Last Updated on January 21, 2025 by Swami Satyananda Saraswati
Just walking down the street in India with Swamiji is an experience.
Everywhere Swamiji goes, he carries a special bhavana with him. You feel like you’re walking with an ancient sage down the streets of his homeland – the place where he grew up. In Swamiji’s own words, India is the place where he received “the most nourishment.”
Everywhere we go, we run into old friends and familiar friendly faces that are all too happy to see the Sahib Sadhu and offer us a blessing and a helping hand. One such devotee is Saurabh, who told us of the uncountable blessings he’s received from Swamiji and Shree Maa. When Saurabh first met Swamiji, he only had one small shop. At that time, he and Swamiji would ride a motorcycle through the streets of Rishikesh, visiting all the temples they could. Now Saurabh has multiple shops, a beautiful home and family, a lush garden, and a tree that he sees and worships as the manifestation of Lord Ganesha.
It was so beautiful to see Saurabh’s devotion to our Guru, and to recognize that, just as Mother India gave so much nourishment to our Swamiji, Swamiji also gave so much nourishment in return. It is clear he didn’t come here as a tourist, but rather as a true sadhu and Divine servant; not just a servant of God, but also of Mother India and Her people.
As of August 15, we’re staying in Swami Ram Kripalu’s ashram in Rishikesh right on the banks of Ganga. It’s Monsoon season, so the water is especially high and muddy, and the days are hot and humid. My favorite time of day is early morning, around when the sun rises. It’s cooler then, and we sit for morning sadhana on a balcony overlooking Ganga. The scene is really quite magical, with Ganga rushing by and mist lingering in front of the Himalayan foothills that grace the background. A few sadhus visit the river, a few cows or wild pigs wander by, the rain pours, and we sit and chant…
Today after completing our morning worship we walked along the river and visited some of the spots where Swamiji used to do sadhana: a banyan tree by the ghats, and the building where Swamiji had an ashram for several years, which he called “Deva Loka” ashram. He would stay there when in Rishikesh until it was time to leave again to go perform sadhana elsewhere.
One of my favorite Swamiji Rishikesh stories is about a tree very close to Deva Loka ashram. This particular tree is where mail was delivered to the sadhus of Rishikesh. All the sadhus would congregate under the tree, and a mailman would come with the mail and call out each of the names from the envelopes. Because some sadhus have the same name, several sadhus would call out for each letter, at which point they would look at it together, figure out where it came from, and determine who it was actually addressed to.
Amidst those sadhus, three spoke Bengali: our Swamiji, Swami Ram Kripaluji, and a sadhu named Gopal Baba. We passed Gopal Baba’s little ashram on our walk, but unfortunately, he was not at home. Swamiji held on to the window sill and peered in while calling “Gopal Baba…” in such a childlike and unassuming tone. And as Swamiji peered through that window, I got my own little window into Swamiji’s world as a young sadhu, wandering through India, dedicating his life to God, and making friends along the way.
We also passed a small Hanuman Temple tended to by another old sadhu friend. This sadhu offered us tilak and banana prasad, but even more special than receiving those gifts was seeing the light in his eye, and feeling the quiet love and gentility, with which he received our little traveling family.
Swamiji told us about how if there is a small temple or shrine that is unattended or abandoned, often times a sadhu will move in and become the pujari. I thought to myself, how amazing to live in such a simple way, in such a humble place, worshiping God and offering blessings to all who stop by. And how amazing that there is a culture and a country where such a way of life is accepted and respected.
Jai Bharata Mata! Jai Sri Gurudeva!