Episode 1 The Ganges with Sue Perkins

This is the Ganges, a river like no other.

Its waters bring life to hundreds of millions of people across India.

Turn... Other way.

That's not good - that way.

That's better.

To a billion Hindus,

it's an immortal mother Goddess who will wash away a lifetime of sins.

I'm going to explore the length of this beautiful, contradictory and

rather pungent river.

SHE COUGHS

I don't even know what that smell is.

From its source high in the Himalayas...

This is why my make-up is so flawless.

..through some of the most crowded, chaotic and exciting places on Earth.

Is this the queue for the toilet?

It is? God, I've got to wait, haven't I?

Following it 1,500 miles all the way to the Bay of Bengal.

If you want to know how important this incredible river is to these

millions upon millions of people, then you should come here.

I'll be poking my nose into the lives of its people.

Do you come here with boys?

-No!

-Yes, she does!

And bearing witness to its most intimate of rituals.

You're struggling to try and make sense of it, but it is not of this Earth, this place.

India is changing,

taking its place as one of the world's great superpowers.

This is Trumpian in its blingtasticness.

I'm with the big dude.

The heart's going like a shrew.

Literally.

The answer's still no, you rogue.

But as India grows, the Ganges is under threat like never before.

So this is raw sewage?

Yeah.

So what does the future hold for the great Ganges in the India

of tomorrow?

I'm so sorry, so sorry.

It feels like I've run a marathon.

I've only done about 20 steps.

I'm in the town of Gangotri,

which is high up in the Indian stretch of the Himalayas.

And we're on a trek to one of the most spiritual sites in the entire

world, where I'm hoping to firmly embrace the Hindu god

for altitude sickness.

My journey down the Ganges begins at the source,

high up near the border with Tibet in the highest mountains on Earth.

From there, I'll then follow this sacred river all the way to the sea

to try and understand the role she plays in the life of her people.

So, how far up here is the source?

-18km from here.

-18km.

Well, bearing in mind I'm out of breath after 100 metres,

you're in for an interesting couple of days.

This is Deepak,

a local guide who has the difficult job of getting me up this mountain

over the next two days.

He must have done something awful in a previous life.

Deepak, I need you to know,

I'm already extremely emotionally invested in those donkeys.

They're going to have names and back stories in ten minutes, I'm telling you.

I'm going to call this one Tamzin.

In my head, she probably had a successful career in retail but gave

it up because the pressures of the shop floor were too much.

So she decided to do something simpler with her life.

To be honest, I'm not just here for the donkeys.

I know that everyone always says this on telly,

but this really is an emotional journey for me.

I've had a horrible year.

A really horrible year.

But it feels weird saying that because in the west

we sort of swallow down pain and we swallow down our emotions.

Because we think it's the right thing to do to keep on going.

And that's the sort of indictment of the way we live back home, actually.

That you need to come so far, you know,

5,000 miles and 4,000 metres above sea level to actually just

properly live through your experiences.

And properly inhabit and own them emotionally.

And I'm sure at the end of this, I will...

..have been changed in some way.

Or I will have had a fluttering of some new feelings or emotions.

Or experiencing things that I've repressed and sort of subsumed for years.

So, that's a complicated ask for a walk, isn't it?

But if any walk is capable of working miracles,

then surely it's this one

along the banks of the Ganges.

Legend has it that Lord Shiva, one of the most important gods in Hinduism,

absorbed the power of the Goddess Ganga

when she fell from the heavens through the locks of his hair.

Namaste.

For devout Hindus, that makes this river a living Goddess,

with the power to wash away the sins of a lifetime.

In the words of the 1980s gurus Eurythmics,

everybody's looking for something, and you get a sense of that here.

You get a sense that the people that have trodden this path

are all craving enlightenment of some kind.

I don't know what enlightenment I'm craving.

I don't know what I expect.

But I'll take on board anything that I receive, put it that way.

This sacred landscape is home to hermits,

wise and wandering holy people who have forsaken all worldly goods.

-Wha-hey!

-Be careful there.

People like Materji...

Pranam.

..who lives in a cave near the river, to be as close as possible to the goddess.

-How are you?

-I am fine.

Shall I take my shoes off?

-No problem.

-Are you sure?

-So how long have you been here?

-Six years.

-So this is your bed?

-Yes.

Now, I don't see any mattress, pillows...

-It's on this side.

-Oh, a few.

That's not happiness there. You can't be happy if you lie on that.

Oh, I used to, but now I got things.

You'd make an osteopath happy, but I don't think you'd be very happy.

I know it's a hard thing to sum up, but what does the Ganges mean to Hindus? What is its significance?

Ganga is the one who gives salvation to all our forefathers

and whoever comes in with fate.

