B is for Babji and D is for Diwali in Dwarhut

My most recent adventure occurred at Dwarahut. Actually, I wouldn't call it an adventure. Adventure is the wrong word. I would call it a peaceful experience. Yes, that suits Dwarahut much better. The only time it wasn't peaceful there was when we were lighting fireworks for Diwali. That was far from peaceful, but I'll talk about that later. Right now I would like to start at the beginning of this story, which starts at 5:30 AM on a train platform in Kathgodam. Yep it was early and I was tired. I was ready to just lay down and fall asleep right there in the train station, but I couldn't because we had to get into a car and drive up to Dwarahut. So instead of falling asleep in the train station, I fell asleep in the car. My sleep was quite short, though. I think that it only lasted around thirty minutes because the car got a flat tire right after we began. So, at that point, we were told to get out of the car and wait for our driver to change the tire. Unfortunately, when our driver was ready to put the spare on he realized that it was also flat so we had to wait around for another driver to show up. This took another thirty minutes, but whatever, stuff like this is expected to happen in India. I mean, what type of cultural experience would you have if stuff like this didn't happen. Ok, moving on. We got into the car and I promptly fell asleep again. When I awoke we were in Ranikhet and we had lunch. Nothing special happened there so I'm just going to skip ahead to getting back in the car again. As you can probably guess, I fell asleep in the car once again and I didn't wake up until we were in Dwarahut. Now Dwarahut is just a small hill station. There isn't much there and most people wouldn't go there if they came to India. For us though, the place was a must. It has a very nice YSS ashram and it is also the closest town to Babaji's cave. So I awoke in the car and we were practically right in front of the YSS ashram there. As it so happens, on the day we arrived there was a five hour meditation scheduled for that evening. Now, let me remind you, I was running on very little sleep at that time so a five hour meditation was one of the last things I wanted to do. But, surprisingly, with a little help from some masala chai I was able to make it through the whole meditation. I think this miraculous meditation also had something to do with the vibrations at the ashram itself. That place was hopping. I don't think I could have stayed awake anywhere else. So, after the meditation the ashram served us a light dinner. Then we went to sleep. It had been a long day and also a long meditation.

The following day we were scheduled to go to Babaji's cave. Now for all of you who do not know the significance of this cave, let me give you the quick one sentence rundown. This cave is where Mahavatar Babaji first appeared to Lahiri Mahasaya and gave him diksa. (That may not have answered all of your questions, but at least you have some background, right)? We started out for the cave right after breakfast. For the first leg of the journey we traveled by car. It was a nice ride, a little bit windy, but overall quite nice. The hills are mainly covered in pines and terraced farmland. Quite the sight, if I have to say so myself. After a while though, we had to get out of the car and walk because there wasn't a road up to the cave. This was the second leg of the journey and I found it quite refreshing. The hike was very scenic and we even crossed the river (it looked more like a stream to me) taht Babaji instructed Lahiri Mahasaya to lay beside in order to cleanse himself. After around an hour of walking we reached the mandir that YSS built right below the cave. For a temple in the hills it was rather large and spacious and on the wall in the front of the temple there was a gigantic picture of Babaji. The cave was around a two minutes away from the mandir and we went up there one by one. While I was waiting for my turn in the cave, I got to chant and play the harmonium for quite a while. It was very nice. After around an hour in the temple it was my turn to go up to the cave. Our guide gave me an hour there and for the first half I was able to meditate with my mom. It was an excellent place to meditate, even though I have trouble sitting cross-legged on stone floors. After an hour, the next person came up to meditate so I had to leave the cave. Once that person was finished in the cave we headed back to the ashram. But, before we got back to the ashram, we stopped off at Joshi's Tea House and had some chai and Maggi noodles. I would suggest everyone to stop off at Joshi's Tea House after Babaji's cave if they have the chance. After the chai and noodles we hopped in the car and headed back to the ashram, just in time for the evening meditation. I know that some of you are thinking, "How much meditation do you do at Dwarahut?" Well I think I can answer that question for you, not enough. Even though it seems like you fill your day with short meditations, long meditations, and a lot of silence, it is not enough. Something about that place just makes you want to stop, sit down, close your eyes and go within. Normally, I wouldn't be as comfortable with putting in so much meditation in one day, but Dwarahut kind of pulls your spiritual side out of you and makes you meditate. So following the evening meditation, we had a light dinner and then went to sleep. That was the end of day two at Dwarahut.

Day three at Dwarahut was very special because it just happened to be Diwali. I'm not goign to explain the history behind Diwali for all of you because I will probably get some facts mixed up about it, so just wiki it if you're really curious. However, I will tell you that it is important enough to the Indian people that Barack Obama felt inclined to celebrate it as well. During Diwali, people normally light candles and put put up light around their house. It is a festival of light. Well there is one more thing that people do, they light a lot of fireworks (when I say a lot, I mean a lot). At the ashram we were invited to help place the candles everywhere. It was a fun task. After our little task I took a look at all the candles we placed and I realized that we placed a whole lot of them. I'm pretty sure that the United States would have some law against doing this due to fire hazard or something. Thankfully India had no such law because the candle lit ashram looked absolutely magical. There is something unique about candles and having a lot of them placed around and on top of a building is a very special special. Diwali is a special time in India and it is a very beautiful time. Following the candle lighting, we were invited to the school yard next to the ashram in order to light fireworks. We lit sparklers, bottle rockets, whirly-firework-things, bombs, and we even had a few of the actual fireworks. I think the whole process of lighting fireworks took an hour or so. Among the people lighting fireworks was one YSS Bramachari. I have never seen a Bramachari have so much fun lighting fireworks before. (Actually, I've never seen a Bramachari light fireworks before in my life so this was probably the reason for my previous statement). In any case, our firework lighting ended with a bang (haha, with a bang). It was a sad time. I mean, who wants to ever stop lighting fireworks. They're so entertaining and you never get to use them in the States. After fireworks we had dinner again (yes, yes I know you probably don't need to know that I ate dinner, but humor me) and then went to sleep. This was the end of day three at Dwarahut. I would give you another paragraph about day four at Dwarahut, but it just involved meditations, silence, and a drive down the same road we came up. One thing I can tell you it that I stayed awake during our drive down the mountain and I can tell you it was very scenic. It was not quite as nice as Badrinath, but I'm don't think anything can match that drive. So, with that, I think I will end this post. The only other thing I could say is that we had dinner once again, this time it was at a South Indian restaurant, and that we boarded a train headed for Delhi. Yep, that ends it. My experience at Dwarahut was done. So, until next time, this is Max saying goodbye.