A SHORT STAY IN UTTARKASHI
A description in three parts
Story and photographs by Robert Moses

The swamijis in Uttarkashi have a type of loose knit community. They help each other. Each comes from somewhere in India and, through various karmas, has settled in Uttarkashi. Not in the sense that a householder settles but in the uncertain way in which a modern swami settles.
I know some of these swamijis since they are my gurubhais, which means we have the same guru. One of them I am quite friendly with, although, despite the loving feelings of familiarity, one never really can be too friendly with a renunciate. But we are good friends. He is a tolerant person. Moderately tall and always robed in orange colored cloth. When he is just working around his kutir, a small cottage, he can appear slightly shabbily dressed. When he goes out into the town or to a program, he dresses more neatly but always simply. In town, he wraps his upper cloth over his head and tucks it behind his ears. He looks comforted within his cloth and it easily fits his slender build.

To continue reading this article please purchase it or subscribe to Namarupa. Thank you