yoga and baba's

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well i've spent the last here in rishikesh... a spiritual place on the ganga in the foothills of the himalaya's... beautiful... the beatles came hear and stayed with maharishi mahesh yogi and consequently wrote many of the songs found on the white album...

now it has become quite touristy but still charming none-the-less... it is called the yoga capital of the world and i can see why ;-) i did some yoga and appreciated it... hatha and pranayama while learning many asanas (positions?)... i must admit i dont see myself being a yogi but i will take what i learned and hopefully incorporate it into a daily routine of healthy living...

the weather during the days here is beautiful but at this time of year there is a cold wind that blows down through the valley... i caught a cold/sinus infection of some sort and that probably helped make the decision to leave... oh yeah, i leave today to head south to rajasthan...

i went on a walk one day to visit a shiva temple... little did i know the way there was 15km almost straight uphill, which means i basically ran back since it was so steep... not bad though 30km in 5.5hrs with a half hour at the temple and another half hour tea stop on the way down ;-)

rishikesh is also full of baba's... my reaction was not what i expected... i am slowly (or maybe quickly) being pushed more towards the buddhist path i have been on for so long... there are times when i have have questioned it and thought there may be more but the more i see of the world, the more i believe that the middle way and dhamma are the paths for me...

may you all be at ease, be truly happy, be free from suffering, and find dhamma... -bjb-

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Photos

man of hanuman...
this guy went around blessing people in the name of hanuman, for a donation of course...;-(

laxhman jula...
this is a view from the ashram i stayed in... looking across the ganga... comtemplating life...

take a breathe...
just me at the apex of one steep 15km climb... in the background is the community which surrounds a Shiva temple...