Ananda College of Living Wisdom Study Abroad 2010 Part Two: Northern India

Northern India’s Ashrams & Holy Sites

Moving north from Kerala, we take a 28-hour overnight train to Pune, in the state of Maharashta.
We are about an hour outside of town, at the foot of a small mountain on the new land of the first Ananda Sangha Kriya Yoga Community.

The view has shifted from coconut palms and water to the dry, sparse land of the high plains with only an occasional palm tree. We stay in tents and use a nearby shower house. A small temple, kitchen and makeshift dining room feels a bit like the old Ananda Seclusion Retreat in the early days. There are even 3 miles of potholes and dirt roads to navigate, a constant reminder of the obstacles and opportunities that life brings us.

We are doing service projects and helping ready the new community for future guests. The staff here is quite joyful and busy. We help them scrub floors, clean sinks, hang drapes and make ourselves useful in preparation for Nayaswami Kriyananda’s visit. Brahmacharini Narayani and Brahmacharya Aditya are our hosts, and they lead us in meditation, kirtan and singing, cooking and day to day life.

Narayani , who has captivated our hearts, and Aditya, who is a young doctor, take the students on a day-long hike up the mountain to a remote village where Aditya performs medical assistance to those in need.

We meet up with Charles Evans, head gardener for our Ananda College & Meditation Retreat. Charles has been living here for several weeks, showing the local laborers how to build lovely curving walls and plant trees and gardens.

One of the highlights of our trip was a satsang or “meeting” with Nayaswami Kriyananda, one of the last living disciples who was with Yogananda, and the founder and inspiration behind our college. We were excited to learn that he is writing a screenplay on Yogananda’s life, taken from the “Autobiography of a Yogi.”

Pune offered us a glimpse at what a small group of dedicated people can do to create something beautiful for God. The people living together to create this community, Indians and Westerners side-by-side, have lots of energy, determination and of course, patience.

Varanasi, city of Shiva

From Pune we travel to Varanasi, on the banks of the Ganges River in the state of Uttar Pradesh in north eastern India. Varanasi (or Benares, as it is also known) is the oldest continuously inhabited city on the planet. It is one of the main Hindu pilgrimage spots, and myriads of ancient spiritual tales exist about Varanasi.

We are situated at Assi Ghat, right on the Ganges, with a view of the river and its skyline of old buildings and temples. Cows are considered sacred to Hindus, and many of them roam freely through the narrow city streets here. We quickly learn that the cow “does what it wants” and since we are walking everywhere we must now navigate a plethora of motor rickshaws, bicyclists and our new four-footed friends.

The cows are nature’s “litter patrol” and people toss down used banana peels and a variety of compost items for them. India grows lots of sugar cane and local vendors offer raw sugar juice, freshly squeezed from the cane itself. It’s quite good, and not unusual to see a token cow eating the abandoned cane right next to your juice stand!

When we were on Kerala’s backwaters we often heard Muslims chanting their daily “call to prayers” sometimes three times a day. In Varanasi, the Hindus begin chanting mantras as the sun rises above the Ganges River and again at dusk when the sun sets. These simple gestures of respect for God and nature are felt tangibly in India, and even more so in Varanasi.

We take an evening boat ride down the Ganges to enjoy the lights and sights of the Ganga Arati, a daily holy event held at the Dasasamewdh Ghat. There are hundreds of tourists, pilgrims and westerners here, from all over the world. Varanasi is a holy city for Buddhists as well. The nearby town of Sarnath is celebrated as the spot where Buddha gave his first sermon.

The next morning, we embark again by boat down the Ganges. We have our morning meditation and chanting on the boat, then visit a variety of ashrams with time to meditate and absorb the blissful vibrations of saints who have lived here over the course of hundreds and thousands of years.

There are lots of shops to entice us and from time to time we gladly succumb. We are all journaling and photographing daily. We are on a fast pace with lots to take in and process in India.

From Varanasi we fly to New Delhi for a stay in Gurgaon with folks at the Ananda India ashram.
We are here to spend time at a school and farm about an hour from Delhi. The farm has a dairy and we have the chance to milk cows and learn how to hand-churn butter.

Onward to Haridwar & Rishikesh

We boarded the morning train from Delhi to Haridwar on Valentine’s Day, February 14. After taking our seats, the porter hands us each a bottle of mineral water and a newspaper. The headlines talk of a terrorist blast that happened in Pune just the night before. It was a little unnerving learning of this news. We’d just left Pune only a week ago!

A great saint once said “in the future, you won’t be safe anywhere.” The incident in Pune brings into sharp focus our own spiritual journey and the need to connect with God in our own hearts.

We arrive in the city of Haridwar amidst the Kumbha Mela (Holy Festival) an event that occurs every 12 years and lasts for several months. We are staying at the Keshab Ashram, right on the banks of the holy Ganges. The small ashram has a mandir dedicated to Lahiri Mahasaya, the householder saint.

We stroll along the Ganges Boardwalk, a wide sidewalk that stretches from the Keshab Ashram up to the main ghats in downtown Haridwar. There are sadhus and holy people everywhere, and the city and the outskirts are filled with tents to house them all. The west’s current interest in India, yoga and sadhus is bringing more attention to these holy events.

We travel on to Rishikesh, about an hour from Haridwar at the foothills of the Himalayas. Like Varanasi and Haridwar, Rishikesh is a Hindu pilgrimage site on the banks of the holy Ganges and lined with ashrams and temples.

Experiencing India is like dipping into a fathomless spiritual lake.

The place we are staying in overlooks the Ganges and the Lakshman Juhl footbridge that we cross each day on our way to visit a variety of saintly people like Vanamali Devi, a noted author and teacher who has just completed her recent book “Sri Hanuman Lila”. She has connected us with our next service project at the Amar Jyoti Free School, a school started by a man who is serving the poor rural children of migrant workers who come here from all over India.

In nearby Dehra Dun, we have a kirtan and satsang with Swami Gyanananda, an elderly yogi who came to India from Switzerland in 1952 and has lived here ever since. The Swami spent many years living in seclusion in the Himalayas and now holds daily satsangs for a small group of devotees at his kutir in Dehra Dun. The swami has been very interested in our college and offered some suggestions for new courses, ancient knowledge passed down from the rishis (wise sages) from higher ages.

It is a little after 6:00 p.m. here at our post on the holy Ganges and the evening chanting and mantras signaling sundown have begun. We leave for the USA in a week, perhaps eager to see family and friends. Our time here in India has been well-spent, each individual’s journal will no doubt be filled with personal observations and insights. When we return to the college campus at our forest ashram it will be spring, and new flowers will be blossoming.