Ganga

so i am in rishikesh. and it has been wonderful up until about 2 minutes ago... i came into the internet cafe next to my hotel and a man started screaming at the owner... screaming awful racist things... telling the man he was going to kill him... to murder him in the shop... all at the top of his lungs while the place was filled with 12 year old white children in turbans on an ashram trip. the man spit on the floor and spit on the owner and gave me sick feeling deep in my stomach.

anyway, glad that's over. so i am here on the ganga... two days ago i was in haridwar. i put the ashes of a mother divine lady in the water after a puja before the aarti. it was incredibly sweet and fulfilling. my hotel was disgusting but now i am here with a lovely balcony where i think i will stay for a week or so. $5 a night and about $2 a day for food... im chillin.

(Haridwar pics)

this is where i put in the ashes...

evening arti in Haridwar

this morning i went for chai and watched monkeys climb around my head.... then headed over to Mataji's. She was a disciple of guru deva with maharishi and now lives here in an ashram. she speaks only hindi but i was with a hindi speaker, so i got to hear so many stories of their days together with guru deva. she was there with him and maharishi when guru deva left his body and told us the story, and has his sandals he was wearing when he left. she does puja to them each morning. she made us kitcheree and we laughed and she played with my hair. as much as im not making it sound very exciting because the keyboard is sticking and i cant hardly bear to type, it has been the hightlight of my trip thus far.

every evening at sunset they perform the aarti in swarg ashram on the river. they do a whole puja to the ganga with about 100 young pundtants. its wonderful... the singing and clapping right on the water, with as many candles burning and being used in the puja. i got video of it on a friends camera and ill post it when she sends it. some of the osho people were there, who try to achieve enlightenment through kundalini energy and such... so basically they have sex and dance. the dancing was great... they just close their eyes and wildly dance about throughout the aarti. i was loving it... but the BO was strong :(

i hope i find someone with my camera charger soon. i got someone to charge my ipod so i finally get to hear music.

(rishikesh pics)

i'm obsessed with my cheeky monkeys

my favorite gate in rishikesh... the ganesh at the top is so dope. this was an ashram i walked through on my way to arti or dinner every night.

same ashram except at night...