Rishikesh – The Best Place to Practice and Learn Spiritual Yoga!

Welcome to Rishikesh, a small beautiful city along the Ganges, settled in the primary waves of the Himalayas. It is one of the most famous places in India to study Yoga, Indian classical music and dance.

Rishikesh is full of nature, a place to calm down from the pressures of daily life and to get in touch with your inner voice and spirit. It’s the right place for body, mind and soul.

Rishikesh is an old spiritual city, famous and holy. It is the path to the four holy places up the upper Himalayas; Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath: which have to be welcomed first before entering the “heaven” in the Himalayas.

The holy Ganges spreads it’s beauty on this city, with the mountains known as the “seven Rishi’s” (Rishi = the one, who is seeing, having the knowledge). Many holy saints, swamis (ascetics, or yogi monks), sadhus (Hindu ascetics), yogis (practitioner of yoga), are settled in Rishikesh, or passes through on their way to the upper Himalayas, sharing their knowledge and present being.

For Indian pilgrims, students, and foreigner from all over the world, it is a big pleasure and blessing to get in touch, join and participate in yoga classes. Also available Ayurveda and Indian cooking classes, pujas, meditation, Indian classical music and dance all being part of the spiritual ashram life.

Free Yoga & Music Festivals in Rishikesh –

Every year in November the Yoga and Music Festival, invites you to join yoga classes in many different forms of Yoga from many different teachers, or Yogis. They hold yoga classes in Yoga Asanas (Hatha yoga), Pranayama (breathing exercises), Shatkarma (cleansing exercises), meditation and spiritual lectures. Ayurveda lectures are given by qualified experienced Ayurveda doctors, who check your entire health system, including reading your pulse. You will learn many basic things for your daily home use, to keep and balance your health.

Every evening of the ten, to fourteen days of the yearly, Yoga and Music festival, held in November, people enjoy live Indian classical music or dance from professional, famous musicians and dancers. Many of them are from other parts of India; Some have their own schools and ashrams in Rishikesh and look forward to welcoming new students who have a compassion for Indian classical music, or dance.

The Yoga and Music Festival gives many a chance to start with their spiritual practice and to begin to strengthen their bodies through body exercises of Yoga. Yoga can be practiced by healthy people as well as people with diseases. This requires experienced teachers with knowledge in these areas; In Rishikesh you can attend a course of studies in local universities and obtain a masters’ degree in yoga practices in as short as two years.

Yoga Teachers’ Training Course in Rishikesh –

If you want to join a yoga intensive, or yoga teacher training course of 200 or 500 hours, which is certificated and registered with Yoga alliance, then I strongly recommend Nada Yoga School; This is one of the best yoga schools in Rishikesh, with the team of highly knowledgeable and experienced yoga teachers.

That is a great opportunity for yoga students and teachers to begin, or to go more deeply into the science of yoga, and enjoy the strong spiritual energy of the holy city Rishikesh, Rishikesh is also almost a totally vegetarian city; There are many saints, monks and yogis doing their spiritual practice throughout the city.

Spiritual and Natural Surrounding –

Rishikesh is a beautiful green city, which has many animals and wild life; Very close is the Rajaji National park. It is a great city for outdoor sports, like trekking and rafting; And offers many opportunities to go up into the mountains and temples nearby.

Rishikesh is separated by nature into many parts; one of these part is Laxman jhulla, and another is Ramjhulla; Easy walk give breath taking views at the Ganges and surrounding mountains. The area contains many ashrams and temples spreading the spirit of Om…It is a daily nice opportunity to watch the beautiful sunset in Ramjhulla along the Ganges beach; The area is blessed by the strong winds blowing down from the Himalayas each night.

A beautiful white sand beach invites you to walk barefoot along its shore; Inside the sand rock formations are inviting people to sit and to watch the flow of the Ganges, to talk, to meditate, and to create some new ideas and enjoying the sun.

In the early morning the beach always looks different; If you are familiar with the Japanese art of stone gardening, you can find similar formations made from the wind. The wind belongs to Rishikesh and gives a beautiful sound through the many big strong tree leaves; Trees including the peepal tree (Ficus religiosa), under which many sadhus do their tapasya (deep meditation, in an effort to achieve self-realization and austerities). Hindu priests are praying, doing pujas while people are offering flowers to the holy Ganges.

Holy Ganga in Rishikesh-

What a joy it is to take a “holy” bath in the Ganges, in the warm sunny days or  even during the winter time. This gives the body strength,  peace of mind and allows the soul to enjoy itself.

The holy ganga water is coming from Gangotri – the source of the Ganges; the water changes color in the winter season to a pure Emerald gemstone green, when the sunlight is reflected. In the monsoon time, it is best to avoid bathing in the strong Ganges current, which takes healthy and rich mineral mud to the Peoples fields for growing food for human and animals including the holy cow which is present everywhere in Rishikesh and India.

Incredibly, Rishikesh has four harvest seasons , with many fruits various vegetables, pulses and grains, like rice. Walking a short distance to Tapovan in Laxman jhulla you can see very nicely how everything is cultivated and growing.

Trip to Kunjapuri Temple –

A very nice short trip is to see the sunrise at Kunjapuri Temple (divine mother temple), which is one hour up the mountains by car; After sunrise you can enjoy a nice walk through the jungle; It is best to go with a guide as in the jungle there are many wild animals; There are snakes, leopards, elephants, and monkeys which you can find everywhere in the streets of Rishikesh. As foreigner, it is best to keep in mind that monkeys’ look cute, but their main work is to look for a chance to grab food from people.

Rishikesh has many small teashops, restaurants and ashrams to experience Indian cuisine and to drink a chai (tea); There are many guesthouses, hotels and ashrams to stay in.  In the shops you can find Indian, Nepali or Tibetan goods. Astrologers are giving advice to the local as well as the foreign people; Teaching thme to be in harmony with the surrounding planets, which are important in Indian mythology and the Holy Scriptures including the Vedas.

Rishikesh is well known, as many famous people have visited, including the Beatles. The ashram where the Beatles stayed still exists; It is only a short walk from the Nada Yoga School. Prince Charles and Camilla from England recently came to participate in the daily puja at the Parmath Niketan Ashram.

The opportunity is waiting for you to come and experience the beautiful city of Rishikesh with spirit and all that it has to offer.

Comment below for more information or if there’s something missing. 🙂