Vodoo, black magic, Hinduism and poison. Oh my!

The incredible part about Rishikesh is the ability to connect with people and bond with them. I’m going to tell you about one of the most harrowing temple visits I’ve been on during my journey in India.

I was on the banks of the Ganga the other day and spoke to a group of ten Indian gentlemen. The majority of my conversation was with a young man named R. I had just finished a book about Rishikesh and was fascinated with the story of Neelkanth Temple and Lord Shiva. Long ago, a deadly poison threatened the destruction of earth, and instead of letting the world perish, Lord Shiva drank the poison — sacrificing himself to save the universe. Neelkanth Temple is located exactly where Shiva sat after saving the world. Neelkanth means “blue throat,” and thanks to Lord Shiva, we’re able to use our throats to communicate, eat good food, and enjoy life.

When R and I were wrapping up our conversation, he asked me if I’d like to visit Neelkanth , to which I enthusiastically replied that I would be overjoyed to visit. That’s the magic of Rishikesh — you read something and then miraculously you’re offered that very thing.

Throughout my life I’ve gone back and forth on the concepts of free will and determinism. One thing I do know for sure is that I can perform magic and conjure anything I want to — or at least this is how my conversation with R made me feel. When he sat next to me he said that I was signaling that I wanted to be spoken to. The scary part is that in my head I was thinking “I hope someone sits next to me, because I really want to speak to a local.” Was it me acting on my own free will and socially signaling that I wanted to make a new friend? Or am I just a cog in a predetermined world, thinking I have the choice of free will when really everything is already decided? Whatever the case may be, R and I exchanged information and off we went.

During our text exchange later that day we both agreed on heading to Neelkanth Temple the next morning to make an offering to Lord Shiva. My friend from Fort Lauderdale was visiting me and I thought this would be a wonderful experience for both of us. We met at 7am in Tapovan and started walking out of Rishikesh and into the mountains.

Maybe I was tired the night before, but I completely misread how far the temple was from Tapovan. Google Maps said it was about 3.5 km. I wore flip flops. Right as we were passing the Beatles Ashram, my buddy J said “hey, this sign says the temple is 10.5 km away.” I’ll be honest — I still thought I might be okay. I wasn’t. Neither was J. By the end of the hike, we had climbed the equivalent of a mountain in Vermont — somewhere between 2,600 and 3,000 feet of elevation gain.