Ashram life continues

Saturday November 21, 2009 5:54 am

     This morning as Swamiji recommend I took a "bath" in the Linga pool. Really it was more of a swim, the water was only about four feet deep, but that was deep enough for me! The water itself was not that bad, but the walk to my room was cold! OK, got to go. 

4:42 pm

    Swamiji is in the ashram today, but he is at a two day weekend meeting, so we are being "ruled" by Ma Maneesha. Actually contrary to everyone's theory the day has been very fun. In the morning we got to discover our pooja kits and it was like Christmas. 

9:05 pm

    Well the DVD (I don't know either) finally worked and we watched about half before sitting down for the evening Kalpataru darshan. Then we had our dinner, and I goofed off for a bit, but now we are all back in the Ananda Sabha for an hour. 

Sunday November 22, 2009 12:14 pm

    This morning when (when I was in) my room, we discovered a surprise that is very typical in India, and one aspect, that I strangely love about this country. We had no electricty, zero, nada. In India this does not just mean lights. That mean no fans, no water, no plugging anything in. Plus no light. And as the whole ashram complex, at least in our area, was out, and the moon was just a sickle, there wasn't even outdoor light. Me and mom (oh little 14 year old me's grammer) each had a dim flashlight, but our other two roommates did not (seriously though, who goes to a third world country without a flashlight?!) Oh shall I mention this is 4:30 am? Well I discovered we still had some water left over from the night before and so the four of us had quick baths using just a few cupfuls each. This and finding our clothes was done with the help of just two flashlights. It might sound like I am complaining, but actually I found it fun. Then we had a two hour yoga session (First I went to the Banyan tree) Then there was breakfast, then we worked with our pooja kits, then visited the real Nandi (that was really fun.) maybe I will explain more about him later. Then a break, then we went to the Banyan tree and Ma Maneesha told us stories. Miracles and such, although she said they were not really miracles. That is where I am now, with all the other LBE participants, we are all under the huge sacred tree. Ma Maneesha said she had to run off on some business and would be back by 1:30 pm. Even though she is not here, that does not mean we are totally free to do whatever. Dakshinamorthi sits on his stone mound pedestal. and carefully observes us. Actually right now I am sitting on a low wall, about 1 1/2 feet high and leaning back against a banyan branch. Everything is so peaceful, a few quietly just sit. A few read books, or take notes, or write in their journals like me. High up in a whole at the front of the tree sit two owls. I don't know what breed, but they are fairly small and look SO cute. Really they have been sitting there watching us the whole time, since we got to this sacred space. 

    Last night as promised we had a campfire session with Swamiji, except he invited many of his ashramites to come as well. Mostly he just told us about Kumba Mela the biggest gathering of people (for a peaceful cause) on planet earth. To celebrate, OK let me start from the beginning. So there is this story called the Churning of the milky Ocean (warning, this is going to take a while)  One part of it, near the end, all the gods and demons are fighting (this is a Hindu story) over a pot of magical nectar. In the process four drops of it gets spilled. These four places came to be four cities. OK next part there is this piece of skull which is kept in a golden pot, or Kumba. This skull belonged to the first enlightened master. Now there is a group of people who carry the Kumba from city to (one of the four I mentioned earlier). It takes them four years to reach each city and when they reach it there is a Kumba Mela. So after Swamiji finished talking there was this silence. Whenever this happens you can count on one of the Bramacharis to turn on music, they turned a beautiful song on, and we all started clapping in rhythm to the music, even Swamiji. Then in the middle of the song he sang with the music until the end of the song. It was divine. So now back to the Banyan. 

    I found a new better spot to sit. There is a place where some branches come around making a hollow, there are a few of these and I have seated myself in one. The thing that is so special about Banyan trees is that they don't grow up. They do, but well, really the just grown down. Branches sprout out of branches then they grow down to bury their roots in the earth. It is very cool. OK I am going to work on other things now, but I will write later!