Rishikesh Again

---

Yesterday afternoon went to Swag Ashram, which the book suggests is the funkiest place in town. Wasn't overly impressed, although a couple of the ashrams are quite nice to walk around.

I'm staying up in Lakshman Jhula, which has a much nicer atmosphere, I think- certainly more of a laid back vibe. This morning I crossed the bridge, and went to the Shri Trayanbakshwar temple. It's one of the two seven storey jobbies that looks like the castle in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and is one that Rishikesh is particularly famous for.

Inside the entrance hall, the walls are lined with display cases bearing certificates from institutions that have something of the correspondence course about them - send us $350 and we will, in turn, will send you an MBA, a Diploma in Psychology, a wife....These particular certificates are from organisations like the Autobiographers Society of America and Stamford Who's Who (which, for all I know, may be genuine institutions, just with crap looking certificates), and all relate to Yogi Gupta. He is their Man of the Year (2005); Leader of the Future; stuff like that. There is also a cd case, prominently displayed, Divine Inspiration, a collection of Yogi's speeches, with a picture of him looking soulfully skyward like a celestial Ronan Keating.

Each of the floors of the temple are given over to several temple 'units', mostly consisting of three statues to be genuflected at, three bells to be rung. Some of the temples came with Holy Men attached, offering blessings at a price. I'm trying to avoid these- being a non- believer, I feel a bit uncomfortable wandering round with a big coloured dot on my forehead- it's a highly visible proclomation of something, and probably shouldn't be taken lightly, so I'm giving it a miss!!

The temple units are interspersed with little gem shops, stocked with bracelets, rings, necklaces..from the position of someone giving a cursory glance as they walk quickly past, most of the jewellery looks like plastic.

---