-So it'll wash your sins away?

-Your sins.

-It will cleanse you.

Yes! Cleanse, right.

It cleanse our sins and, you know, whatever...

Our sins and whatever.

Whatever else.

As a young woman, Materji lived in Delhi and was chasing a career as a

ballet dancer before she answered the call of the divine.

You say you wanted to be a ballet dancer.

Then you got all your grades,

and you were achieving and achieving and nothing made you happy.

What was the thing that made you go, "Stop, I want to be different?"

I want to, you know, like, serve people, serve people.

Make everybody happy.

I mean, I'm normally a happy person.

But I'm very happy to be with you.

Because it's nice to meet people who have overridden

the over-thoughtful, over-analytical mind and can find peace.

And if you can't find peace in this, then you're in a real mess.

-God bless you.

-God bless you. And God brings you some gloves,

-because these hands are chilly.

-I have got them, I have got them.

-I have got gloves.

-Thank you so much, darling.

Thank you.

Now we're on our travels.

Fred, you never mentioned this bit.

SHE SIGHS

In the high mountains, the air becomes thin.

Breathing becomes difficult, and the oxygen levels in my blood crash.

These are the early signs of altitude sickness.

SHE COUGHS

I might be sick.

SHE COUGHS REPEATEDLY

This is not how I planned it.

You know, it was going to be a glorious, triumphant hike.

And I would...

CLEARS THROAT ..meet Mother Ganga,

and I would have this amazing communion.

Instead, I'm retching over a hillock.

And I am not going to stop.

I'm going to carry on.

Mind over matter.

I shall walk, I shall hurl, I shall walk then hurl,

and I shall wash my face in the waters of the Ganges.

Although, I think, let's keep them pure, actually.

I'll wash my face in some bottled water and leave the Ganges be.

In the thinning air, every step leaves me breathless and drained.

But, thank the Lord, four hours later,

Deepak delivers me safely to base camp.

Our own boutique spa retreat, 5km from the source of the Ganges.

So this is our very own Taj Mahal.

Let me take you through the palace.

-Namaste!

-Namaste.

Oh, there's wonderful Deepak there.

So this is my vanity unit.

This is why my make-up is so flawless.

And my hair, like I've just stepped out of a salon.

Some water,

which is great.

If you touch it, it literally freezes your hands off.

Out there somewhere,

in that building that looks like it's part of the Saw film franchise,

is a toilet.

This is my favourite room.

Hey, Namaste!

-Namaste.

-Namaste.

# There were three Sherpas in the bed, and the little one said... #

Four Sherpas!

It's only when I sit down that I realise how utterly exhausted I am.

The thing is, pilgrimages aren't supposed to be easy,

because everyone would do them and they would be meaningless.

You know, pilgrimages are not supposed to be a little skip in green fields

with a parasol and sitting down for some cucumber sandwiches and would

you mind passing the sun-dried tomato focaccia?

They're supposed to be hard and they're supposed to ask something of yourself and

take you to a different place.

And that's certainly done that.

I mean, for me, the more sort of physically depleted you become,

weirdly, the calmer you are inside. The more exhausted you are,

you can't fight the simplicity of the experience.

And you don't have what I call chattering chimps, you know,

the sort of endless psychobabble in your head.

You just have a serenity as your body just tries desperately to deal

with, you know, being sick or having a headache

or being very high or far away.

And being very cold.

So, I had...

After a while, I just heard a voice in my head which said, "Take it steady."

I think I know who that voice belonged to,

but that's for another time, and it was just...

It kept me going

and I made it, and I'm just dead chuffed now.

It's a very strange sensation, altitude.

So, I feel sick, I have a headache, but you're a hero

-and you're going to get me there.

-We'll go slowly, slowly.

Yeah, we'll take it easy. It's a beautiful day.

-Yeah.

-It's a beautiful day to find purification.

It's just a short walk to the source from here.

It sounds easy, but I'm now over 4,000 metres above sea level.

That's nearly the height of Mont Blanc.

Every breath and every step is a massive effort.

-We'll see the glacier.

-The glacier?

-Yeah, glacier.

-That's it?

-Yeah, that's it.

-Is that where the source is?

-The source is.

-So we can see it.

-Yeah.

As we get to the source, we can see this beautiful Shiva temple.

This is my first Baba.

And first thoughts are, if we were playing beard cricket,

that's a six and out.

I think a bit of hats off might be more deferential too.

Beneath the glacier, a Baba, or holy man,

has built a small temple where he offers blessings to pilgrims like me.

Pranam, Baba. Pranam. Pranam.

God bless you.

Sit down.

-Here?

-Yeah.

-Thank you.

Oh, there.

-Are you a good man?

-Not full good.

-You're not full good?

-No.

