Anasakti Ashram

The Anasakti Yoga, his commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, which is where the ashram takes its name. He arrived in 1929 intending to stay two days and stayed fourteen, and the room he used is kept as it was — small and entirely plain, which is a large part of the effect. The ashram runs a small museum of photographs, letters and documents covering both that fortnight and the wider movement.

No, and it is worth being blunt about it because Kausani exists almost entirely for this view. The range is visible from the ridge on perhaps half the mornings of the year. October to early December is the most reliable window by a clear margin; March to June is warm and often hazy with the peaks appearing perhaps every second morning; the monsoon closes it almost entirely. A closed-in stay is a genuine possibility and worth planning around.

On a clear morning the range occupies something like three hundred kilometres of horizon, running from the Kedarnath group in the west through Trishul and Nanda Devi to the Panchachuli peaks in the east. The peak identification boards on the ashram terrace name them and are the single most useful thing on the site. It is the view that made Gandhi call Kausani the Switzerland of India, a remark now quoted on every sign in the district.

No. There is no ticket, nothing is sold and nobody solicits anything — donations go in a box and are entirely voluntary. It is a functioning ashram rather than a museum with a gift shop, so visitors are asked to keep noise down, particularly near the prayer hall, which is in daily use. Modest dress, and footwear off where indicated. Photography is fine in the grounds and museum.

First light, without qualification. The range is clearest before the day warms and the haze rises, and the peaks often close in by mid-morning even on a good day. Late afternoon sometimes clears again and is the second chance. At 1,890 m the mornings are cold in every season, so take considerably more clothing than the daytime temperature suggests if you are going up for sunrise.

Forty-five minutes covers the museum, Gandhi’s room and the terrace at an unhurried pace. It is a short visit, but it is one worth building an early morning around rather than fitting in — the reason to be there is the light moving across the range at sunrise, and that means arriving before it rather than after. The ashram opens early enough for exactly this.