Final Post and Introduction

This is my final post to this blog and in it I aim to present a small summary of the concept of yoga as I understand it after my experience in India, because I believe a lot of people are confused by all the different styles of yoga and do not clearly understand that yoga is not just a form of exercise. This little summary might not be completely correct and it might give rise to some discussion or constructive criticism, which I appreciate. This summary can be used as an introduction into my blog and after you have read it, I suggest you read the posts from oldest to latest, unless you are looking for something specific, in which case you can use the specific labels, which you will find on the right hand side.

What is yoga?

Literally yoga means "union" or "to yoke". Yoga is the union of breath with the body, of the mind with the muscles, and the self (or soul) with the divine. Yoga is not a religion and does not require you to believe in a certain God or chant certain mantras. It is an ancient Indian discipline which leads to health in the body, peace in the mind, joy in the heart and liberation of the soul. Liberation of the soul? In this context, I believe liberation of the soul does not mean union with the divine after death, but liberation from anger, greed, worry, desires, despair and depression.

Often the reason for our unhappiness on a personal level is the fact that we are constantly at odds between our mind and our heart, our desires and our fears. We feel alone, anxious and scared.
In our families and communities we criticize each other and compete with each other, "My style of yoga is better than yours." And we devide ourselves by nations, religions and colour. Yoga in its most complete meaning is the panacea for all that which ails us and devides us.

Here's a dictionary definition of yoga:
Yoga: n 1: Hindu discipline aimed at training the consciousness for a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility that is achieved through the three paths of actions and knowledge and devotion
2: a system of exercises practiced as part of the Hindu discipline to promote control of the body and mind [Hindi, from Sanskrit yoga, union, joining.

Note the paths of action, knowledge and devotion. There are many types of yoga that don't even include doing poses like down dog or tree. This is because yoga is not just physical exercise. There is yoga that only focus on obtaining knowledge of sacred texts. There is yoga that is all about devotion and service.

Types of Yoga

• Hatha Yoga

Most people if you ask them what kind of yoga they do, will say "Hatha Yoga". A lot of people get confused as to what all the different kinds of yoga are.
Hatha literally means "sun meets moon" and this type of yoga emphasizes specific physical postures or asanas. The ultimate goal of practicing difficult postures, however, is not a toned bum or flexible hamstrings, though these are sometimes the by-product of a yoga practice. The ultimate goal, if we are to really do yoga, is to force the mind to withdraw from the outside world to create perfect spiritual insight and tranquility. Hatha yoga provides us with a healthy body, which is a stepping stone towards achieving a still mind.

There are many different styles of yoga:
Anusara, Ashtanga, Bikram, ISHTA, Iyengar, Jivamukti, Kripalu (derived from Kundalini), Kriya, Power, Restorative, Shinto, Sivananda, Vinyasa (Flow).
These are all forms of Hatha yoga and I suggest people try out different styles to find one that suits them. There is a good comparison of the most popular styles / kinds of yoga in the February edition of the Yoga Journal.

Ashtanga yoga was and is taught by Pattabhi Jois in Mysore, India. A few decades ago westerners started going to Mysore to practice with Jois, or Guruji, as he is called. They brought the practice to the U.S., Europe, well now pretty much all developed countries have ashtanga yoga. Guruji, now at 91 years of age, is not the only ashtanga teacher in India, but he is by far the most popular.
Iyengar yoga is called Iyengar after the instructor who popularized this type of yoga. BKS Iyengar, who is also in his 90's, teaches in Pune, India.

BKS Iyengar and BNS Iyengar, along with Pattabhi Jois, learnt yoga from their guru Sri T. Krishnamacharya. While Jois and BNS today teach the vinyasa based form of yoga known as ashtanga, BKS focused on breaking down postures and working on the alignment. Iyengar yoga is sometimes referred to as "prop yoga", because of the use of props such as blocks, straps and blankets. If you are a detail oriented person, who doesn't mind a lot of verbal instruction by the teacher, Iyengar yoga may be the thing for you and it is a great base for understanding alignment. It can also be a good choice if you are practicing with injuries.

