Meeting the Ganges

Today I met the Ganges River. I've seen her from afar for almost a week now and I dipped a toe in and introduced myself for the first time on Wednesday. But today things got a lot more personal. I went to Devprayag Sangam, the place where the Ganga becomes the Ganga. It is the exact spot where two rivers, the Bagirathi and the Alakananda, converge to birth her, and I immersed myself head to foot.

It was thrilling! So cold and pure and powerful. I wanted to swim out and to be free of my soggy clothes but the currents and cultural taboos prevented me. Even so the experience was spectacular. Indescribable.

Shashikant, an Indian friend of one of the women I went with, showed us to light little cones of incense and say prayers over a coconut that we tossed in the water. We met one of the babas that lives as a renunciate in a little nook by the water and he blessed us and offered us food.

Later we visited a cave (Vashista Gufa) where my temples actually buzzed in the silence. Dark with just one or two candles on the altar inside.

I am thinking about spirituality...
witnessing it,
participating in somebody else's,
making my own.

Magic.
Reverence.
Belief.
Awe.

Oh! And I got to ride there in one of the curvy white Ambassador taxis that love so much. A dream come true.