-I think you're pretty 99% good.

-God blessing them full.

-I think you are very high.

I think I'm here and then Baba's here.

And then God's...

Baba's commitment to his faith in this wild place

is truly astonishing.

He tells me that he spends 13 hours a day in silent prayer

communing with the Goddess and the mountains around him.

Mother Ganga...

What, you think the bird is now Mother Ganga?

-Reincarnation?

-Yeah.

-Why not?

Do you know what? I looked at this bird and saw something different.

But, yes, I agree with you. Blackbirds are special to me.

I'm not a religious person, but I can't deny the spiritual impact of

this magnificent landscape.

And the simple act of just walking here has had a profound effect on me.

When I hit the wall and I was really feeling altitude sickness,

I just had this phrase in my head which was,

"Take it steady," which is not very unique phrase.

But it was something my dad always used to say.

He'd always say, "Take it easy," or "Take it steady."

"Take it steady," when he took my stabilisers off my bike,

or "Take it steady, old girl,"

when I was leaving him and driving back home.

And, erm...

..my dad died about six months ago and I found it so hard to even...

..say that out loud.

And because I live in London and it's always so fast-moving,

it's provided the perfect excuse to just suppress everything and bury it

so deeply down so that I don't have to feel that surge of pain, and to

re-identify with the fact that he's not here.

And what this trip has done that has been so profound for me is to...

..let me be sad, you know, just to

give me the space and the breathing room

and the time to be truly, truly sad.

Because, I tell you, you don't know my dad but...

..he's really worth grieving over

and I'm really glad I've started that.

I'm now going to start my journey south, following the Ganges as she

tumbles over 1,500 miles downstream,

gathering speed across the Gangetic Plain

through the oldest living city in the world, Varanasi,

towards charming and chaotic Calcutta.

And on to the vast delta on the Bay of Bengal

where she finally meets the sea.

I'm back in Gangotri, about 20km downstream.

Winter is coming and today is an important day in the calendar.

Very good. I'm scared of him.

You're powerful, you are handsome, you are a magnet.

-Everybody loves you.

-Thank you.

-You've got it.

Pilgrims from all over India are in town waiting to see the effigy of

the Goddess Ganga as she leaves her summer temple

and heads down the mountain.

For many, it'll be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity

to get up close to this very important Goddess.

So I have come 5,000km, maybe.

Yeah, yeah. To see Ganga.

-It's like heaven.

-Exactly.

-What does it look like to you?

-Very good.

-Very.

-Same like you.

-Very good.

It's a slightly curious festival, this, lots of fits and starts.

So, you know, there will be a lot of activity and shouting,

a guy will go in with a sprig of something, everyone will go nuts.

Then it's tea break, then the pipes will start and everyone will reconvene.

A moment of frenzy.

Drenched with a couple of litres.

Off again for some quiet time.

At the moment, chanting.

And at 12.38 exactly, Ganga will appear.

A stickler for time.

Apparently, 12.38 is the perfect time astrologically for her to make

her descent down the valley.

50 years ago, before roads were built,

only the most devout pilgrims would make the arduous journey here.

But then India's economy went into overdrive,

so more and more people could afford to make the long pilgrimage.

Now, up to 30 million people a year visit the region.

A whole industry has grown up to cater for this new flood of pilgrims

and trekkers, with blessings to Ma Ganga, souvenir stores,

and an endless supply of priests for hire.

It's quite hard to follow the beat of that drum, isn't it?

It's quite irregular. Yeah.

Da-dum. You think you know where you are and then it's all...

She's coming.

-Ganga.

-Ganga.

She's coming.

Bang on 12.38, Ganga makes her appearance to her adoring fans.

And a sea of mobile phones.

Oh, the bagpipes are a lovely touch.

Love the Scots. Get everywhere.

-My name is Sue.

-Sue.

What is your name?

-My name is Ragini.

-Lagini?

-Ragini.

-Ragini.

-What do you feel when you see Ganga?

-I feel good.

And do you feel that God is around?

-Yes.

-In the sky?

-Yes.

-In the trees?

-Yes.

-And the brilliant sunshine?

-Yes.

-God is everywhere.

-Yes.

The Goddess will wind her way down the valley over the next two days,

along new roads and ancient paths,

collecting villagers and spirits like a Himalayan Pied Piper.

But this influx of visitors and their cash to such a remote and

fragile environment is changing life in the high mountains.

And there's a holy man in town who's seen it all.

Today, I'm going to meet the Clicking Baba.

I've got no idea why he's called the Clicking Baba.

Maybe he has legendarily dry joints, or speaks fluent dolphin.

SHE CLICKS

I guess I'll find out.

-Namaste.

-Namaskar.

-May I come in?