• Japa / Mantra Yoga

This form of yoga involves the use of words or phrases that are repeated either mentally or verbally.

• Karma Yoga

This is the first of the vedic methods recommended for self-realization. It is the path of selfless action, in which the practitioner serves others without expecting anything in return.

• Jnana Yoga

This is the path of knowledge in which the practitioner seeks the answers to questions such as "Who am I", through science and philosophy. Ghandi never did any asana's, yet he was a model yogi on this path.

• Bhakti Yoga

This is the path of devotion and is considered the superior method for achieving self-realization, when compared to Karma and Jnana yoga. Priests, monks, nuns and other holy people all follow this path.

• Raja Yoga

Raja Yoga means the king of yogas and is based on the yoga sutras written in sanskrit by Patanjali some 2800 years ago. Yoga is believed to be a lot older, and there are many other sanskrit texts on the subject which have been lost, such as the yoga korunta.
The yoga sutras explain yoga as an eight-limbed tree. Ashtanga means "eight limbs", but when we refer to Ashtanga Yoga, we all mean the practice of the asanas, which is only one limb. When Pattabhi Jois named the style of yoga he developed, from what he learned from his guru, he meant it as a reminder to practice all eight limbs and not just the asanas. Yoga is a way of life and its teachings should penetrate every aspect of our being from your actions to your speech to your thoughts.

There is a style of Yoga called Integral yoga, which integrates the various branches / forms / types of yoga mentioned above.

The eight limbs of Raja Yoga

There are many many translations of the yoga sutras and I have tried to identify, through discussion with people who have read some of them and by reading reviews on them, the most easily readable translations. I have put links to two of the ones I have identified as easily readable on the blog on the right hand side.

As mentioned earlier, yoga is not a religion and none of the eight limbs depends on one's spiritual belief system and it does not matter what name or form of the divine you worship.

The first four limbs are considered the external limbs, and the last four limbs the internal limbs.???? The order of the limbs is important and the first two limbs are the foundation of the "tree", the moral and ethical code of conduct.

1. Yamas (actions)

a) Ahimsa: non-violence
b) Satyam: truthfulness
c) Asteya: not stealing
d) Brahmacharya: restraint and moderation
This is frequently translated as celibacy or abstinance, but after more research, I found the following description: one whose actions are pure and holy, to create loyal, honest and loving relationships bringing us closer and closer to God.
e) Aparigraha: non-accumulation/non-hoarding
"There is more than enough for everyone's need, but not enough for any man's greed." Mahatma Ghandi. We need to realise that nothing belongs to us, we are merely lending it for certain period of time, and the more we try to accumulate, the more we acquire, the more we are bogged down and the more difficulties we face.

2. Niyamas (observances)

a) Suacha: refraining from putting anything impure into our being (drugs, cigarettes, negative gossip, pornography etc)
b) Santosha: contentment
We should strive for an attitude of gratitude instead of hungering for more (possessions and achievements).
c) Tapas: practice of tolerance
taking control over our volatile mind, emotions and insatiable senses
d) Swadhaya: study of the scriptures
We should read something spiritual and inspiring every day, but we should also use introspection as a tool to examine our lives, just like a businessman examines his balance sheet.
e) Ishwra pranidhana: devotion to God

3. Asana (Seat on which to sit to practice yoga - control of the body)
Asana (or the physical posture) is not the yoga, it is the preparation for the practice of yoga. We must not stop with asana, the asana readies us for the higher limbs of yoga.

4. Pranayama (prolonging our life force and energy - control of the breath)
As the breath becomes still, slow, deep and steady we find that our lives also become calm, collected and centred.

5. Pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses - control of the senses)
Turning the object of our senses from the external to the internal.

6. Dharana (singleminded concentration - control of the mind)
To channel all thought-power in one direction and stop the incessant wanderings of the mind.

