January 11, 2006
January 11, 2006
Up in the morning, showered, dressed, breakfast and then on to the domestic airport to fly to Dehradun to be driven to Rishikesh where I will stay at Parmath Niketan Ashram with Swamiji Chidanand Saraswati and his assistant, Sadhvi Bhagwati.
Although the flight was delayed by several hours, when we finally took off from the domestic airport in Delhi, the sun was shining and the temperature was quite comfortable, especially for someone having just come from Maine, where for the past several days, daytime highs were in the low to mid 20s. The short flight brought us ever closer to the snow-capped Himalayas and yet, beneath us was the lush farmland of the area surrounding Dehradun. Even from the air, it was easy to distinguish the rich yellow-green of mustard crops. When our plane landed at the one runway airstrip, the bags were brought to us and a driver who had my name printed on a white card met me. He took my bag, and then drove me to a gurukul (a school where boys study with a guru) which is overseen by the Swami, and where some of the organic vegetables are grown for Parmarth Niketan. I was invited to the garden, where two young women from northwest Canada and a gentleman from the Czech Republic were sitting. Chai was brought to us and we talked a bit about their mission. They were part of a group of dentists and dental hygienists, who had traveled to India and brought free dental care to the people in various villages and were now traveling for the next two months, before returning to their home countries.
We finished our chai and returned to the truck, and then were driven through villages, across a bridge spanning the Ganges (the Mother Ganga) River, to Rishikesh. We then left the principle road and ventured up some roads winding around the foothills of the Himalayas, almost like switchbacks, occasionally meeting an oncoming vehicle, where their car had to squeeze over against the hillside or our truck had to nudge ever-so-close to the road’s edge which had fallen away several hundred feet to the river bed below. When we finally arrived at the ashram, the folks from Canada and Czech Republic departed the bus and I was escorted into the office. I was greeted by Swamiji's assistant, Sadhvi Bhagwati and welcomed to the ashram. I had not seen her since this past April, although I had spoken to her on the telphone on a number of occasions. What transpired during the next fifteen hours was rather amazing, and I will enter a separate journal regarding it at a later date.
Up in the morning, showered, dressed, breakfast and then on to the domestic airport to fly to Dehradun to be driven to Rishikesh where I will stay at Parmath Niketan Ashram with Swamiji Chidanand Saraswati and his assistant, Sadhvi Bhagwati.
Although the flight was delayed by several hours, when we finally took off from the domestic airport in Delhi, the sun was shining and the temperature was quite comfortable, especially for someone having just come from Maine, where for the past several days, daytime highs were in the low to mid 20s. The short flight brought us ever closer to the snow-capped Himalayas and yet, beneath us was the lush farmland of the area surrounding Dehradun. Even from the air, it was easy to distinguish the rich yellow-green of mustard crops. When our plane landed at the one runway airstrip, the bags were brought to us and a driver who had my name printed on a white card met me. He took my bag, and then drove me to a gurukul (a school where boys study with a guru) which is overseen by the Swami, and where some of the organic vegetables are grown for Parmarth Niketan. I was invited to the garden, where two young women from northwest Canada and a gentleman from the Czech Republic were sitting. Chai was brought to us and we talked a bit about their mission. They were part of a group of dentists and dental hygienists, who had traveled to India and brought free dental care to the people in various villages and were now traveling for the next two months, before returning to their home countries.
We finished our chai and returned to the truck, and then were driven through villages, across a bridge spanning the Ganges (the Mother Ganga) River, to Rishikesh. We then left the principle road and ventured up some roads winding around the foothills of the Himalayas, almost like switchbacks, occasionally meeting an oncoming vehicle, where their car had to squeeze over against the hillside or our truck had to nudge ever-so-close to the road’s edge which had fallen away several hundred feet to the river bed below. When we finally arrived at the ashram, the folks from Canada and Czech Republic departed the bus and I was escorted into the office. I was greeted by Swamiji's assistant, Sadhvi Bhagwati and welcomed to the ashram. I had not seen her since this past April, although I had spoken to her on the telphone on a number of occasions. What transpired during the next fifteen hours was rather amazing, and I will enter a separate journal regarding it at a later date.
posted by Elias Thomas @ 7:50 PM
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