I took off for Israel in my 20s to dig into roots I'd never explored. There they practiced meditation and wrote most of the White Album. The Beatles, including John Lennon, left, and Paul McCartney, spent time in a Rishikesh ashram in 1968. I've done plenty of searching in my years and wrestled with life more times than I can count. I understand this hunger to find one's path. They roam the streets, dotted with shops, seers and more yoga classes than any yogi can possibly take, looking for enlightenment. But ever since the Beatles came here in 1968, Westerners have made it their spiritual Disneyland. Hindus have long made pilgrimages to this holy place, where saints and sages are said to have meditated for thousands of years. I'm in Rishikesh, a spiritual hot spot nestled in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas, where ashrams dot the landscape and the sacred river Ganges flows toward the plains. I feel the warmth, but I don't understand the tears. The swami's eyes open and are as gentle as his smile. Vines climb the thatch wall of bamboo behind him.Īround me, as the courtyard fills, women weep. His eyes are shut, his mind taking him to places I can't know. He's draped in saffron robes, serene and still. Shoes off and feet freezing, I fidget cross-legged in front of the first swami I've ever met.
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