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 experienced.