7. Dhyana (meditation)
Not to be confused with concentration, where there is a subject (you) and an object (what you are concentrating on). In meditation all borders, boundaries and seperation between the universe and us begin to disappear and we begin to realise the inherent oneness of all beings and all creation. At first we will need a technique to get us there, but once we are in a meditative state, we do not need a technique any more.

8. Samadhi (to merge)
This is the ultimate goal of enlightenment.

Rishikesh

Namaste, this is your cross legged guru coming from the yoga capital of the world... Well that is what Rishikesh calls itself, and this is with some justification, because there are a multitude of ashrams, not just shala's where you practice yoga, but ashrams where you live and do yoga, lining the ganges river banks and hugging the slopes of the foothills of the Himalayas. Even the hotels have got daily yoga sessions taking place at the hotel, which outsiders can also join for a fee of about Rs 100.

So let me start from the beginning. On Wednesday, the 7th of March, I left McLeod Ganj and got on the bus in Dharamsala for Dehra Dun, which was supposed to be a 12 hour trip. We left at 17:30, but only arrived in Dehra Dun around 13:00 on Thursday, due to the fact that the bus got a punctured tire sometime after midnight. I was snoozing and only got out of the bus to see what was going on around four or five am. By that time they were busy putting a spare tyre on but I do not know what took them so long. When we finally got going we went to get the tyre that was just put on, replaced... I have a suspicion that the tyre was borrowed. Well we finally got going again after seven.

When we arrived in Dehra Dun, people started getting off at different places until only three tourists (including myself) were left and the bus driver decided to drop us off in the middle of some busy intersection (I guess he wanted to get rid of us so he could get some shut eye), so the three of us had to catch bus number 5 to the ISBT (Inter State Bus Terminal), which we found out by asking the shop keepers around us. The "bus" was more like the rickshaws used in Malaysia and Thailand, slightly bigger than the black and yellow kerosene burning rickshaws used in India, and it has 2 bunks on which you can seat 3 people each. It was not fun in the midday heat with all my baggage and the fact that I had felt nauseaus since I got onto the bus (I think it was the fried BakLek I had at the restaurant before leaving - I won't be looking at any more fried food in a while!) and had not eaten since did not help. I eventually stopped a "bus" that was not completely packed and got on with all my gear. It ended up being almost half an hours drive to the ISBT, which I did not expect and the "bus" filled up very quickly until we were squashed in with 4 on each bunk and all my gear on other peoples laps...

At the ISBT I caught a local bus to Rishikesh, which was another one and a half hours away, and was another terribly squashing experience. I was alone now even though the other 2 tourists were also going to Rishikesh because we could not all fit on "bus" number 5.

So I eventually got to Rishikesh just before 16:00. I had intended getting there early in the morning and hoped to do some yoga during the day, but it was not to be. I had gone through the lonely planet and found the conglomeration of ashrams I found most interesting. Getting off the bus I had the usual trouble with rickshaw touts and walked two or three hundred metres away from the bus station where I was still charged 4 times the price locals pay (Rs 5), but it was still only two thirds of what I would have paid at the bus station.

It took me a while to finally decide on an ashram. Along the way I met people staying at the Shivananda ashram who told me that the yoga there was not so nice and they were actually looking for an afternoon yoga session at another ashram. We crossed the pedestrian bridge over the holy river "mother" ganges, and looked at 2 ashrams on the other side. The girls ended up joining the yoga class at one of them, even though they were half an hour late. I decided to go to the previous ashram we had looked at, the Parmarth Niketan Ashram.

In India, so many things happen by coincidence... I found out later that this was the largest ashram in Rishikesh with over 1000 rooms, and on arriving I found out that the International Yoga festival had just taken place here from the 1st to the 7th of March. If I had known, I would have come to Rishikesh instead of gone to McLeod Ganj... anyway, will have to do this another time.

