Yoga Capital of the World
Trip Start
Feb 04, 2006
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11
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Trip End
Apr 01, 2006
Rishikesh, India
Saturday, March 25, 2006
Being the dutiful cultural traveller I aspire to be, I too threw myself into the yoga and meditation (with healthy scepticism of course). Not my first foray into yoga, I enjoyed the streching and limbering postures and some of the more muscle-defining feats. My body felt remarkably more toned and flexible after 4 days of 3 hours a day. THe meditation on the other hand kicked my ass. The yoga/meditation teacher would begin with, "Now, empty your mind. As thoughts enter mind, see them from a distance and gently push them away". For a split second I would achieve this and think, well done Renna, look at you, you've emptied your mind. Piece of cake. Only to realize I was thinking about emptying my mind. In an attempt to get away from my self-congratulations, random things kept popping up, "Wonder what Ali's doing now?" "What should I get Ben and Alicia for a wedding present?" "I can't believe a mob beheaded 3 women for witchcraft last week in Maharashta, I wonder if it was like the monty python inquest, did they weigh them with a duck?" "What the hell is an image of the stay-puffed marshmallow man doing in here. Funny, how he always pops up when your trying to empty your mind." Finally, like everyone says happens, a song comes into your head and its all over then. Just give up and enjoy the sweet melody of Mr. Timberlakes' "Cry Me a River" because it's not going anywhere.
Then in what seems like an hour but has only been 3 minutes, the teacher intones more instructions and the whole thing starts over again with odder images and less relevant questions until your strolling through some crazy brainscape with your 2nd grade teacher, a tin cup full of jam, and a 20ft monkey trying to put a bindi on your forehead. Maybe I don't want to empty my mind anyway, it's not that full to start with, and if I throw out the "filing cabinets" of my brain (as Stitham says), whose to say I'll get them back and the contents may have shifted around. I'll be left wandering around talking to myself, like most the people here, but saying things like "didn't I put altruistic grooming under Primate Social Behavior, what's it doing in a car mechanics file, I'm sure that was empty".
Still a relaxing, comical time was had by all. We found a great restaurant and I found a wonderful old lady everyone calls mama who owns a guesthouse. She in turn calls you daughter and gets way too much into your business. Telling you things like, "You must buy new underwear, these too old" after finishing your laundry. "Yes, mama, I will." "You too skinny, I feed you tonight." "OK mama, thank you." She whips up a delicious homemade Thali for a mass of people everynight.
The time sped by. We went rafting and body surfing down the Ganges, the holiest river in the world, one morning. It was delightful. 26km of small rapids and indian village life waving, cremating, praying at the riverside as we floated down toward Rishikesh. One morning Lewis and I took off on his Enfield and found a wicked beach for swimming and lazing about on rocks. Rishikesh tended to get better the farther away from the arrogant yoga teachers, begging holy men, and rubbish town monkeys you got.
Kerri, Sid, Lewis and I all left together because we suddenly found that time does pass in India and we were running short. Still Varanasi to see and I have less then a week before Thailand. Quick, book some train tickets!
