We went to Vashishta Guha. It is about 20km from
Rishikesh on the way to Badrinath. The cave is supposed
to have been used by several great sages to do tapasya.
It is believed that many sages are doing tapasya there
in their astral bodies. Recently Swami Purushottamanandaji,
a disciple of Swami Brahmanandaji (Rakhal Maharaj), the
spiritual son of Sri Ramakrishna lived there for several
years. After his mahasamadhi, his disciple
Swami Chaitanyanandaji Maharaj is managing the place.
He is an old sadhu with a soft nature. The cave has a
shivalinga. We worshipped the linga and sat in the
silent atmosphere of the cave for sometime.
We spent some time at the banks of the Ganga in the
ashram. Gokulji had a nice bath in the Ganga. We spent
some more time in the cave and then had prasad at the
ashram.
We reached Kailash ashram, Rishikesh
in the evening. We went to
Sivananda ashram. We took part in the evening bhajans
and arati. The Ganga Arati at Sivananda was a small
devoted one. It was a big contrast with the arati that we
attended the previous day. We enjoyed this arati much
more than the previous day's. We spent some quiet time
on the banks of the Ganges at this hallowed place, where
the great Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj lived.
We spent the night at Kailash Ashram.
Day 15 - 18 June 2006
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