Drums and chanting roll across the Ganges at dusk, when the aarti lights up Triveni Ghat. Upstream, in a forest on the far bank, the Beatles once swapped stage lights for meditation and wrote a pile of new songs, and their faces still smile from murals on the old ashram walls.
Beyond the ghats, Swarg Ashram gathers yoga halls on the east bank, Tapovan fills with cafes and rafts bounce through rapids from Shivpuri. Winters are cool and dry, May runs hot and the monsoon swells the river from July to September. A Local Friend turns your list of ashrams, ghats and rapids into a day that makes sense, from morning class to evening aarti.
