Rishikesh and the Beatles

More animals in the street.

More than dental problems.

The walking bridge across the Ganges...

that motorcyles...

and cows also use.

Rishikesh on the Ganges.

Local people.

A 'mystic'.

The river.

The Beatles in Rishikesh, 1968.

The ruined cottage that they stayed in.

And the hall.

The sunset ceremony on the banks of the holy River Ganges.

And some of the faithful.

Wednesday, March 21^st.

I slept fairly well and woke up about 5:30. We sat around looking out the window at the rural scenes and multiple stations before disembarking at Haridwar. We loaded up in another van and a taxi for an hour drive to our new hotel in Rishikesh. Just when you I got used to the relatively clean area of Amritsar, the train dumped us in an armpit of India. The area was filthy, with garbage all over the place and so much dust and pollution that the air was grey. Traffic was chaotic and the taxi ride I had felt more like a race through a video game. It is amazing how I have not seen an accident anywhere yet.

We arrived too early to check in, so we had a great breakfast at a restaurant next door, but the service was really slow. Then we had to sit around longer to get our rooms. Maybe I am just irritable from the short sleep on the train. After we checked in I had a nap for a couple of hours before we met up for our walk into the town of Rishikesh. This city is the yoga capital of the world and many people come here for training in both yoga and transcendental meditation.

We walked about five kilometres across a single lane walking bridge over the Ganges River along with motorcycles and cows, and then along the roads following the river. We saw many of the shadu holy men who give up all of their worldly belongings and devote themselves to mediation and prayer in order to attain enlightenment. Prerna told us that the real ones do it in isolation in the mountains and the ones we saw begging or charging for photos are fakers preying on the tourists. We walked all the way to the entrance of the Rajaji Tiger Reserve where Maharishi Mahesh Yogi had the transcendental meditation ashram retreat that the Beatles attended in 1968, as did Donovan, Mike Love (of the Beach Boys) and Mia Farrow, among others. We walked through the grounds and were amazed by the devastation and state of the many buildings. They were built in the early 1960’s but they are all in total ruin and look like they have been for years. It is hard to believe they were only built sixty years ago. We found the cottage where the Beatles stayed, it too was a shambles, and a large hall that has a couple of large beautiful paintings of them on the walls. The weather was cloudy, cool, and windy. There were very few people about and all of this gave the place a very eerie, freaky atmosphere. Steven and I talked about how this was arguably where the Beatles began to fall apart, as John and George were very interested in meditation and Ringo and Paul were more of the mind that the Yogi was using them and taking advantage of their celebrity for his own benefit. 

The Beatles visit inspired a global interest in meditation and yoga and Rishikesh become a popular tourist destination, especially for foreign visitors. Maharishi’s transcendental meditation program also gained worldwide popularity, with millions of people practising it worldwide. He died in 2008.

We walked around for a bit before going back to a meeting place to find Prerna, who then led us to the main Ashram which is situated on the bank of the holy Ganges River. Here every evening at dusk the yogi and the faithful hold a celebration and pray to the river and the gods. We stood and watched that as the sun set. We also took a short walk through the Ashram where foreigners come live and to learn about meditation and yoga. Then most of us loaded up in a couple of large tuk tuks (six seaters) and headed back to the hotel for dinner and to sleep. It was a long tiring day.

The first accident we saw was when our two tuk tuks stopped at our hotel and we got out. Prerna had paid the one in the back and when he got out and went to give the other guy his share of the money, he forgot to put the brake on and it rolled and banged into the back of the other. No worries they just drove off.