Hare Krishna Rishikesh

Rishikesh is said to be the yoga capital of the world, so, needless to say, it is a mecca for zen-loving, chakra-balancing, om-chanting hippies from all over the globe. We weren't exactly out of our element nestled at the base of the Himalayas for a week-long yoga retreat, and relished the time to advance our yoga practices, dextox our bodies, and do some serious spiritual exploration.

Whoa whoa whoa, you're thinking. Back up. Detox?

Yep: one whole week with no meat, alcohol, or caffeine. Generally, there are two reactions to this scenario, either "wow! amazing!" [mine] or "why in the hell would anyone do that?" [Ben's... and pretty much everyone else we know]. 

The vegetarian diet is generally no problem (especially with the amazing food Om Shanti Om served up at every meal), and alcohol is doable, but no coffee? Now, if you've never done a caffeine detox, it pretty much feels like a never-ending hangover for 3 days. Once we turned the corner, we decided we would be more mindful about our caffeine consumption going forward [1 pot/day should be plenty, right?]. 

One of our favorite parts of the week was the incredible yoga instruction from yogi Dinesh. Ben even crushed a headstand on the first day! The classes were a blast, and we were able to really learn the correct way to do poses we had been doing incorrectly all this time. [We don't have any yoga pictures because, well, we were doing the yoga.]

We also had the best guide who took us all over Rishikesh, including a 13-story temple, a waterfall trek, the Beatles Ashram (where they wrote most of Abbey Road), a poojan ceremony on the Ganges River, the most beautiful sunrise, and a sacred cave followed by riverside chanting. Our guide didn't speak English, so we had a truly immersive experience learning about Hinduism in the Hindi language- just don't quiz us [immersion= high; comprehension = subpar].

Beyond these incredible adventures, and the physical progression of our yoga, we were able to connect with so many amazing people to hear their perspectives on things that are traditionally considered taboo or off-limits, like God, religion, spirituality, self-perception, and personal wellness beliefs. There is something about an environment where people are there explicitly to explore both the world around them and themselves that opens everyone up to conversations in a raw way that would otherwise be uncomfortable.

Writing this post, Ben and I debated whether or not we should include the types of discussions that came up in Rishikesh. When you experience such an intensely spiritual and profound week, to share a list of adventures about hiking and food and [lack of] coffee feels artificial somehow, even if those adventures made up the majority of our time there. That being said, the purpose of the blog is to give status updates to our friends and family, so we don't particularly want to stir any pots. Spirituality is not an easy topic of conversation outside of organized religion, but if it's something you're exploring and interested in talking about, give us a shout! We would love to exchange ideas via email or video chat.