A PILGRIMAGE TO RISHIKESH
Sri Aurobindo
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Walking in the Mountains
We had dived into the caves, now it was time to ascend to the foothills of the Himalayas. From Rishikesh we hired a bus to take us to a temple in the mountains. Rising at two thirty we drove for an hour or so and were able to ascend the steps up the mountain side well before dawn. Here in the courtyard of a lonely temple high up in the mountains we did our yoga and chanted our mantras as the sun rose. It gave a whole new meaning to the sun salutation series of yoga asanas that we concluded as the sun fingered its way through the distant white peaks of the Himalayas. The colours and view were breathtaking. The temple bell tolled with the dawn and echoed through the purple mountains, majestic against the fiery orange sky. It was so beautiful that it brought a lump to my throat.
 From here, with the help of an Indian guide, we walked down the mountain and through the forests back to a bus stop that would take us back to Rishikesh. We swam in pools beneath high waterfalls, trundled along viaducts and irrigation canals, sheltered beneath a bodi tree and scrambled down dangerous tracks. Far below us twinkled the Ganges snaking its way through Rishikesh. This would be a place that I would be very sad to leave.
DELHI
From Rishikesh we took the perilous road journey back to Delhi and had just enough time to visit a few important spiritual sites before we caught the plane to Varanasi. Here was stayed at the spotlessly clean and friendly Sri Aurobindo ashram and it is worth pausing a while to explain a few of this gurus ideas and particularly those that may be of interest to Spiritualists.
Sri Aurobindo was an Indian nationalist, scholar, poet, mystic, philosopher, yogi and guru. He taught a unique system of "integral yoga" and worked for the freedom of India and to bring to earth what he referred to as the Supermind. His integral yoga teachings included Psychicisation which is one of the most essential stages of the spiritual processes. In The Life Divine he talks of a spiritual movement inward, so that one realises the psychic being or Divine Soul. Once this is discovered the outer personality is spontaneously transformed. He believed in the cosmic evolution of the spirit – a concept that is some ways is similar to the Spiritualist principle of ‘the continuous progress of every human soul’.
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Sri Aurobindo
Sri Aurobindo also spoke of the five koshas or subtle bodies that we gradually shed after death. He claimed that we die step-by-step from each kosha, shedding one at a time and that mediumistic communication takes place through the more earth-like Koshas of the astral body. I note very similar teachings here to the messages from the spirit of Silver Birch who explained how he had to use the astral shell of a dead American Indian and slowed his vibrations in order to communicate our world. Silver Birch was not an Indian, he was a being of light who had transcended earthly identity but used this discarded kosha to communicate through the trance mediumship of Maurice Barbanell.
Our stay in Delhi gave us a chance to visit the Akshardham temples created by HDH Pramukh Swami Maharaj in fulfilment to the wish of his guru, Brahmaswarup Yogiji Maharaj, the fourth successor in the spiritual hierarchy of Bhagwan Swaminarayan. This place is a huge modern building complex built to traditional styles and incorporating traditional skills of Hindu carving. It is an astonishing group of buildings, ornamental walls, lakes, pools and statues. The panorama stretches as far as the eye can see. It must have cost millions and millions of pounds to build. After visiting one breath taking room after another and gasping at the incredible gold statues, intricately carved ceilings and beautiful paintings and sculpture we finished the day watching their finale: a laser lit fountain display
This was certainly impressive eye-candy but I am afraid left me somewhat cold. To me it was reminiscent of a theme park but as I know very little about the lineage of the gurus who established it or their teachings I do not feel I can judge its significance. Certainly the few volunteers we encountered were very cheerful and loving people and this to me is the mark of a valid organisation.
Continue The Pilgrimage ...
NEXT: Mahatma Gandhi
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