FAQs

To help you understand a little more about Neeleshwar and A-Z of services, please read this very helpful section

What is Ayurveda?

The ancient teaching of Ayurveda, 'the Science of Long Life', is the oldest documented body of holistic medical knowledge. Originating in India over 5,000 years ago, it was codified in its most important text, the Charaka Samhita, in the 2nd century BCE. This text travelled with traders and physicians to China, the ancient Middle East, Egypt and Europe, profoundly influencing the development of plant-based healing all over the world.

Prevention oriented, Ayurveda offers a wide range of holistic treatments that are both natural and effective. It is uniquely empowering, as it allows you to get back in touch with your body’s innate healing intelligence and thereby take the responsibility for restoring and maintaining your own good health.

Ayurvedic treatments include prescribed herbal preparations and medicated oil massages, as well as easy and enjoyable home routines of diet and lifestyle. All of the treatments are tailored to your individual mind-body type. By removing deep-seated toxins and stresses from the system, they restore harmony and balance in the physiology. The results are wide-ranging. As well as alleviating many specific complaints these treatments can leave you looking younger, feeling better and enjoying more energy, as well as acting to normalise your weight and prolong your life.

By taking into account your body, mind and surroundings, Ayurveda locates you as a spiritually participating part of the wider cosmos, and aims at unfolding your full potential in the light of this connection. This vision extends the concept of good health far beyond any current allopathic paradigm, while forming a practical antidote to the pressures of modern living.

A-Z Guide to Services

Alcohol

Keeping your health in view we serve beer and wine only.

Children

We are always happy to welcome families to The Hermitage, but please be advised that we do not have any specific amenities for children such as crèche, games room, play park or children’s pool.

Dress code

Opening up tourism in an area that has never had it before is both a privilege and a considerable responsibility. Accordingly, we respectfully remind our guests that India is still a traditional culture with different habits of dressing and public behaviour than those that have recently become acceptable in the West. In order harmoniously to fit in with the local way of living, we therefore stipulate that nude or female topless bathing is strictly forbidden, and we reserve the right to ask anyone violating this prohibition to leave the hotel. By the same token, we ask our female guests to be discreet when they are walking along the beach and to wear tops and long shorts, skirts or sarongs, i.e. not just swimsuits or bikinis. Also, we would ask our guests to remember that public displays of affection between couples is not the norm in India.

Fridge/mini bar

We do not have a fridge and a mini-bar in each room. If guests wish to have drinks they can always ask from Verandah service. Not having a fridge is also the ecologically sound option in a part of the world where electricity supplies are already chronically overloaded and forever unstable.

Neeleshwar - Name and Logo

Neeleshwar is one of the forms of Lord Shiva, the god of transformation. Long, long ago, when the world was not yet formed and time itself was a child, the gods and demons were searching for eternal life. They had heard that the nectar of immortality was hidden in a golden vase at the bottom of the infinite Ocean of Milk , from which the new creation was soon to emerge. So they up-ended the Cosmic Mountain to serve as a churning stick, and around the mountain they wound the Primal Serpent to serve as a rope. Then the gods took the head of the serpent and pulled, and the demons took its tail and pulled, and so they churned.

As the placid ocean frothed and bubbled, there rose to its surface a massive, venomous jet of poison, the accumulated negativity of past time. None of the gods was able to disperse the toxic wave, except for the mighty Shiva who stepped forward and swallowed the poison which was so strong it turned his neck, and some say his whole body, blue.

From then on the supreme god has been known as Neeleshwar, the Blue Lord. Once its poison had been released, the ocean was free to create, and began to yield its manifold treasures, which included Dhanvantari, physician of the gods and father of Ayurveda, who does indeed bear the nectar of immortality; Lakshmi, the Goddess of Abundance, and Kamadhenu, the Magical Cow that grants all wishes. Neeleshwar Hermitage is a place where you can gain deep rest, release the burden of the past and rejuvenate.

A place of new beginnings, Neeleshwar provides a harmonious and tranquil setting in which to take stock of life’s journey and take steps to enhance your growth. Those who are aware that there is more to life than its apparent surface are naturally drawn to India, and those who are drawn to India will soon be drawn to Neeleshwar.

Our logo is taken from a traditional design inlaid in mother-of-pearl on wooden trays used to carry offerings to the temple. The design is not just decorative: it is a mandala composed of permutations of the number eight. Wherever knowledge penetrates beneath the surface of life, eight can be seen as a causal form of the hidden power that structures the universe. Consider, for instance, the eight notes of the musical octave, the eightfold structure of DNA and the eight fundamental categories of existence identified by Vedic knowledge. Think too of ancient wisdom teachings: the Eightfold Noble Path of the Buddha, the Eight Limbs of Yoga and the Eight Trigrams of the I Ching. As our logo implies, these are all manifestations of the universal creative intelligence which, from the seed-point of the cosmic centre, radiates out through the eight directions to all infinity.

Television

We do not have television in each room. For those who really desire it there is a communal set where we also have a library of dvd’s on India-related subjects. Each room has an ipod dock, and we provide an ipod programmed with the Neeleshwar Collection for those who wish to use it. We have an extensive and growing library of books, with both a section on Indian subjects and a collection of general fiction/holiday reading. Guests are welcome to borrow books.

Smoking

We are a non-smoking hotel throughout. This is not only because we like to encourage health and wish to show consideration to those guests who do not smoke (i.e. the large majority), but also because our buildings make extensive use of wood and thatch, and so would be prime fire risks should smoking be allowed.

Tipping At The Hermitage

We are very aware that for every member of staff you meet, three others are working hard behind the scenes. So we ask our guests not to tip individual members of staff. There is a general tip box at reception, and in the Priya Ayurvedic Spa for the Spa staff. All tips are divided fairly among the staff at the end of each month.