Sunday in Rishikesh

Sunday is a great day to buzz around Rishikesh. Everyone and everything is out and about doing their thing.

Day 2 of silence and eating Khichuri with Ghee. I'm quite enjoying the silence but not the Khichuri. Had enough of it this stage and starving.

I met an English guy while I was waiting at Passport control in Delhi who was heading to somewhere near Dharamsala (where the Dalai Lama resides in exile) on a pilgrimage which he does every year and he had been fasting for the days leading up until.


Fasting is common in many religions and for good reason to remind ourselves how lucky we are to have a constant and abundant supply of food which we generally take for granted.

I mentioned in the last blog that we would be practicing a cleansing technique which involved drinking between 7-10 litres of salt water and repeating 5 basic Asanas until the salt water passed back out through the bowel the same colour it went in.

So 6am on Saturday morning we began and I finished before 8am. I actually enjoyed the experience. Something completely different. It is suggested that this Kriya should be practiced with the turn of the seasons.

This is all in preparation for beginning a week of Kundalini Yoga Practice. Traditionally the body must be cleansed for any chance of success within one's practice.

Which brings me to the Kriya (Cleansing Technique) we will begin tomorrow morning before 5.30am and will repeat each and every morning at that time.

This is called Basti Dhauti which means colon cleaning and is often referred to as a Yogic Enema. I'll post a picture of what we will use for this Kriya and leave it at that:-)

I'll let your imagination work it out.

I don't practice Kundalini at home and never have but the last time I was here two years ago Vishva Ji taught some classes which I attended.

Wiki says:

Kundalini is described as a sleeping, dormant potential force in the human organism.^[6] It is one of the components of an esoteric description of man's 'subtle body', which consists of nadis (energy channels), chakras (psychic centres), prana (subtle energy), and bindu (drops of essence).

Kundalini is described as being coiled up at the base of the spine, usually within muladhara chakra. The image given is that of a serpent coiled 3 and a half times around a smokey grey lingam. Each coil is said to represent one of the 3 gunas, with the half coil signifying transcendence.

Through meditation, and various esoteric practices, such as laya-yoga,^[7] and kriya yoga, the kundalini is awakened, and can rise up through the central nadi, called sushumna, that rises up inside or alongside the spine. The progress of kundalini through the different chakras leads to different levels of awakening and mystical experience, until the kundalini finally reaches the top of the head, Sahasrara chakra, producing an extremely profound mystical experience.

I was as sceptical as anyone could be towards the practice. My understanding of Kundalini being limited to say the least. We were not instructed as to how we might react physically or emotionally and if we were I would've been even more sceptical.

My reaction to the Kundalini classes was very very intense. It was a couple of hours afterwards when Vishva Ji described some of the things that might happen so that I might understand what had happened to me. I would not be able to believe it if somebody else was telling me it had happened to them. We'll see what next week has in store.

I had to get some pictures of the Sadhus/Babas/Holy Men today. They're everywhere in Rishikesh. It is normal to be strolling along through town and walk passed a few of them absolutely blasting 'Holy Smoke' into them.

So the lads chill out on the beaches by the Ganges all day every day blazing it up and not doing anything much else other than going in for a dip every now and then and sunbathing and they call it a religion. You have to love this place.


So apparently we're going to be kept up all night as it is a full moon and this is the most common night for Indian weddings. Since we arrived there has been diggers in clearing a site next to the Ashram which I thought, up until two days ago, was for an apartment block.

The area has been cleared, and it's probably half the size of a football pitch for a wedding which will go on for two days. As I was coming here I walked past the teams cooking for who knows how many people but they looked busy.

I'll leave you with a picture I took at the hairdressers the other day and a reminder that there is an album just added to the facebook page of rocking around Rishikesh today.

Om Santih, Santih, Santih.