Sadhana Kendra - Chandra Swami's ashram

I heard about this ashram in Desjardins' ashram last October. I went there, but the swami was on a tour in Jammu. Anyway, I enjoyed the ashram's life : 4 sessions of one hour each are daily dedicated to meditation.


There was a bee nest just outside the window of my room. I had never seen them so closely.



Hymalayan foothills from the ashram






Surroundings



This is the ashram



This is Chandra Swami

Rishikesh

Ghats of Swargashram from Ram Jhula (bridge over the Ganga river)



Other side of the bridge



Down Swargashram












Ram Jhula in the back


Saddhus and cows on the ghat



This is the ashram where I stayed : the Ved Niketan Dhan






Saddhus






Morning bath



Breakfast in the ashram

Rishikesh - I am that

I am now in Rishikesh, another central spot in my trip. I would have liked to stay here for two or three weeks, but I don't have so much time left, so I'll have to learn a maximum within a few days only. Fortunately, I found a very good ashram among all those who have been created here. The guru is very simple, considering himself as nothing more than a teacher of spiritual science, he is almost proud to say that he doesn't have and will never have lots of adepts and that other local people from Rishikesh don't like him. Today he told a story which I liked very much.

It's about a yogi monk living in a cave in the forest. A lady comes to visit him and they talk together. After a while, as they come out o f the cave, the lady asks him : "Don't you feel lonely in this remote place, far from other humans?" He replies : "When I am with somebody else, I feel alone. Whenever I am on my own, I never feel lonely." Although sightly disappointed by this answer, she tells him that she has been very pleased to meet him and that if he wants to come to London, where she lives, she will show him around. Here the monk smiles gently and tells her : "Thank you madam, but I am London."

Varanasi - Evening pooja

Varanasi - wandering on the river

Morning bath

Changu Narayan

It's a temple on a hilltop near Bhaktapur

Back to Swayambhunath and Pashupatinath

This is the famous monkey temple


Sunrise on Kathmandu









Main stupa



Big tree



Rush on the food



Overload of prayer flags

Tiruvannamalai - Ramanashram

This ashram was advised to me at Arnaud Desjardins' ashram in France as a true spiritual place to visit. This ashram was founded by Ramana Maharshi. 'Maharshi' means great sage. He is very famous in India and also all over the world. He spent 20 years meditating in some caves on the Arunachala hill before opening his ashram. Now people worship in the ashram's temple, and mostly on his grave. They chant the vedas several times a day. There is a good energy there, that means for me I feel more equanimous there, and it is a place where my concentration in meditation is better. But nothing very interesting. There is a bunch of other ashrams in the area, and in one of them, twice a day during 15 minutes, the guru, who is a woman, comes, sits silently in front of the people coming there, then walks in the room and looks at the people. Most people are in a kind of meditation during that time. That was an interesting experience. The kind of experience I was expecting before coming to India.


Roof of the Ramanashram from Arunachala hill







This is Ramana maharshi.



Inside the ashram









Monkeys in the ashram



Lol



Local food. No spoon, of course :-)