back to rishikesh

Guess I couldn't stay away from Ganga-ji, huh. Only a few short weeks after my first visit to this city, I came back to Rishikesh. This time with seven girls from my program and one of our teachers as part of our workshop.

We're doing a week-long yoga retreat on the banks of the Ganges River. We have an hour-long yoga class at 8AM, followed by a delicious Ayurvedic breakfast of fruit and lots of toast. At 11AM, we have  a lecture about yoga and philosophy with a guy with an iPhone, so he's really big on making ancient yoga theory accessible for the modern world. Then we've got a long break to explore and to do our own thing. For me, this involved a full-body Ayurvedic massage yesterday afternoon. Another lecture at 4PM followed by a delicious dinner and then it's bedtime by 9PM.

Our first day here, we saw a ceremony at sunset on the banks of the Ganges. It was absolutely beautiful. I took some pictures, but it was nice to just be there as this yogi sang and one of his students played a hand organ and other people sat around a fire. (Did I happen to mention that all of this was happening on the banks of the most sacred river in India? And we had a front row seat, and I totally dipped my feet in the river, hygiene be damned?) I'm so fortunate to be here and to be able to enjoy this time. It feels like a vacation, not an academic exercise, and that is exactly what I needed.

Sorry I can't write more, but I've got to learn about the theory of yoga in a bit. It's like our teacher said on our first day here: "What we're doing now is making our future."