I know what you\u2019re thinking \u2013- who, in their right mind, would swim in a river known for funeral pyres and ash scattering? A river that, through time and evolution, has developed a species of bacteria specializing in exfoliating skin (living or not) and even more interesting, a bacteriophage that feeds on bacteria.<\/p>\n
First, I was in northern India, close to the source, where the water is so clear you can look down from a bridge and watch fish swim below the surface … and second, perhaps right mind is relative.<\/p>\n
I was staying at an ashram on one side of the river and the swimming hole was on the other. One downside to the swim was that the only time I could squeeze it in was dawn (around 7am), and while the afternoons were a lovely 70 degrees and sunny, the morning lows dipped to 45 degrees.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It would be a wet, chilly walk back to the room. I should mention here that while men can swim practically naked and put warm clothes on for the walk back, women must wear full-length trousers and long-sleeved shirts over their swimwear in order to not offend the local renunciates. For my swim, I wore a cotton, long-sleeved Indian tunic over my Speedo one-piece, and completed the outfit with baggy nylon workout pants.<\/p>\n
Concrete steps leading up from the river created the swimming area. The water was low in February (the Himalayas hadn\u2019t begun their spring thaw) so I stood at the edge, and after watching the water flow for a moment, plunged in feet first. About 20 feet downstream there was a chain to grab in order to clamber back onto the safety of the relatively warm concrete … and that was it. I repeatedly plunged, drifted with the current, grabbed the chain and pulled myself ashore. I did it so many times that first morning that my lips began to turn blue. I didn\u2019t want to stop.<\/p>\n
I laughed from the moment I hit the water. The Ganges is effervescent. I felt an incredible buoyant joy \u2013- as though I was being held by eternity itself and in its arms felt the pure happiness of a child. After that swim, I began to believe in the purifying reputation of Mother Ganga.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A purifying journey<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[4351,1840,4352,4353],"cp_author":[7596],"class_list":["post-112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mind-body-spirit","tag-effervescent","tag-india","tag-joy","tag-river","cp_author-california-psychics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n