Letters from India

32. Kashmir & Haridwar - June 1985

Kashmir & Haridwar

June 22-24, 1985

Haridwar

Dear Family,

Hellllloooo! I’ve just been talking to two other characters who are staying on the “Lucky Star’ houseboat too. One is an Indian but was brought up in South Africa and England. He’s thinking about starting a business here, “Something different, something not Indian.” He looks, speaks and thinks like your normal Western kid (he just graduated from college), and is disgusted by the dirt in India. How different from me! I'm so blinded by my love for this country that just about anything She wants to be, is OK with me!

Another character is this 20-ish tall boy from Iceland. He’s a chain smoker and a guzzler of Indian beer … saaaad case.

Anyway, I was staring at the Sankaracharya temple a lot as I rested today, but I didn’t feel to go. Looking from afar is enough for me. Today I made reservations to go to Jammu tomorrow morning - took 45 minutes in an Indian line.

(Cartoon I drew in the letter: a desk with a single, neat line of people waiting: one is saying, “Wish this would hurry up,” another, “Ho-hum,” still another “Yawn.” The caption is: “American Line.” The next cartoon’s caption is “Indian Line” It has the same desk, but people are crowded all around it, mushed against the desk with no order. People are saying: “Me first!” “No, ME first!” “Push!” “Shove!”)

The famous Kashmir is a very nice place. In retrospect, it really does seem that I was brought here just to see it, not as a pilgrimage commitment or anything. And it was handy cuz, because of the postcard book I bought, I got around to writing postcards and sending them to people.

(June 23rd) Well anyway, caught 7 AM bus to Jammu on the 22nd. I read the chart wrong and that “Delux” was Rs 40 (lowest price) and “Super Delux” was Rs 60. So I got ‘Delux’ and found out that Delux and Super Delux were the same, and cost Rs 60 and ‘A’ Class” was Rs 40! So I had to hand over the Rs 60. I got in this really deluxe 20-huge-seater bus. Got the distant feeling that this was Sai’s present to me and I wasn’t to mumble, like I had been doing, over the lost Rs 20. Enjoyed it a lot, a pleasurable 11 hours (Left at 7:30 AM, arrived 6:30 PM).

At Jammu, went straight to train depot and bought ticket to Haridwar. Train had just left so hopped a Delhi train, going via Ambala (Remember, border of Harynana & Punjab). When I came up before, there must’ve been troubles cuz this time, police & army personal were strangely absent.

Got off at Ambala. People pointed to other train and said, “Yes, Haridwar! Go!” got on but it turned out it was going somewhere else, but I could transfer at this place called Saharampur (Ambala train left Jammu 8 AM, arrived 5:30 PM). Arrived in Saharanpur 9 AM, had time to take shower and eat lunch/breakfast before Haridwar train arrived at 12:15. (You could see ochre-clad sadhus through the windows). Arrived around 2 PM Haridwar.

HARIDWAR! My third “sacred city.” Sadhus around everywhere. :-) My kinda place! Sai had my chapels (thongs) fall apart the night before I left Srinagar (Kashmir) – I haven’t gotten new ones yet, so now here I am, sari-clad in Haridwar, walking around barefoot! I tell Swami, “You’re crazy! Let me buy new chappels, why do You want me barefoot?? Do you want me to enter into temples with dirty feet, because even if I scrub them at the entrance, they still remain black.”

But no matter how hard I argue, I still get the distant intuition that He wants me without shoes, crazy though it may seem. If I don’t listen and instead get new ones, he has them either disappear after a short time or fall apart. He’s had this happen ever since I’ve arrived in India, and I still can't figure it out.

I’ve ended up at the “Deepak Hotel,” a decent place for Rs 35 a night. Expensive – the room is 6½ by 6 feet, with two bathrooms (very clean), across the hall. I'm in – get this – room 9A! This has special meaning. With all this traveling, whenever we’d pass big cars or red cars (a big trend among the rich, it seems, is this tiny bright red car – you see them scattered about the roads). Swami has one like it, but the car He uses most often is a big, long bright red one, the sacred ADA 90 (license plate). When I saw cars like that on my travels, I‘d say, “Oooh! Let it be Swami!!” but it never was. I’d say, “ADA 90, wish I once more could have Darshan of you!” and I’d think of once again being in Prasanthi Nilayam and having the sacred car Darshans. So now, the compassionate One has put me in A9 room! Ha, ha! Am I to feel I am inside a large ADA 90? :-)

Sadhus! Orange-clad sanyasis, renunciates! I wonder, are there men of real God-perception here? Real saints, true masters who have controlled their all, who know God? Are there people in tune, who know when I go by, that I am of a spiritual bent? Is Babaji disguised in another body, nearby? Is Sai close, walking past me? Are those true saints, shuffling past? Etc., etc.

I plan to see Haridwar tomorrow, then next day early, leave for Rishikesh. From there, Badrinath - visions of wandering around those mountains, come into my head! Jai Babaji! :-)

Haridwar, I thought to myself as I walked through the streets earlier this evening, has a Madras-like feeling. I like it here, but the temples, the temples you still have to search for. They look like houses, with large elaborate alters inside visible from the front doors. Soo different from (what I call) the ‘true temples’ of the South. Haridwar seems more of a place to wonder in the streets, rather than visiting certain temples.

Train from Jammu, I soaked up the Indian countryside with relish. Ah, sweet India! My I say a thousand times over, how I like it here, how happy I am being in India! Ahhh just to be in the country, how sweet, how sweet, how sweet!

(June 24th) It’s really hot here – hottest weather I remember since Tiruvannamalai.

I went to the Ganga canal today – right down the street from my hotel. Nearby are some small hills in the distance. I could see some rather short, not-too-impressive looking mountains. I thought to myself, this is what Yogananda called “loomed invitingly in the distance”? Where are the impressive snow-capped Himalayas, reaching to the heavens?? That’s what I want to know.

Anyway, I felt it a real Blessing to see the holy Ganges water, rushing down, down from the source, in the sacred Himalayas. I bathed my feet and drank the purifying water. Around, people bathed (i.e., men) and sadhus prayed. Bobbing heads rushed by, including young boys in great mirth! Sacred Ganges, hallowed by the touch of Siva’s hair, and traveling such a great distance through the spiritual energy of the Himalayas, I bow to thee!

All my Love to you and others (friends). Om Jai Sri Sai Ram!

Indian child,

Eileen