Picnic by the Ganga

Our picnic spot on a little patch of beach by the Ganga well away from people.



I failed to mention the most peaceful part of the journey to Hardwar, and that was a too-short visit to the ashram of the great woman saint Shree Anandamayee Ma. It is one of the most peaceful and powerful places in all of India. I was lucky enough to see her before she died in the 80's, and her presence can still be felt there. While at Dehra Dun, which by all apppearances has little to recommend it, we went out to the Buddhist Sakya centre. The autorickshaw drivers seemed to think we said "police" when we said "Buddhist", but luckily Cathy had seen a Sai Baba temple on a map next door so that was the way we eventually made it there. It is the parent organisation of the SIBA (Sakya International Buddhist Academy) centre in East Gippsland, but the monk in the office hadn't heard of SIBA. It was a pretty underwhelming visit actually, but only a few hundred metres down the same road was the ashram of the yogi I had been wanting to see (Sri Shivarudrabalayogi); the one who is visiting Australia at present. We called in there anyway, and had a chat with a lovely young man at the office, and the whole place had a beautiful energy. I'd very much like to return there one day. I believe he is the real deal. There are hundreds of wannabees around here, but real ones are rare.
Today we went up the road for 20kms to a cave called Vashishta Guha which had been occupied for many years by an old sadhu. Quite deep into the hill it was quiet, cool and peaceful. We walked up along the sandy beach to a perfect spot for a picnic lunch - we had brought a loaf of wholemeal brown bread we found and tomatoes cucumber and bananas - a feast. A few refreshing dips in the river and it was time to get back to the waiting taxi up on the road. The river was surrounded by steeply rising hills and forest, and apart from the occasional inflatable raft coming downstream, it was a delightful respite from swarms of people, diesel fumes and tooting horns. The Accuweather website predicts 46 degrees for Hardwar on Wed so we will head up into the mountains.