Maharishi Mahesh of Rishikesh

The original Ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (where the Beatles stayed in the late 60's and apparently wrote much of their White Album) was abandoned in 1997 and now is found surrounded consumed by forest.

For some added trivia, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is in his 90's now and lives in Vlodrop in the Netherlands! He is the founder and developer of Transcendental Meditation (TM).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharishi_Mahesh_Yogi

Actually entry into the ashram is not permitted but nobody was around (to stop us) when we went to visit and thus we worked with the 'ignorance is bliss' rule. Though honestly... we were not that ignorant but were feeling, lets just say.... confident and adventurous.

What we found was jaw dropping stuff. An huge area of abandoned egg shaped domes where the ashramites meditated. The constructions had fabulous sound acoustics for making a vibrate- through-your-entire-system magnificent Om Sound.







The abandoned egg shaped domes were used for Transcendental Meditation at The Ashram
















Walking amongst the domes we couldn't help but think that the lyrics from the song 'I am the Walrus'......
"I am the eggman, they are the eggmen. I am the walrus, goo goo g'joob" were inspired by the ashram in Rishikesh (as well as some stuff they might have been smoking with Maharishi back in the 60's!!!). I mean at this stage in his career John Lennon thought he was a walrus and/or an eggman?

A view of the mountains around Rishikesh which is located at the base of the Himalayas.






















































Besides the Ashram though, Riskikesh is famous for being the yoga capital of the world, and... practice Yoga we did!
Mornings and afternoons working on our sun salutations and bridges as well as enjoy a Christmas day banquet (with overloaded tummies to match) with some new be-friended Australian girlfriends.

I was so blissed out with the yoga (at the Raj Palace with Surrinder Singh for anyone heading to Rishikesh) that i really didn't carry my camera all that much with me at the mouth (clean end) of the Ganges river, and as such don't really have that many photos to share on the blog. Luckily though the memories are well ingrained into my memory.