As per Skanda Purana Rishi Raibhya did here austere penance to appease Lord Vishnu and pleased Lord Vishnu appeared here under a mango tree and promised that He will reside in Hrishikesha for ever. Since then Rishi Raibhya is revered as shadow of Lord Vishnu with name as Lord Hrishikesha. This holy town is starting point for the Hindu Char Dham pilgrimage, including Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath, to seek spiritual salvation.
In modern history, ‘Kailash Ashram’ was established here in 1880 by Dhanraj Giri. It was one of the first ashrams in Rishikesh.
In 1908 Swami Atmanand established Swargashram. Gradually some more ashrams came up and soon it became popular for yoga and meditation.
In 1968 Beatles John Lennon recorded ‘The Happy Hrishikesh Song’ here in Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram. The Beatles composed nearly 48 songs during their time at the Maharishi’s ashram, many of which appear on the White Album. Several other artists, including Mike Love of The Beach Boys, Donovan and Gyp Mills, visited the site to contemplate and meditate.
I am giving here my complete plan of visiting six places in one tour.
In this article I am covering only Rishikesh.
How to reach
Nearest airport at Dehradun. But Dehradun airport is very far from city. So I planned to reach Haridwar by train and then move to Rishikesh by auto as it is just 22 KM from Haridwar.
We reached by e-riksha from Haridwar at 3 PM after seeing Haridwar. Auto dropped directly to Uttarakahand Government state Tourisism dept. hotel GMVN Bharat Bhoomi which is about 3 KM by from Parmarth Ashram and 2 KM from Triveni Ghat. It is a nice hotel with good ambience. We had just 2N stay here. Room was big enough though not so well maintained as it was economy room.
Where to stay
I personally always prefer to stay in state Govt. Tourism guest houses throughout India as these are very good, neat, reliable, big campuses, neat surroundings and have very good service. Also they own some responsibility of your safety. Their restaurants are also big and neat with varied cuisine.
They accept only ONLINE Bookings. In case you are not able to book only just reach them personally.
Booking link – https://gmvnonline.com/trh-filter.php
GMVN Rishikesh (Bharat Bhoomi Tourist Complex)- I stayed here
GMVN Rishilok near Ram Jhula
GMVN CHILLA – Near Rajaji national park,
RISHIKESH GANGA RESORT – Sheesham Jhari, near Purnanda Inter College,
The rent ranges from 1000 – 3500 per day
Season
All seasons except May to July and December to January.
Distance to be walked on foot
11624 steps, 887 calories, 8.09 km, 177 minutes movement
This much required to visit Rishikesh Triveni ghat, Ram jhula……aarti
Travel tips
Suggest to book your hotel in state tourist guest houses only as private hotels may be in some lean streets and may not be convenient for you. Keep some cash for autos and hotels. They do not accept online systems.
Expenses
For two persons total average expense lodging and boarding and local sightseeing may be not more than
Rs.4-5K in 2 Night stay on average living.
Mode of Transport
Ola is not operating in Rishikesh . You can get easily e-rikshaws, auto. So keep cash with you as autos do not accept paytm etc. Most of travel is on foot and you can use auto only to drop you at Parmartha Ashram and Triveni Ghat and return to hotel in evening.
Sight seeing
Day 1 – Rest
Day 2 – Triveni ghat, Shatrughan temple, Ram Jhula bridge, Bharata penance, Swarg Ashram, Ganga temple, Mohan choti wale, Rudraksh tree, Geeta ashram, Geeta bhawan, Bramh kamal tree, Premarth Ashram, Kalp Vriksh, Ganesha Banyan tree, kaanch temple, Aarti, Janki jhula ( 9 hours)
Day 3 – Move to Dehradun
Day 1 -We took complete rest in hotel.
Day 2 – We took an auto at 9 AM to drop us from hotel to Trivei Ghat (2KM). Triveni Ghat is picturesque and named so as river Ganges is parted in 3 branches due to natural island in between. It is beautiful and very calm and natural. The Ghat is kept very clean and crowd was less there. You can see evening aarti here also. There are no so good hotels around this Ghat. We just took chhola-batura and noodles here is a dhaba which was really not so clean.
After spending 1.5 hours here we took another auto to drop us at place called “Muni ki reti”.
By chance a guide bumped in with us and I hired him for just Rs.100. Wife was annoyed that I hired guide as she things that we will be tied to guide timings. But I think it is better to take a guide just to know what locals think about the place.
My all elaborations here are here EXACTLY what the guide told us.
He first took us to Shatrughan temple (newly constructed) and told us that this is the only temple in India dedicated to Shatrughan. He told all this area from Shatrughan temple, Ram Jhula, Lakshmana penance, Swarg Dwar, Geeta Bhawan, Parmartha Ashram to Janki Jhula are part of “Muni ki reti”. It is Char Dham yatra gate.
Then he told me the story, why this particular place is called “Muni ki Reti”. Ages ago a Rishi did tapasya. After his death his body was floated in wooden box. The only part of his body were found in sand after decades was his hair. Since then it is called “Muni ki Reti”. But actually I think this story might be famous in locals but actual meaning of Muni ki Reti is “Sand of sages”.
On way he showed the Pandava Penance hillock and told that that what you see here today ae houses built by locals here. The guide took us to first point where a very small temple is built recently dedicated to Godess Ganges, the river. There was a board bigger than temple with family name who constructed it. He took some fotos of ours.
Then guide showed us Swarg Ashram and Baba Kali Kamli wale ashram and told his story. In brief Baba Kali kamli wale became spritual and sage during his Haridwar visits. He used to travel often to char dham and seeing the plight of pilgrims during travel he established many ashrams with the help of wealthy businessmen for pilgrims stay in Rishikesh, Haridwar, Rudraprayag, Kedarnath, Badrinath, Kurukshetra, Joshimath and Devprayag.
It is said that in the end he moved to Kailash in 1897 AD to return never. People believe that still he is alive and performing tapasya.
After this the guide took us to Geeta ashram. It was in big compound and had some idols of Gods in this installed by some rich merchants with their names engraved in granites bigger than Gods idols. This is one aspect.
By this time it was lunch time and guide showed us Mohan Choti wala restaurant. This restaurant is very famous but we just took Rasgolla, lassi and chaat.
After lunch we walked towards Geeta Bhawan and he showed us Rudraksh tree. Geeta Bhawan is the temple where all Geeta is written on walls. There is also full Geeta written in one page.
From Geeta Bhawan we moved towards Parmarth Ashram. Here the guide showed us Kalp Vriksh, Brahm Kamal tree, red chandan tree, a Peepal tree where Lord Ganesha images appear in form of branches and lastly Kaanch temple.
The guide left us at aarti ghat in front of Parmarth Ashram. By this time it was 5 PM.
The aarti was for about 20 minutes. There was large crowd. After aarti we passed through Janki jhula across which we got auto to get to our hote
The day was OK and full of spirits of peace and happiness.
Day 3– We got up at 7 AM to reach Raiwala railway station to catch train for Dehradun. This journey was about 1.5 hours.
This finished our Rishikesh visit. It was pleasant experience altogether.
Epilogue
The thing which most impressed me about Rishikesh was its cleanliness. It was an awesome experience of bathing in Ganges in Rishikesh. The clean Ganges flowing in front of you. The town is maintained clean even in crowded area. I plan to come to Rishikesh and Haridwar again.
In this trip we missed seeing mainly Lakshman Jhula, Bharat mandir, Mahesh or Beatles ashram and water adventure sports.
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