greeted by an enthused Australian named Chris-Ji who had been “living the ashram life since 1969.” We later met our yoga teacher Lalita-Ji who had been living & teaching yoga at Phool Chatti for over 20 years. If you couldn’t guess, she was absolutely amazing with asana yoga (the actual yoga positions). We were joined by about 30 other people from all over the world who wanted to experience ashram life as well. From then on, we were required to be silent at all times, except for our two hours of free time. Here was our daily schedule:
5:30 — Wake-up call
6-6:30– Meditation
6:30-6:45– Chanting mantras
6:45-7– Netti Pot cleaning (shooting boogers our of your nose with salt water & a strange watering can looking device)
7-7:15– Pranayama (breathing exercises & warm up for Asana yoga)
7:15-8:45– Asana yoga
9– Breakfast (which always consisted of delicious porridge, fresh fruits, & chai)
9:30-10– Karma yoga (doing good deeds without expecting gratitude [a.k.a cleaning the ashrams toilets, floors etc.])
10:30- 12:30– Meditative walk (walking around the beautiful river & other areas which I’ll go more into detail)
12:30– Lunch & tea
1-3– Free time (the only time we were allowed to talk)
3-4– Lecture & discussion
4-5:30– Asana yoga
5:30-5:45– Pranayama yoga
Sunset– Pooja (blessing the temple & everyone who lived in the Ashram)
After Pooja– Chanting different mantras
7– Dinner
8:30-9– Guided meditation
Now that you have a vague idea of what most of us did during the day, I’ll go into more detail on some of our activities. Most of the days were pretty similar to each other, but also different since we would learn new poses, new breathing techniques, & learn different ways of meditating.
Another way they majored significantly was where we would go for our meditative walk. The first day, we followed a gutter that lead to a stream that connected to the Ganges. Many people bathed, & meditated about what we could give to the world.
The next meditation involved picking flowers that had already fallen from these beautiful vines of bright purple flowers overhanging the main gateway. We brought these flowers straight to the river & dipped ourselves in the water & set each flower down the stream, each flower symbolizing good fortune for someone we loved. We then ceremoniously dunked our heads three times to complete the tradition.
The day after that, we hiked up to one of the extraordinary waterfalls I have ever seen in my life. Although it wasn’t a very long, powerful, or tall waterfall, the water fell down in such a mystical way. There was one major, powerful stream that many of us dipped our heads under. The rest was little water rivulets that would drip down from hanging moss or simply spray towards you. We found a spot around the waterfall where we could meditate, taking in all the sounds & feelings & smells of the area.
An exploration through the vast gardens on the grounds was the next expedition. Being surrounding by so many beautiful flowers (especially roses) & other trees & plants was to help us connect with the world around us.
The last & final meditative walk was collecting firewood so we could have a big bonfire on the last night to celebrate all the different nationalities that were represented at the Ashram. That night we, the Americans, started the festivities by singing a combination of “Row Your Boat”, “Party in the USA” by Miley Cyrus, “American Pie”, “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”, & an amazing finale of all the boys of our group imitating N’SYNC by singing the infamous “Bye-Bye-Bye” song. Another nationalities proceeded with their own shenanigans for our enjoyment. This included Germans making us sing about ham & eggs, Canadians making their own song about bacon, maple syrup, & hockey, & Russians creating a game where everyone was kissed on the cheek after some dancing.
On our very last day, a fire was built using ayurvedic methods for us to chant around. We were all told to write on a piece of paper something that we wanted to rid ourselves of– anything ranging from getting rid of tight muscles to defeating our inner demons. We all sat around the fire pit& began to chant a prayer to Shiva:
Om triyambakam yajamahe, Sugandhim pustivardhanam, Uravarukamiva bandhan, Mirtyormucki amamritat
I worship the three eyed lord Shiva, who is full of fragrance & who nourishes everybody with health & vitality. May he liberate me from Death & to immortality.
We sat there, chanting, & meditating for 45 minutes. The mantra was chanted 108 times, each time to symbolize another name for Shiva. At the end, we threw more ayurvedic materials into the fire, along with our pieces of paper, transmitting our troubles away to the heavens for the gods to answer our wishes.
Although there is so much more to write since we were there for so long, we all enjoyed our time at Phool Chatti thanks to the amazing staff & the interesting group of people we spent our time with. Although originally many of us dreaded spending an entire week in silence, we soon realized that it was a time to be spent looking inward & question ourselves. A time to think about our pasts & what we have learned & wish to leave behind; a time to think about our present & if we were happy with our current situations; & most importantly, a time to think about our futures– what we want to do with our lives, how we can improve ourselves, & what we really wanted from life.
We spent one last day in Rishikesh, wandering around & doing what we liked. A group of us made our way out to the famous, abandoned Beatles Ashram. It was so interesting to walk around a completely deserted Ashram that they had all spent time at. Most of it is very broken down & has lots of graffitti consisting of Beatles lyrics strewn across the walls. Also, there were many broken toilets, which each time I saw one I thought “Cool, John Lennon or George Harrison could have pooped here.” For the rest of the day, we either did some last minute shopping, bathed in the Ganga one last time, or enjoyed one last apple strudel from a German Cafe.
Now we head to Amritsar (literally in like 15 minutes I have to hurry aaah!). One mantra that I’d like to leave with you that had a particular resonance with me is the Maha Mantra:
Hari Om Tat Sat Jai Guru Datta
Glory to that Supreme Being who leads us away from darkness to Light by taking away taking away the darkness of ignorance & gives us Supreme Enlightenment.
Best of wishes for all the families out there! We miss you all lots!
— Abby 😀
P.S. Pictures to come soon– I promise!!