World Famous in Rishikesh - The Beatles' Ashram

 Namaste peeps,

 From a hotel in Darwin city, 9 days til Christmas and still no travel in sight.  Im still grateful for the basics though - income, food, shelter, yoga.. But roll on with a vaccine already.

Around this time last year, I ventured forth from Tapovan to the well-known Beatles' ashram, with a friend in tow and google maps.  I have to firstly address the fact that given all the stories I heard from others about the ashram being 'deep in the jungle', 'impossible to find' and taking 'hours' to reach - none of them were true for our experience.  We walked there from Tapovan, which is a beautiful walk, let me guess that it was about 1.5 hours, given some window shopping and then haggling to buy, oh and finding a tiny, well hidden temple complete with contemplative, orange clad bubba nestled inside, who we didn't really want to disturb and so we very quietly left again.  That tiny temple is on the hillside of the main road heading down towards Rum Jhula, you have to look hard to find it! 

Let me digress.  The Beatles' ashram is actually called 'Chaurasi Kutiya' (which means 48 caves in english, and that alludes to the stone igloo like constructs that were used for disciples to meditate in).  Maharashi Mahesh Yogi first visited the ashram site in 1960 and was so blown away by the tranquility that he leased the necessary 15 acres for his dream and set about establishing the ashram.  Maharashi was a guru who advocated and taught Transcendental Meditation (TM) and his ashram was visited by spiritual seekers from far and wide, like The Beatles' who are said to have been so inspired by visits here they were able to compose and write some of their many hits while here.

So, cross the bridge at Rum Jhula and then turn right onto Geeta Bhavan Road Number 3, its the main thoroughfare along that section of the Ganges.  Theres a hustle of stalls selling the usual - herbs, clothes, food and drinks, plus some temples to take in and it continues right down to where you will get to pretty much a dead end, if i recall correctly it petered out onto dirt, slightly around to the left - look straight ahead and you will see the gates to the ashram about 40m further on, on the right hand side. 

Once through those main gates, the ticket office is on the left, and its 600 rupiah for foreigners.  This covers the entrance as well as a leaflet showing a map and a little about the place.

From Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of 'Ashram' is  1 : a secluded dwelling of a Hindu sage also : the group of disciples instructed there. 2 : a religious or spiritual retreat, not, as I always thought, a spiritual building of some description.  My yogic experience in Rishikesh was that most yoga schools or studios for yoga practice, are called ashrams, however, going to CK was a sharp lesson in the sprawling nature of an ashram.

The map you get given at the gate walks you through, but my friend and I didn't really go by that, we just enjoyed the experience, history and wonder.  Things to note, theres still plenty of meditation caves dotted about the place, and we did get some cool photos inside, the other, theres so much art everywhere on the walls.  Well, some of it is vandalism but aside from that, theres actually some pretty cool paintings - most of which gives reverence to The Beatles or some form of spirituality synonymous with India.  

On reflection, the whole site is in total disrepair and for sure the Indian government missed a great money making opportunity by not maintaining CK, so many visitors would have loved to stay there, Im sure. It makes you wonder what the steep admission fee is used for or goes toward.  

So, that being said, enjoy the photos because Im on the fence about visiting here.  It was cool, yes, but not spectacular or overly special.   

Namaste