More than 30 years after discovering the Swami Sivananda’s fabulous Rishikesh series and the lineage which gave us the Bihar School of Yoga I finally made it to the place where it all began - Rishikesh.

Once out of the Himalayas the Ganges sparkles as hits the plains of northern India at Rishikesh.

Picture 1 view of ganges from the bridge.

Rishikesh is the capital of Yoga and there are signs everywhere for classes and teacher raining courses and ashrams and there are lots of yogis hanging out on the streets. The even have a huge statue near the river of Shiva the inventor of yoga and the first yogi.

Picture 2 Shiva statue ( That’s me immersing)

For me a visit to Sw Sivananda’s ashram was a must and we met a swami there who showed us Swami Sivananda’s apartment and the place where he would have done his yoga practice.

Sw. Sivananda’s Rooms on the Ganges

Sitting by the River at Sw Sivananda’s practice place.

Every night there is a large gathering performing puja to the sacred river.

We met up with Atma,   who devotes her time to helping the poorest of the poor in the countryside around Rishikesh. Yogaontrack was happy to be able to make a donation to her Charity ‘Atmaseva’ after our charity classes Christmas 2018.

Kshamasagar, Mahatmananda and Atmatattwa (seated on the bike she uses to bring supplies to the outlying villages)