Santosh Puri Ashram

After a bumpy chaotic rickshaw ride to Haridwar, my friend Ira and I arrive at the Santosh Puri Ashram.  Our rickshaw heads down a small alley where there are many ashrams behind big gates.  We stop at a gate that has been speckled with colored paint and out from behind it appears a tiny man.  He’s barefoot with a long white beard and balding white hair.  His third eye is accentuated by colored mud.  We’re taken inside the gates where there is a small courtyard surrounded by orange and yellow plaster buildings.  We are given some chai as we wait to do check-in procedures.  At last we are approached by a woman.  She speaks softly and her English is a little hard to understand.  She is the old German woman who runs the ashram.   Mataji.  Her name means mother in Hindi.  She is wearing all orange and barefoot.  Long grey dreadlocks run down her back to her waist.  She has very light blue eyes.  We are shown around and shown to our room.  It’s beautiful here.  There are full lush gardens with marigolds, hibiscus, and hydrangeas.  There is a large tree with huge fruit growing on it.  Fruit the size of melons!  I keep asking everyone what kind of fruit it is, but no one seems to know.  The stairwell up to our room glows with color.  The steps alternate orange and yellow.  Our room is small but it the nicest room I’ve had in India.  Ira and I are so excited about what the next days will bring.  We begin immediately to unpack and make this beautiful ashram our new home.