I had to wait quite some time to be helped, but I eventually got a room for Rs 400 a night, which includes all meals and all the yoga sessions at the ashram... Excellent!
At 18:00 until 19:00 every evening there is aarti at the banks of the ganges, run by this ashram. Aarti is prayer ceremonies and is basically lots of singing and clapping hands sitting at the ghats (steps down to the river). According to the literature here it is world famous and it was quite a pleasant experience.
After that we had supper, which was thali. I was actually looking forward to rice and dal, as I had not had any since I left the south of India.
The gates to the ashram close at 22:00, and the town is actually dead by that time because all the shops close between 19:00 and 21:30.

Friday
I got up in time for the seven o'clock Iyengar class with Karin O'Bannon, which was quite good, but typical of the Iyengar style, she took one single pose, the warrior pose, and we worked on that for the entire one and a half hours, just perfecting alignment. This is a great complement to Ashtanga yoga in my opinion, but of course you never ever break into a sweat. Straight afterwards I went to the Kundalini Yoga session until ten o'clock. This was a more energetic class and includes lots of chanting and the movements are timed, but I did not enjoy Kundalini very much.
At the end of class someone called my name and guess who happened to be at the same ashram in India... it was Kerry, the owner of the Haum of Yoga in Johannesburg. As breakfast time at the ashram was over, we went to a nice little restaurant outside and caught up with each other. Kerry had come to India specifically for the International Yoga Festival and told me more about it. She wants to get a group of South Africans to go together next year. She also said that the Kundalini Yoga during the festival was much much better and was led by Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, a sentiment I had heard before too.

Kerry also made an insightful comment that I thought I would share. There are seven chakras along the body's axis. We were discussing how difficult it is to travel in India and she explained that while travelling in India you are operating from your root chakra, because you are always on the defensive, and therefore it is very difficult to operate from your heart chakra and be open and loving to others.

Lunch at the ashram was another simple thali with rice, dal, a vegetable, chapati and some pickled mixed vegetables (achar) which I enjoyed. At three o'clock I said good-bye to Kerry, as she was leaving for Delhi and I gave her the biltong I had been carrying since the beginning of my trip (I have been living on a pure vegetarian diet since arriving at Purple Valley) as she wanted to give it to a South African friend in Delhi.

At 15:30 I did another yoga class which focused on backbending. It was the first time I had ever gone into the full back-bend without having generated all the internal heat through the ashtanga yoga sequence.

Supper was another Thali with different vegetables and was very good again... I really enjoyed the food at the ashram even though it was very very simple.

Saturday
My last day at the ashram. A very unexpected rain shower woke me up in the early hours of the morning. I then joined the satsang at 6 o'clock, which basically consisted of meditating for an hour while the sun was coming up, listening to chanting music in the background and a candle lit in front of us. There were only three of us at the session.

The next available class was the Kundalini at 8:30, but I decided to go look at the yoga at another ashram. I watched as they started and decided not to join as it was just too calm and easy for my taste. I ended up spending four hours on the Internet working on the blog and then had lunch at the ashram... guess what it was... Thali... but I enjoyed it again.

After lunch I decided to explore the town more and strolled up to Lakshman Jhula (pedestrian bridge) and further up along the ganges and then turned back and crossed the ganges on the bridge, walked back down the other side and crossed back over on the Swarg Ashram Jhula. This was about a three or four hour walk, during which I saw many signs for a 7 day Ashtanga Yoga retreat.
On the way I bought some gooseberries. I did not expect to see gooseberries in India and when asked what it is, the locals call them raspberries and cherries and who knows what else, because they don't know the English name. I then realised that there were monkeys around and quickly had to make an escape, only to realise that where I was now standing on the street there were two more monkeys watching me from the roof of the building. So I ate them very quickly.

A quick comment on the holy cows... They are everywhere, even crossing the pedestrian bridges, and of course they shit everywhere, so you have to watch where you step ALL the time. In the mornings some hay gets put out by the ghats next to the river, but after that the cows forage in dustbins etc around town. I have heard that they sometimes die from eating plastic packets and I have personally seen a cow literally eat the posters off the walls using its tongue to tear pieces of paper away.