-Yes, yes, come.

-Thank you so much. Thank you.

-Please.

-May I sit?

-Yes.

After you.

So, how long have you been living here for?

1948. Many years. Yes.

And what first drew you to this spot?

I can see, by the way, why you're called the Clicking Swami,

because around there are photos, millions of photos.

These yoga poses are extremely impressive.

That is definitely the struggling colon.

And I don't even know how you get your feet to do this.

You know, practice.

I practise every day.

Eight-hour sitting.

But it's very intimidating, being in the shadow of that.

I will never ever be able to do that.

The most profound pictures that you take are not of you doing

these incredible yoga poses, but they are of the environment.

So you have charted the way that the environment has changed

since you've been here.

-Can I see?

-Yes, see.

-Ah!

Family slide show time.

Swami Sundaranand is now 90 years old.

His life's work has been to photograph the effects of

climate change on his beloved mountains and river.

Oh, you've got them all down here.

Oh, brilliant, there's a full list.

Of all the mountains, how high they are...

Oh! You've written here, "Oh, sky, I love you."

I love that. That makes me love you even more.

"Oh, sky, I love you."

His archive records the dramatic retreat of the glacier,

and a world changed beyond recognition.

If this is Gomukh, then the glacier I'm seeing in this picture

in the 1950s doesn't resemble what I saw a couple of days ago at all.

So the retreat is very, very marked indeed.

Swami, how far do you think the glacier has retreated

in the last 50 years?

You think it's retreated three and a half kilometres?

-Yeah.

-In 50 years?

-50 years.

This is like a sort of very, very beautifully told horror story,

isn't it? I mean, 3km seems a huge amount.

-Three and a half kilometres.

-Three and a half, sorry.

You're a real stickler, and I respect that.

The flood of new pilgrims has brought new problems.

Trees cut down to make room for new buildings and guesthouses,

along with raw sewage pouring into the river.

When you came in the 1940s, what was this place, what was Gangotri like?

-No, not finished.

-Finished.

-You think finished?

That makes me really sad.

Altitude always makes me cry.

But I...

I have to believe it's possible to change things.

Otherwise, you'd lose your mind.

Swamiji, dhanyabad.

Thank you. Dhanyabad.

For your time and for your passion and your wisdom. Thank you.

I loved meeting Swami. He's just a lovely, gentle,

passionate man who doesn't try and use religion as a way of

obfuscating the issue.

You know? And who's so immersed in this landscape.

And I don't think I've ever been anywhere in my life where the notion

of landscape and spirituality are more interconnected.

And it just seems, to me, as a passer-by, really,

that if you degrade one element of that,

then the whole is going to suffer.

So, I...

I can't understand why,

if you believe that this space right next to where I'm standing

was the space where Ganga came down

and flowed through Lord Shiva's dreadlocks,

why you would want to put an open sewage pipe in it.

That, I will never understand.

Oh, good. Another climb.

No wonder so few people live here.

They can't make it up the hill.

This morning, I'm in Mukhba, 20km downriver,

where the Goddess Ganga will see out the cold of winter.

That's Ganga's new home.

So she's going to come down from the mountains and that's where

she'll stay until the spring, when then she'll then process back up

again to Gangotri and she'll stay and enjoy the summer climes there.

Namaste.

How are you, sir? When is Ganga coming?

-When will Ganga arrive?

-Ganga is reaching here at exactly 3.30pm.

-Exactly 3.30?

-Exactly 3.30.

Or, say to quarter to four.

-Quarter to four.

-Exactly 3.30, quarter to four.

-Quarter to four.

-Yep.

-Four?

-You are from which part of Britain?

-London.

The climatic condition of England and Mukhba is the same.

The climatic conditions of this village and England?

-And London.

-I bring news - we have no sun in London.

-You have not seen the sun in London?

-I think once or twice.

-Once or twice?

-Maybe.

So that's why you are telling, "Good morning, sir."

I know, because it's so beautiful.

Good morning, good morning, good morning.

This is such a beautiful village.

Namaste.

Mukhba feels like it belongs to an older world.

200 years ago, the British arrived in these forested hills,

chopped down the trees to make sleepers for India's railways,

and introduced the nomads to farming.

Now, village life is changing again, as more and more pilgrims

make the long journey up the valley.

Namaste, namaste.

For Chumli, one of Mukhba's elders, the changes are welcome.

And what is it you love about it?

So, do you have a lot of Westerners come to the village?

Oh, mine's gone very weird.

Really weird!

This is for you. The chapati superhero.

So, do you want to see the village develop?

Do you want to see more buildings and roads? Is that what you'd like?

-Good.

-Good.

-Really good.

The best chapati maker in the Himalayas.

Delicious.

Tourism is now the main source of income here.

