Rishikesh, Amritsar and Dharamshala

North to Haridwar, where the Ganga comes out of the hills onto the plains. Pilgrims come here from all over India to bathe, in the belief that the river washes away their sins, and every twelve years the city holds the Kumbh Mela, when millions come at once. At Har Ki Pauri, the most sacred of its ghats, you watch them step down into the fast, cold water, holding on to the chains.

Then on up the river to Rishikesh, the yoga capital of the world, and your hotel for three nights. Before dinner, a first talk on yoga and meditation, to introduce the practice and the days ahead.

Early yoga and meditation, then breakfast, then out to Laxman Jhula, the iron suspension bridge upstream that gave this part of town its name. The bridge itself is closed now (see Before you book), but the view down the river towards Haridwar is the same, and the lanes around it are full of ashrams, temples and small cafés, loved by visitors and local people alike.

In the evening, a second session of yoga and meditation. Meditation, the teachers say, is awareness without distraction: watching the breath, or listening to the birds in the trees along the river. Done with full attention, any of these becomes meditation, and the mind grows quiet.

Early to the Golden Temple, the Harmandir Sahib, the holiest shrine of the Sikhs. Guru Arjan, the fifth Guru, completed it in 1604 in the middle of the Amrit Sarovar, the pool of nectar that gave Amritsar its name; Maharaja Ranjit Singh covered its upper storeys in gilded copper in the early nineteenth century. You walk barefoot round the marble causeway as pilgrims bathe, and the kirtan, the singing of the hymns, goes on from before dawn until late at night.

Everyone who comes, of any faith, is fed at the langar, the community kitchen run by volunteers, which serves tens of thousands of meals a day. Then the Akal Takht, facing the temple across the causeway, the seat of Sikh authority founded by the sixth Guru, Hargobind, in 1606; and Jallianwala Bagh, the walled garden where, on 13 April 1919, troops under General Dyer fired on an unarmed crowd of thousands, many of them in town for Baisakhi. The bullet marks are still in the walls.

In the afternoon, 28 km out to the Wagah border for the Beating Retreat, the lowering of the flags at sunset: soldiers of India and Pakistan stamping, high-kicking and glaring at each other across the gate, and a stadium of spectators on each side cheering them on.

In McLeod Ganj, the Tsuglagkhang, the main temple of the Tibetans in exile, beside the Dalai Lama’s residence. Its shrine holds a gilded Buddha; Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, of whom the Dalai Lama is held to be an emanation; and Padmasambhava, who helped bring Buddhism to Tibet. You can sit in the meditation hall, and turn the prayer wheels outside as the pilgrims do. Down the hill, the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives keeps old manuscripts and texts, and holds classes in Buddhist philosophy.

Then up to Bhagsu Nag, a temple to Shiva with two bathing pools that pilgrims hold to have healing powers, and a short walk beyond it the Bhagsu waterfall, dropping through the deodar forest. The path is rough and uneven in places, so wear good shoes.

A last morning in Chandigarh — Sukhna Lake, at the foot of the Shivalik hills, is the place to walk — then the drive south to Delhi and the airport for your flight home.