After the walk I bought another four books at a great little store that gave twenty percent discount on top of the very cheap prices. I then joined the evening aarti at the ashram again and then headed off to my room where I showered and got ready for my forty hour trip back home. During that time, the heavens opened up again and I was looking at a very wet trip to the bus station. I went and had another Thali for supper.... mmmm... I love this ashram... another full belly and I am ready to leave.
I asked the guys if there was anyway to have a taxi come pick me up at the ashram because of the rain, but this was not possible, because there are NO bridges for cars!!! Luckily the rain had died down and I did not get too wet hiking to the other side. I was wearing my shorts and long pants as well as a t-shirt, long-sleeved top, and wind breaker, even though it was not very cold. This was only to ensure that I could fit all my stuff into my bags. I had also donated my towel and some other t-shirts to the ashram.

On the other side I had to bargain for a taxi to the bus station because with the rain, the taxi driver was not going to be able to pick up any other passengers. The bus was supposed to leave at 21:30, but I got there at around 20:50, just in case it left early. I could not afford to miss any of my modes of transport from now on. My bus was scheduled to arrive in Delhi after four in the morning and there was no other bus that evening. The bus the next day would have been too late to catch my flight to Mumbai, which left at 14:00.
I was however quite undisturbed if any of my modes of transport were delayed, because I did not relish the thought of arriving at four am in Delhi and I had plenty of time to spare in between. As it turned out, the bus we were all waiting for at the travel agent never arrived, so the travel agent quickly packed the seven or eight of us into two taxi's and took us to the bus station where there was pandemonium because people had paid for sleepers and were not getting sleeper seats etc. I was refunded the Rs 250 I had paid and paid Rs 200 to the conductor on this bus. I was relieved that I did get a seat though, because the bus was full!!!

Sunday
We arrived in Delhi around five in the morning and I read my Lonely Planet to figure out what I would do until it was time to go to the airport. I decided to go look for a yoga or meditation class in the city and afterwards have breakfast and then do some final shopping.
I left my big backpack at the cloak room at the bus station and then took the Metro for Rs 9 to Connaught Place.
I had chosen to visit the Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga, and guess what I found when I got there. They are holding a National Yoga Week from the 12th to the 16th of March. It would have cost a mere Rs 1200 for the entire week, including accommodation and meals... That is incredibly cheap. But the fact that there is so much happening around yoga wherever I look, makes me think that yoga is well and alive in India!!!
There was unfortunately no classes that I could attend because everybody was apparently preparing for the yoga week.

So I headed back to Connaught Place to find a restaurant serving up some good south indian breakfast... my last chance :-). I found a restaurant that was open at 8am on a Sunday morning and was recommended by the Lonely Planet. However, the idli's were tiny, the dosa was too thin and Delhi was extremely expensive. I remember having breakfast with Ayu at a restaurant in Mysore and we had four plates of idli, and three plates of dosa and four cups of chai and it all came to about Rs 58. One plate of tiny idli's here cost Rs 45.

After enquiring what the best option would be to get to the airport, I headed back to the bus station to collect my bag. I got back to Connaught place around 10:30 when some stores started opening up, but most remained closed because it was Sunday. I started searching for masala chai... spices for the tea in India. As Connaught place was not a residential area and had no general stores, only brand stores, I was very unsuccessful in finding tea spices.

At around noon I looked for a public bus to the airport but was unsuccessful as well and eventually resigned myself to having to pay about Rs 250 for a rickshaw. Luckily I found a very helpful gentleman who told me to wait in the building, while he got me a rickshaw for the true price of Rs 60 or 70. Eventually I got a rickshaw for Rs 90, plus Rs 10 for the bags, which I was very happy with. On the way to the airport I struck a deal with the rickshaw driver to make a detour to some shops to buy Masala Chai.