With most of the village men working away, I'm joining Chumli and her

merry band of women as they prepare for the arrival of the Goddess.

The women are also very keen to dress me.

I'm not sure the sari goes with a boiled woollen jumper.

Whatever makes the Goddess happy...

What you've done there is a classic East-West fusion.

You're the Trinny and Susannah of the Himalayas.

THEY SPEAK OWN LANGUAGE

She's got a very firm... Very firm touch, hasn't she?

Yes, I'm getting married?

I'd like to see the man who takes this on. I really would.

That's bone, that's bone.

Oh!

I came here with love.

Thankfully, the priests have now arrived, so I have a perfect excuse

to end this agonising makeover.

I can hear them, I can hear them.

You like? Good?

-I've had a rebrand.

-Yes.

-It's good? You prefer?

Yes, beautiful.

Thank you. You rogue.

Lovely. The answer's still no, you rogue.

Hundreds of local villagers have flocked here to welcome the Goddess.

THEY SING IN OWN LANGUAGE

This scene feels utterly timeless,

with its epic stories from the dawn of Hinduism.

But modernity is sweeping up this valley on a tide of tarmac

and mobile phones.

Everyone wants to come to this region,

pay their respects to the living Goddess,

and wash away a lifetime of sins.

But in doing so, they are causing genuine harm to the environment,

and destroying the very Goddess they're here to honour.

I can only hope that places like this will survive and prosper

as change rushes in.

At Gomukh, the source of the Ganges, kilometre zero, if you will,

sort of felt...

..purely at one with the elements.

I connected directly with the sky and the mountains and the water,

and yet just 20km from there,

I've been immersed in this world of colour and a riot of sound

and pageantry and madness,

and if we've got so far in just 20km, it makes me think,

"What on earth is waiting for me downstream?"

HORNS HONK

After you. After you, sir.

Been here for two and a half hours.

Politeness has no place on this bridge. No place.

After the peace of the mountains,

Rishikesh comes as something of a shock.

It's a far cry from Gomukh.

Gomukh, you could touch the hand of God. Here...

Well, I can touch an awful lot of strangers, a cow, some monkeys,

some Ghandi pants, and a Lord Shiva onesie.

After you. After you.

What are you doing? You're a cow on a bridge!

We need a system. I think it should be cows first, then bikes,

then monkeys, then humans.

Rishikesh lies in an auspicious place,

where the Ganges flows through forested hills.

It's just 160 miles downriver from Gangotri,

but it feels like a world away.

They're wonderful, aren't they? I mean, they are wonderful.

I come back. I come back.

Now it's an all-you-can-eat buffet of Eastern mysticism,

a smorgasbord of spirituality,

a one-stop shop on the backpacker trail of enlightenment.

I feel as if I'm leaving a higher place

and crossing back into the material world.

What is your top-selling God?

-Top-selling God?

-Yeah, Shiva?

-Shiva.

Shiva. Ganesh a bit?

Ganesh also. Ganesh also.

Let's have a look.

Lord Shiva. That's what I'm looking for, perfect.

-Do you have any...big pants? Big...

-Big pants, for you?

-Big pants, massive pants.

-Like this...

Ooh, yeah, this is sort of...

What do you think?

Sort of Hillary Clinton at the weekend, isn't it, this?

I think these ones. Can I try on? It's OK?

The important thing about going to a new area is that you blend in.

You know, you have to...

..merge with the crowd, not create any kind of ruckus visually,

so...I think that does it.

The trousers, I don't know about the colour,

but the Shiva T-shirt for me is an absolute...

Oh, hello. He's gone for it.

Yeah. I think you could be right. You've got an eye, sir,

is what I'm saying. You've got an eye.

There's an entire family in here just sitting watching me.

You all right?

Yep, they're coming down again, I'm afraid. Just, er... I'd avert your eyes.

I'm heading across the river to a sacred place,

a site of holy pilgrimage where, many years ago,

four gods descended from heaven and real magic happened.

What drew Westerners to Eastern spirituality in the late '60s wasn't

devotion to Lord Shiva or Ganesh,

it was devotion to four working-class lads from Liverpool.

It was all less Ganga and more goo-goo-ga-joo.

This was once the Mahesh Maharishi Yogi Ashram,

where The Beatles came in search of divine inspiration.

Namaste. Namaste.

I'm Sue. Nice to meet you.

My guide is Raju, local journalist and fellow Beatle nut.

This is the place where The Beatles came in 1968,

and this is the place where they learned about meditation.

The Fab Four first crossed paths with Maharishi in London.

He was already a guru to stars like The Beach Boys, and promised bliss

and enlightenment through transcendental meditation.

So how many songs did they write here?

-48 songs.

-48 songs.

