Schwartz: For thousands of years Hindu pilgrims have been making their way to Rishikesh in the foothills of the Himalayas.They come to bathe in the holy waters of Mother Ganges and meditate upon her banks. Once the path to enlightenment ran as clean and clear as the river here – not any more. In Rishikesh the search for inner peace used to demand disipline and denial. Today, seekers of the truth can have their strudel and eat it too, then find a guru to help burn off the calories. And if a cosmic connection proves difficult – there’s always the internet.

Karuna: Well, I think I have been coming around 22 years and when I first came here it was quite quiet, there was hardly any shops. But it’s perhaps it’s easier for westerners to come here because there are restaurants and bookshops but I feel Rishikesh has lost something.

Schwartz: Rishikesh hit the western spiritual radar in 1968, thanks to a visit by four unlikely lads from Liverpool. For two months, the Fab Four traded jet-setting for yogic flying – seeking to emulate the peace of their guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Ultimately, the Beatles and their guru chose different paths. Today the ashram they shared is overgrown and empty – but there are plenty of replacements.
In the hamlets around Rishikesh, there are now hundreds of spiritual schools and gurus -- and thousands of paths to enlightenment.. Luckily, I’ve found a guide -- a former Swiss engineer – now a 20-year resident of Rishikesh

Swiss swami: He’s not an ordinary man, he’s something special

Schwartz: He’s taking me to one of the town’s living saints.
Swami Ramkripalu certainly looks the part. As befits a holy man, he hasn’t cut his hair for 35 years. For a decade he lived naked and silent in the Himalayas. These days he’s only too happy to share his gained knowledge-- though preferably out on the Ganges. While life may not be as tough for devotees today, there’s still a certain master-disciple etiquette to uphold. The pay off is an hour at the feet of one of Rishikesh’s enlightened souls.

Swami: You will feel a kind of rare, extraordinary calm and peace, you know. So you should fall in love with you – and that love, you can extend… and sharing can make a person rich – and happy.

Schwartz: What advice can you give me if I'm looking for the right path for myself?

Swami: Your heart will tell you – here the place, here the person, here the time.

Schwartz: Taking Swami Ramkripalu’s advice, I continue my search, heading upstream to Parmarth Niketan. This is one of Rishikesh’s largest and most established ashrams. It provides the full, live-in, yogic experience for a thousand people at a time – all for a donation of your choosing.

Swamiji: What can I bring for you? Anything?

Woman: We’ve totally enjoyed your hospitality.

Schwartz: The spiritual leader is Swami Chidenand Saraswati – known to his followers as Swamiji. He has tens of thousands of disciples around the world – and the number is growing as more Westerners discover Rishikesh Chidenand The number has increased. Every day it’s increasing.

Schwartz: Why do you think that is?

Chidenand: It’s the quest to learn, quest to reach somewhere where they can reach somewhere to feel that stage of peace.

Schwartz: Here, that quest begins with yoga. It’s a serious business. These students are just finishing their gruelling four-week Ashtanga yoga course. They start before dawn six days a week. It’s an intensive schedule of postures, breath control and philosophy. Today they’re preparing for their exams.

Chidenand: Yoga is not just physical exercise. It unites you – spiritually, mentally, physically. First it unites you to you. And then to the reality, and then to everybody.

Schwartz: Every evening, Swami Chidenand conducts the ashram’s fire ceremony – a ritual of praise and supplication to the Gods.It always draws a large crowd – not just the faithful. The ceremony is one of the tourist draws of Rishikesh – but that doesn’t worry Swami-ji. He says many people come here without even knowing they’re searching. Bhagwati was one of them. She’s swamiji’s right-hand yogini. Her story – like her – is right out of Hollywood.

Bhagwati: I came to Indias to travel. In Rishikesh I got to the banks of the Ganga and I burst into tears. Not sad tears but ecstatic tears, tears of coming home. Tears from a place in me I didn’t know existed.

Schwartz: When this daughter of a Beverley Hills divorce lawyer met swami-ji, she knew she’d found her master and her calling.

Bhagwati: Physiologically, emotionally, spiritually, every cell of my being knew I was in the presence of the divine.

Schwartz: Is it possible that you don’t think you can boil that down to straight out charisma?

Bhagwati: Absolutely not. I grew up in Hollywood. I know a lot of people with charisma.

Schwartz: Six years after arriving in Rishikesh, Bhagwati is preparing to take Hindu vows for a life of simplicity, servitude and celibacy.

Schwartz: In the City of the Divine, however, celibacy is not always a prerequisite. I heard one Romanian swami was run out of town because of his controversial tantra yoga course. In terms of the tantra yoga, what did that involve?

Soami: For the local people it was pure sex and fun, that’s how they think it was.

Schwartz: And for you, was it pure sex and fun?

Soami: No, I was not actually there because I was doing some other… but… it comes pretty close to the same to be honest (laughs)

Schwartz: Swiss Swami – my first guide in Rishikesh – knows all about the jealousies and problems foreigners can face.
He helped his late guru build an ashram which now supports more than seventy schools and institutions, and 600 staff. No different he says, from politics in any small town

Schwartz: Did you ever receive any threats?

Swami: Yes of course. I had.

Schwartz: Yes, of course! What kind of threats?

Swami: Oh, I some people wished to see me more in heaven than on earth.

Schwartz: Oh really!

Denise : It’s enough to drive a person to drink. But in a dry town, that’s not allowed. There are no night-clubs either.

Baba Vishnudas: Laugh as much and loudly as possible.

Schwartz: But there is laughing and dancing yoga with Baba Vishnudas. This former store worker from Bombay believes yoga should be fun. I’m not sure I’m on the road to enlightenment…. But I may just have found my guru.