Rishikesh Art & Film Festival: 11 days, 6 venues, 50+ artists

Once the ashram was open, the question was what to fill it with. The answer was the Rishikesh Art & Film Festival — eleven days spread across six venues, built around a single theme: the sacred life of India.

More than fifty artists took part: filmmakers, photographers, painters, classical dancers and musicians. Thirty volunteers ran the ground operation, from hanging exhibitions to guiding visitors along the forest trails.

Every screening, performance and exhibition was free for tourists and local residents alike. Funding came from sponsors, government grants and my own pocket. Charging entry would have defeated the point — this was service to India, not a business.

Mooji accepted an invitation to hold satsang on the grounds, and thousands sat together in a hall that had been sealed for a generation.

The festival established that the ashram could host culture at scale, safely and respectfully. It set the template that later events in Rishikesh have followed.

For many of the artists it was the first time their work had been shown outside a gallery city — on stone floors, under open sky, beside the Ganga.