-Yeah.

-It's a hit machine, this bungalow.

-Yeah, yeah.

And it all originated from here.

Oh, it's great.

So there they are. There's the Fab Four.

What I love about this place is that there's the sort of layers of

devotion, so some people come here to venerate Shiva, Ganga,

and then there are people who come to venerate

the greatest pop icons of all time.

There's a real sense of sort of Guru, you know,

kind of Guru eyes bearing down on you.

For a brief time in the late '60s,

this must have been the coolest place on the planet.

As well as The Beatles, Mike Love from The Beach Boys was here,

Donovan and Mia Farrow, too.

Imagine.

Ringo left after just ten days, in search of proper food.

What he did, he came here with baked beans.

-He brought his own baked bean stash?

-Yeah, yeah...

All of The Beatles members who came here,

they were very annoyed with monkeys and mosquitoes.

I don't know much about Ringo,

but I do know that he can't abide a monkey taking his baked beans.

The rest of the band followed soon after and finally the Yogi himself,

amid claims of sexual impropriety.

But The Beatles and the Maharishi turned the West onto Indian

spirituality and put Rishikesh firmly on the world map.

There's an incredible energy and presence about this place

which is as much to do with the wonderful natural environment as anything else.

You can hear the Ganges, you can smell the flowers,

there's butterflies everywhere.

But there's also a sense of it being, you know, a spiritual home to many.

Although, running alongside that, you do get a sort of sense

of the beginnings of the branding of Hinduism.

The Maharishi came to London, he sought out The Beatles,

he made that connection and brought them back to Rishikesh.

Why? Because he wanted celebrity endorsement.

Maybe that's what all major religions need.

50 years after The Beatles passed through,

Rishikesh is THE place for people in search of...

..something.

There are dozens of ashrams now.

They're a sort of health spa for the soul, places where you can meditate,

receive spiritual guidance, and detox from the modern world.

Oh! You are the cutest little sausage ever!

More and more Westerners are being drawn to these quiet places and Eastern religions.

So I've booked a short stay at one of the ashrams to try and understand why.

Every night, down by the river, hundreds of people gather for Ganga Aarti,

to give thanks and worship to the Goddess Ganga.

These are great seats.

SINGING AND MUSIC

How many of these do you see a week?

I come every night.

-And always different?

-Every night, it's different.

-Always moving.

-Like a theatre show.

Every night, it's a new show.

And when you hear Pujya Swamiji singing...

-Really?

-..you can't get enough, can't get enough of that.

Swamiji is the guru at the ashram.

I'm told that he will sing 108 verses.

HE SINGS

Could be a long night.

But, on the plus side, I've been promised a buffet the end of it.

Let's get a bit of that dahl going on.

This is Elise, originally from the UK

and now a full-time administrator at the ashram.

She's invited me for supper.

What's your story? How come you came here? What drew you to this place?

-So I had my full-time job.

-What was your full-time job?

It was very corporate. I worked, er, for...

-You were in a corporate world?

-I was in the corporate world.

-Can you imagine this now?

-Asset management and venture capital.

You were in asset management?

Yes. You know, I was dealing with a lot of staff.

I felt I had the capacity to be more caring, but not necessarily...

In a different environment.

I mean, assets - grabbing, getting, getting...

-This is what I struggled with.

-And now you're giving, giving.

This is where I struggled.

You know, I turned around to my colleagues and I'd say to them,

"You know, we're sort of making rich people richer."

And so when you come here, although obviously there's the Hindu practices,

it's about bringing everyone together and the answer to everything does tend to be, like,

love and looking inwards at yourself.

Will you ever go back, do you think?

Depends if my mum's watching this.

So if your mum wasn't watching this, you're not coming back. Is that right?

I don't know. I visit home. I visit home.

Does she come to visit you?

No. I'd love my parents to come and visit one day.

Do they get it yet, or not? Are they a bit bamboozled by you?

At first, they were worried.

You know, what am I doing, and like you say, what am I giving up?

It's not like I'm bumming around and I've got my backpack, you know.

I'm here trying to make a difference and I'm a small cog in a big wheel,

but I'm playing some part.

Let me tell you, you're...you're...

in comparison to asset management, you are a massive cog.

Congratulations on being now a massive cog.

Putting the likes of me to shame.

Relax.

Relax your knees.

The ashram is a place of quiet devotion.

The aim is moksha,

a release from the endless cycle of death and rebirth.

Raise your arms up forward.

Breathe in.

And out.

Oh, that's how you do the downward dog.

Relax. Good.

Unfortunately, yoga, meditation,

and veggie curry will not get you to heaven on their own.

You're expected to do some work.

For every Hindu, it's their duty to do seva, or service,

to help the smooth running of the community and the country.

