That Time I Got Locked in the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s Ashram

Searching for the meaning of life in Northern India’s Rishikesh

L to R: The author en route to the Maharishi’s temple, the locked gate, and another temple in Rishikesh.

The morning I set off for the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram it was cool outside, low- to mid-sixties. But as I walked across the Lakshman Jhula, a suspension bridge that bounced with my every step across a fast-moving river, the sweat poured. Out of my…