My flight was slightly delayed and we arrived in Mumbai just before five in the afternoon, but I was very impressed again with the service on Jet Airways and the food. We were served Baskin and Robbins ice cream after lunch, so I had three helpings :-)
After I got my bags, I took the shuttle transfer to the international terminal where I had to spend seven hours waiting. This is the same terminal where I had spent the first few hours of my trip (when I arrived in India) waiting until morning. The food in the terminal was extremely expensive at four times the price on the street, and so was the internet cafe.

At midnight I joined the long queue to have my bags security checked and they actually asked me to open my backpack to get my alarm clock. They took out the battery, so that the clock would not tick. The aeroplane was new and big and more spacious than any of the domestic flights I had been on, but the service on SAA was not very good. I did not have anyone sitting next to me, which was lucky as the flight was 95% full. We landed at 7:15 and I was happy to be home.

McLeod Ganj

In the morning, Saturday the 3rd, I woke up to find the weather very gloomy and overcast, but seeing the first glimpse of the Himalaya's was still nice. The roads were extremely narrow and the bus climbed up the windy path with deep gorges falling off to the sides. At one stage the road made such a serious curve, there was a sign that said "Dead Slow" and the bus really did take that turn inch by inch. But overall, I did not find it as scary as people made it out to be.
In Dharamsala, we had to change bus for the last 10 km stretch (4km by foot, but the road is longer because of the steep incline). When I got to the bus stand, which is basically the town square and is no bigger than the floorspace of a small restaurant, I started phoning all the hotels mentioned in the lonely planet looking for a room, but as expected everything was full.

Because checkout was only around noon, I started walking through town and the first thing I did was register for the teachings. I am glad I did, because as the day progressed the queue only got longer and longer. When I registered I asked how much it was and the guy said five, so I pulled out Rs 500. No, it was Rs 5. They could make so much more money, but they are a very honest people!!!
The teachings started on Saturday, but the official start was only on Sunday, so I had not really missed anything.
I then found a place for learning Tibetan cooking. On the menu for that evening's course was Momo's. I had never had them but had heard lots about them, so I registered for the course. I also found lots and lots of nice things I could buy... hmmm, pity about that weight limit... I am trying to make plans how I can increase the size of the single luggage item I can carry on with me :-)

After having some breakfast just before noon, I started searching for available rooms and eventually found a room for Rs 600, but I wanted to see other options. I walked to the next town, Bhagsu, 2 km away, and found rooms available there for Rs 400 with TV, but I did not like the place very much, so I went back to McLeod Ganj. By the time I got back that room for Rs 600 was taken. Damn, I could have kicked myself!!! Eventually I got a room at the Hotel Tibet for Rs 810, but it is a deluxe room normally going for Rs 990. They gave me a 20% discount. It had been a long search and I needed a rest and watched some TV.

In the late afternoon, I headed out into the freezing cold. People are walking around with blankets draped around them and warm jackets etc and so far all I have is my windbraker... At least I have a nice room and warm water... the cheaper rooms do not have hot water and I am willing to pay the extra money for that commodity :-).

At 5pm I went to Lhamo's kitchen for the cooking course. We made 3 kinds of tibetan momo's: veg, spinach & cheese and sweet momo's. We used three different designs in the dough to identify which were which, and teaching us how to create these designs took most of the time, but it was good because it was much more hands on training than Tina's courses were.
They were my first taste of momo's and they were devine. I was later to find out that they were much better than the ones one could buy at the street side stalls.
What was also nice was that Lhamo gave us a glimpse into his life... he was born in Tibet and escaped over the Himalaya's when he was 9 or 13 (I forgot). He is now 29 and has not seen his mother since except that he got a note from her last year that she is fine. A cousin of his escaped last year and Lhamo is looking after him now. In India, they cannot get citizenship and they remain refugee's and therefore cannot open their own businesses in India, and because they never get a passport, can not return to Tibet.

Unfortunately the quantity of food that we prepared did not fill my tummy... and later that evening I was overcome with cravings again and I gave into them and I ended up buying 5 different chocolates and ate them while watching TV.