This morning, we are litter-picking on an epic scale.

So far, we've just been picking up a few fag butts,

and you turn a corner and you can see what

an ineffective waste management system does.

This is right by a stream that feeds into Ganga, into the Ganges.

That's pretty shocking, actually.

Ah, thank you. Great.

Cheers. So much nicer to rake through shit than sweep it.

Got a pair of jeans in here.

-Have you?

-Yeah.

-There's a couple of saris I had earlier on.

Got some glitter, some foam, some sort of belt.

Coffee cup. Tobacco pouch, condom.

That's actually a human beard.

That's somebody's beard.

Anything people don't want, they bring up here and dump.

And because it's not happening on the banks of the Ganges,

people think they are maintaining their respect,

but of course all this waste simply trickles down eventually and meets

the very waters that they're taking their bath.

I suppose it's a bit of an own goal, isn't it, really?

They think they're dumping it away from the Ganges,

but it comes back to roost.

Swamiji's here. Oh, I'm slightly... I'm slightly overwhelmed.

Swamiji is a truly impressive man.

Called by God at age eight,

he meditated in the mountains for nine long years

before gaining a Masters degree in Sanskrit and philosophy.

He's now a scholar, religious leader,

and environmental campaigner to clean up the Ganges.

To me, it is a green crime against humanity that our air is not clean,

water is not clean, rivers are not clean.

What we are going to leave for our coming generation?

What I love about the ashram is this work.

It's not just a life of the mind.

Now we have gone to the courthouse, so very soon the order will be there

that no-one will be allowed to do this any more.

So you're changing the law as well as...?

We are trying. No-one has a right to pollute any piece of the river.

-The theme is togetherness.

-Always.

-Give me the hand.

-Promise.

-Done.

-Done.

-It will happen.

-Done!

What an amazing man.

All the way up towards Gomukh, you meet babas who don't have much

interface with the community,

who prefer to retreat and commune directly with God.

How much more powerful, though, when you can put that to work in a community.

You can clear land together, whilst pressurising the government to do something from the top down.

Right...

I have to say, I'm leaving the ashram just a little bit ashamed of myself

because in retrospect I've been guilty of spiritual snobbery.

I arrived in Rishikesh and immediately dismissed everybody who went out and,

you know, bought a Lord Shiva T-shirt, and yet that night,

I looked down and saw this raggedy old thing which was given to me

three years ago in Laos and is supposed to unite my 30-something souls.

These are just signifiers. All these things we wear.

All they're saying is...

"I've got an open heart, I've got a questing mind.

"I'm human. I want to connect.

"I want to understand. I want to love."

So, shame on me.

That's what I've learnt.

I'm heading downriver to the holy city of Haridwar,

where the Ganges leaves the mountains and flows into the plains.

Everywhere you look, one bearded face smiles back at you.

Baba Ramdev - one of India's most famous figures.

He's a yogi/holy man turned business guru,

who now runs one of India's fastest-growing consumer goods companies.

No wonder he's smiling.

Well, this is a very big day for a girl from Croydon

because today I'm going to meet my first ever tycoon -

a holy man who's made multiple millions

by packaging Hinduism for the masses.

Think Donald Trump, but with morals.

There's a lot of entourage going on here.

And sub-automatic machinery.

Pranam, Swami.

-I'm really good. Nice to see you, nice to see you.

-Thank you, thank you.

So this is it - the beginnings of the empire.

So, will you take me on a tour?

-Yes, yes.

-Can I see?

-Yes, yes.

We'll tour the compound on an armed golf buggy,

accompanied by his PR team filming us filming them.

Oh, we're travelling in style.

Life doesn't get any better.

I'm slightly scared by this guy with a gun here.

Does he follow you around, the guy with a gun, all the time?

Is there a lot of warfare in natural products?

HE LAUGHS

Baba Ramdev founded Patanjali with his business partner,

selling traditional Indian versions of over 1,000 common household items,

all made using Ayurvedic techniques,

a traditional holistic form of Hindu medicine.

So, no additives?

So no big American multinational influence?

HE LAUGHS

SUE LAUGHS

That was a great laugh.

It was both benign and terrifying at the same time.

We start in the herb and spice warehouse.

Oh... Ooh!

It's like an edible Ikea.

You are feeling the different type of smells?

Beautiful, yeah. So perfumed, spicy.

But these are all natural products.

You are looking here, 20...

20,000kg weight of hops are here.

This is javitri.

Javitri. What would you use this for?

This is good for lung.

Good for lungs. Again, you can eat straight?

No, no. But you can eat. No problem.

HE LAUGHS

I love the way you said, "No, no," after I'd put it in my mouth.

-So you can't...?

-It is very hot.

