Rishikesh and Ayurveda studies

I'm still in Rishikesh and find myself getting more settled in and not so anxious to travel. The last 6-days I have been taking some Ayurveda courses. Ayurveda lifestyle and nutrition and marma point massage. Marma points are similar to acupressure. They are the opening to the mind, body and soul on a spiritual level. On a physical level, the 117 points are located where arteries, veins, joints and tendons meet in the body. So they can relieve physical and emotional pain. It is a lot of information in a 6-day course and the instructor is American who trained with the famous Indian Ayurveda doctor, Dr Ladd, of Albuquerque.

The area is booming with activity now as there is a free 4th Annual Yoga Festival which coincides with the Kundalini Yoga fest, Nov 5th-11th. The kundalini one is pretty pricey. They are charging attendees $1111 USD for one week and marketing it as the dawning of Aquarius! November 11th is suppose to be a special day. I think I'd be pretty upset when I got here to realize that same thing is free for the yoga, and you can eat and stay at an ashram for about $10-$15 per day! So it is a bit overpriced to say the least.

I have taken up a new project similar to what I did in Antigua. I have found an American lady who is taking care of all the street dogs. She is not a veterinarian, but ran an animal shelter in Chicago. I was wondering why most of the dogs are in reasonably good shape. She also helps cows. There was one cow recently whose tail got run over by a motorcycle and she re-attached it. I noticed the cow with the bandage on before I met her and wondered who did it. This is all rudimentary medicine as she has no clinic and does what she can on the streets. She does take some to her small apartment who can't be released on the streets. There are few animal clinics here and they are in desperate need of sterilization. Many of the male dogs get into fights during mating season. I heard there will be 50-males on one poor female dog to mate!

I bought a big bag of dog food and I told her I will care for all the dogs from Laxman Julia to Rohm Julia along the Ganges. (julia means bridge in Hindi). So it is a long stretch between the two bridges on one side of the river. I'm guessing about 2.5 kilometers. I look like Doctor Doolittle with a trail of dogs following behind me when they smell the food I am carrying or after I have fed them. One day I ordered 10-chappatys (wheat tortillas) to feed the cows. I had about eight cows surrounding me to get fed. Since the cows are sacred, they are somewhat fed; except they eat cardboard, and plastic or anything elese they can scrounge. And there is still some pretty skinny and sickly looking ones around. I thought they were all wild cows, but someone owns each and every cow in India! There are some beautiful cows that look like they have on eye make-up.

I'll do this for a few more days until I take off for Dharmsala. I feel if I don't go to this area, I will regret in the future. I am so close, yet so far away. It's a 10-hour train ride, then a 2-hour wait at the station in the middle of the night, then another 3-hour bus ride, and finally a tuk-tuk. Dharmsala/Mcleod Ganj is home to the Dali Llama and the seat to the Tibetan government in exile. I have signed up for a 8-day course "Introduction to Buddhism". I will be staying in silence, and in minimalistic accommodations at Tushita, a monastery. I feel it will be a good experience for me. I'm told it will be very cold there, at 6800 feet and there is no heat in the monastery. My flexible plans are to return to Rishikesh afterwards and take a month long course on agama yoga, then a 5-day workshop afterwards. There are many styles of yoga. (Google Agama) Some are just too intense for me. I felt a good opening of my chakras while attending a one day class here last week. I am taking level I. There are something like 24-levels!!!!!

Well I am off to my last day of Ayurveda class!