I’d traveled a distance greater than miles from Morgantown. Back in India, it was barely 4 A.M. and dark. I was supposed to meet a Tantric swami who told me the predawn hours were the most auspicious for meditation. But the gates to this tented ashram colony where I was staying were locked so that I was stuck behind the chain-link fence that surrounded us on all sides. Along with about three hundred other Westerners, I’d paid the Himalayan Institute some five thousand dollars to stay one month in the luxury of these tents colony on the banks of the holy Ganges River, a package that gave us ID tags and a regular newsletter. We were here during the Maha Kumbh a Mela, a celebrated pilgrimage that drew millions of devotees to bathe in the river waters. This pilgrimage was particularly special because the position of the stars and planets made it a holy alignment that was last seen 144 years before. It was a last-minute decision that got me to jet back to India to experience the Maha Kumbh a Mela.