The heart's going like a shrew! It's literally dr-r-r-r-r-r!

HE LAUGHS

You're a torturer.

HE LAUGHS

I don't think I'm ever going to have any lung problems again.

Hoh! Hoh-oh-oh-oh!

-This is good for lady.

-Good for ladies. OK.

For menstruation problem.

-So is it curing your menstruation problems now?

-Yes, yes, yes.

-You can eat.

-What are your teeth made of?

They're incredibly strong, your teeth.

I'm eating Dant Kanti, our herbal toothpaste.

Oh, OK.

Maybe I need some of that.

Namaste. I'm with the big dude.

THEY LAUGH

The company is growing at an astonishing rate -

100% a year -

and is expected to hit sales of three-plus billion dollars

in the next 12 months.

And now they're taking on the big guys.

-Is it?

-Yes.

This is India's answer to Colgate.

Lovely! I love the fact that a Swami, a holy man in orange robe,

just saying, "Three to five years, crush. Kill, crush!"

-No, no!

-Rrrrr!

Ramdev isn't quite what I expected.

He's sort of equal parts mad monk and Bond villain,

but I absolutely love him.

-You're making 2.5 million of these every day?

-Yes, every day.

This has all gone a bit Willy Wonka. I might end my days in a toothpaste vat.

This is one hell of a thing you've got going here, it really is.

-Like this?

-Like this.

It's unimaginable. The scale is unimaginable.

Patanjali employs over 200,000 people and is growing fast.

Profits have doubled this year already.

It's an odd fit, a holy man and a multi-billion...

Not yet. Five years.

Crush!

-Not for mine.

-Is this for India?

-Because you are Swami, so you are...?

-I am Swami.

But is it strange, then, that you're now a celebrity?

-I'm not a celebrity.

-You are. I see you everywhere.

Even in the rural parts of India, I see your wonderful face.

Boom, there. You are.

A Swami, yeah. And everyone else thinks you're a celebrity.

This is our store.

A whole store with just your products in?

-That's amazing, isn't it?

-Yes.

Some people say it's hard to reconcile spirituality, Hinduism, with business.

But that is how you do it, by saying, "I give to people."

So you put it into practice.

It's not enough to have a life of the mind, you must work and give...

Yes, I agree, I agree.

I would like a tiny piece of your energy,

your ability, your inner peace.

If you could sell that, I would buy it. Amazing. Thank you.

-Namaste.

-Namaste.

I think what, if I'm being honest, I expected to find here

was a man cynically exploiting his position,

bottling spirituality and selling it to the masses for a fortune.

But instead what I found was the nicest, sweetest, funniest guy.

So dynamic, and driven not by money but by a desire to put India

firmly on the map.

A sort of old-fashioned almost Victorian benefactor and philanthropist, if you will.

In the mode of Cadbury's and Quaker.

A guy that all he wants to do is to provide the best foods...

..for his people at the best price.

I'm going to go to a forest and live with him forever.

My journey along the upper Ganges is very nearly at an end.

But I have one more place to visit.

The Ganga Aarti ceremony in this holy city of Haridwar.

He thinks I'm Sue Pollard.

I'm now going to Aarti, which is the nightly prayer to the Ganges,

which takes place on the banks here. Thousands of people attend.

It doesn't feel very religious, though. At the moment, it sort of feels like Tottenham-Arsenal,

sort of afternoon match, with people eating, chatting and joking.

That's the sort of religious vibe I can half get into.

THEY SING AND CHANT

There are no tourists here.

Just everyday folk coming to praise a sacred river and the Goddess that lives in her.

It's an Indian wave.

You could never know, coming into all of the mess and muddle of this place,

that it would end up being so utterly beautiful.

The sense of love and devotion here is overwhelming.

This is how the Ganges is worshipped.

It's been an exhausting and emotional few weeks.

I may not believe in gods and goddesses, but this pilgrimage

along a sacred river has genuinely touched me.

It's not just the Ganges that connects this place to my time at the source.

It's also a feeling, and you're probably thinking,

"How on earth can the feelings you have here in amidst all this chaos

"and noise and thrum be the same as you experienced in the elemental purity of the mountains?"

But I feel it.

And it's not a feeling that needs to be mitigated by babas or sadhus or swamis.

It's pure joy.

Not peace, by the way. Not peace.

Joy.

Next time, I'm in Varanasi...

This one is trouble.

..the ultimate destination for Hindus.

If you want to know how closely life and death are linked in this place,

the ashes of a recently cremated human rubbed all over.

Ooh!

I never thought I'd been sharing tattoo stories with an 83-year-old!

It's a breathtaking city, but, I warn you,

it's not for the faint-hearted.

You're struggling to try and make sense of it, but it is not of this earth, this place.