Sunday
The next morning I got up around ten past seven. It was a beautiful day with the sun shining... no more overcast skies!!! It was going to be like this for the rest of my stay and it really warmed up, so I was glad.
I was told to be at the teachings at eight because it is so packed. The teachings are from 9:30 to 11:30 and again from 13:00 to 15:30. I bought some banana's for breakfast on the way down to the Tsuglagkhang complex where the teachings are being held, and I found a transistor radio with earphones and batteries for Rs 170. Could have got it cheaper, but as unprepared as I was, I had to pay the extra Rs 50. On the way in, there are seperate cues for the public, the monks and nuns and foreigners. The foreigner queue was split into male and female because we were all searched very thoroughly. We are not allowed to take in any cell phones or cameras. The guy actually turned on my radio to ensure that it was really a radio. Impressive!!!
I remember that at the railway stations, before getting on the platforms you have to walk through a metal detector (with your bags), but because there are so many people, the guards just let everybody walk through and the metal detector is constantly beeping...

I was lucky I got a very good place in the courtyard, because I only got in around 8:50. At first I was right at the back but right on the walkway where the Dalai Lama walked from his residence to the central chapel where he would sit and teach. The first time I saw him I was struck by how joyous and happy he seemed to be. After he had walked through, the security removed the security tape and some of us could move onto the walkway, which meant I moved right into the centre and sat on the red carpet... Yes, I was also unprepared in that respect because I had no cushion to sit on. The things people are allowed to bring to the teachins are a mug (they serve tea during the teachings), a blanket and cushion, food, hat, umbrella and a radio with earphones. The monks then came in with huge baskets full of rolls and started distributing these and then started walking around serving tea.

The teachings always start and end with Tibetan chants / prayers. Then the Dalai Lama started teaching. He said that even though he had covered the introduction to buddhism the day before, there were many people who had not been there, so he covered it again.
His teachings cover two texts, namely, "A guide to the Boddhisattva way of life" by Shantideva and translated by Steven Bachelor, and "The essence of superfine gold" written by the 3rd Dalai Lama. It is quite complicated material for the uninitiated like myself :-).
He spoke about how important education is and then he went on saying that our minds fool us into thinking that we have an independant existence, and he tried to inspire us to develop the wisdom to understand this incorrect view and that there is no absolute independant existence. We are all connected and there are infinite number of contributing factors to each and every event.

It was also nice that he used personal experiences which were quite humerous while teaching, for example telling us about his travels to the west and an air-hostess swatted a mosquito in front of him as a pure reaction and then felt very guilty and told him that she would never kill another mosquito.

I went to the afternoon teaching session as well and in the evening after having a rest I walked up to Dharamkot, the next village up a very steep incline. I eventually found the Tushita meditation centre where an australian woman who was a buddhist gave a review of the days teachings.

Monday
On Monday my mood was not very good. I suspected it was because I had no plan for the rest of the week and because my body was missing the daily yoga practice. I did not attend the teachings, but did some window shopping. There is so much on offer here in terms of souvenirs: books, shawls made from yak wool, jackets and blankets made from wool, shirts, skirts, traditional jewellery, wall hangings with quotations from the Dalai Lama, music CD's of tibetan chants and DVD's of the Tibetan struggle and other stories or documentaries, embroidered bags that the buddhist monks use, tangka's (see glossary on right), note books made from re-cycled pater and the list carries on.

My cravings continued and today it was baked cake and pastries. There are many places selling sweet tibetan bread, all different kinds of cake and pastries and as I have not even seen any of this in five weeks it was too much to resist. I must have had about five pieces of cake during the day.
I also went in search of a place I could practice my yoga, but the yoga instructors all seem to be out of town during the teachings (I found out where they were later... see next post). I also looked at doing some karma yoga, ie: volunteering, while I was here, but I was told that the computer classes and english conversation classes were not running during the teachings. (There are different types of yoga, jana yoga, karma yoga, hatha yoga, raj yoga etc, which I will explain more in my final post).

