The Divine Life Society (Sivananda Ashram) — Attraction in Uttarakhand

A pleasant ashram. Being an ardent devotee and having read most of his books I consider swamy Shivananda as my personal guru. I have always dreamt to come to Rishikesh, pray at divine feet and seek the blessings. After bathing in Triveni Ghat, I took an auto and came here. I went inside the temple first and prayed to Shiva and later got inside the Maha samadhi of Swamy Shivananda. The place is filled with all his teachings painted on walls. Swamiji did Pooja and Harathi. We later went inside the sanctum and circumambulated around the maha samadhi and prayed to swamy Shivananda. Came out and took the teertham and prasadam.

Me and my friend sat in the hall and started meditating in the silent hall. The place is so silent and so deeply vibrant that we are almost in a deep meditative state not knowing what is happening around us. I felt no sensation in the body for a while while meditating. That is the power of this place. We felt as if we were magnetised or recharged to the core after meditating at this place. We then went and had our lunch inside the Ashram. We took the plates and glass. Sat on the floor mat and started chanting holy mantras. Till everyone is served completely we started having our food. Swamiji himself personally came to everyone and asked whether we needed anything more. That's very deep and a lovely gesture. We came out and washed our places outside and walked around the ashram.

We went to the library and purchased some books and a photo of Swamy Shivananda. Spent nearly 3 hours inside the divine ashram, remembered my guru who has always been a guiding light in my small spiritual journey. After a brief prayer we left filled ourselves with great peace inside just like Sri Abdul Kalam ji once...

This place is vibrant with divine peace. One can enjoy spiritual upliftment by visiting this place. The spiritual teachers of this ashram are imbibed with abundant spiritual knowledge as taught by Swami Sivananda Saraswati, the founder of this institution. One can take atleast few of the about 300 books written by Swami Sivananda. These books are full of abundant wisdom that removes human suffering and give them everlasting peace and right attitude towards the world in which we all live. These books and the knowledge in them have the power to transform each individual (soul or Atma) to reach the Highest Attainment a Atma can attain which is Liberation or God Realisation or Self Realisation or Mukti or Motcham. They conduct free Spiritual courses in English of two months duration for Indian men three times every year. Knowledge and Experience that one gains in this course is immeasurable and life Transforming. This course is highly recommended for young Adults as Swami Sivananda prescribes taking up Spiritual Practices at early age. There are plenty of Life Transforming books available free of cost that can be downloaded from the Divine Life Society Rishikesh web site. To stay in Ashram premises one has to get permission from Ashram authorities by...

Wonderful food and a beautiful history with many amazing elements, but I hesitate to recommend staying at this ashram today. There are no yoga classes for women, plus no guided meditations or regular lectures, so it’s mostly chanting (kirtan and bhajans) and self-guided practice. There is a beautiful yoga room one can use, but it is sometimes locked so it’s hard to establish regular practice. They are also very erratic in their treatment of women, some swamis being very welcoming and others insisting that single women are not allowed to stay at the ashram.

Although I have been interested in Swami Sivananda’s teachings for years and spent two months at an ashram started by one of his students, this was a very unpleasant experience for me in the end. The swamis refused to keep the yoga hall open for women to use and also refused to let me stay alone as a single woman after my family left. And, although I’m American, I came here with Indian relatives who have been coming here for a long time and they also agreed that it has lost its luster and sense of respect for yogins. (This is absolutely with the exception of the kitchen staff and many others, who...