I ended up doing half an hour of yoga, to the beginning of the seated poses in my hotel room... (I realised how dirty the floor is :-)) and this helped both my mood and my spine, which felt a lot better after the exercise.
I also came up with a plan for the rest of the week, which is to go to Rishikesh, which calls itself the yoga capital of the world. So now I had done some exercise and I had a plan and I felt a lot better.

As mentioned earlier, we were not allowed to take in any cameras during the teachings, so I waited until after the teachings were finished in the afternoon and then walked in and took a photograph, which is why there is a photograph of the teachings available on my web album.

At five pm I went to the cooking class with Lamo again and we made Mokthup and Tenthuk soup. I was disappointed because I was going to come on Tuesday to make tibetan bread, but Lhamo was not able to do that class.
The soup was good and easy to make. This time Lhamo told us a little more about the culture and customs of the Tibetan people. Usually a family will live together and each has got a duty so sometimes one brother will leave for 3 months to look after the animals in the mountains, but they remain a family unit and when one brother takes a wife, the other brothers usually share that wife. It is uncommon for a brother to then choose another wife for himself as this would mean he would not live together with his brothers... anyway, that is how Lhamo explained it to us.

In the evening I met Ori, an Israeli tourist who told me that he had attended the review of the day's teachings, which were now not held at the Tushita meditation centre anymore, but were being done by the monk who was doing the english translation of the teachings and it was held at the temple itself. So I made sure that I would attend that the next day.

Tuesday
In the morning I attended the teachings again, and in the afternoon I made an excursion to the waterfall in Bhagsu. Afterwards I went to the Himalayan Yoga centre where I had organised the day before that I could practice by myself. It was nice because the view from the window was onto the mountains. But my practice was slow and I took lots of breaks. I do not know if this was because of the altitude (approximately 1800 m above sea level) or because I was practicing alone.

Later I went to the review of the day's teachings, which was interesting.
He spoke about favourable rebirths (precious humban birth) in samsara (the cycle of reincarnation or rebirth) and performing the 10 virtuous actions and abandoning the 10 non-virtuous actions to gain liberation from samsara.
He also discussed that the goal of enlightenment should not be for oneself, but for the benefit of all other sentient beings, and how to cultivate the boddhicitta (the wish to become buddha to benefit all other sentient beings).
He also defined love as being the wish to give happiness to others and compassion as the wish to remove suffering from all other beings.

Afterwards I would have liked to see a tibetan movie, but unfortunately the one cinema (part of a tiny little restaurant) was not showing anything and the other one was showing something I had no interest in.
I ended up eating at the Japanese restaurant Lung Ta, where I met a french canadian yoga teacher and I had an interesting discussion with him.

Wednesday
I woke up early on Wednesday and bought some tibetean bread from the street side vendors. Previous mornings I was not up early enough to see them.
I then went for a walk towards Dal Lake through the forest. I have blisters on my feet from all the walking I have been doing around town, but it is good to get the exercise and this walk was beautiful.

I then had some breakfast and purchased my bus ticket to Rishikesh (Rs 470) for 17:30 from Dharamsala.
Then I got down to some real shopping. I did not worry about the consequences to the weight of my bags and had decided to throw away some of my clothes to make sure I can fit everything. :-) I then went to the hotel to pack and check out.
In the afternoon I walked back towards Dal Lake because the lighting in the morning was not that good and I wanted to take some better photographs.

I then had a quick bite to eat before getting a jeep ride down to Dharamsala. The driver threw my backpack onto the roof as there was no space in the jeep... we were packed in there like sardines. On the way down I was constantly checking if my backpack was not thrown off the roof with inertia as it was not tied down and the driver was screaming through the sharp corners.

New adventures

Yesterday, Thursday, I went to practice early. The shala was getting emptier every day. I did not expect anything from my practice, but it ended up being really good again... I bound Marichyasana D on my right side and I bound Supta Kurmasana again... so all in all I have had a great week of practice.
I think I have pushing Supta Kurmasana a little too hard because my lower back is being stretched forward to its limits and is a little tender.
The weather has been warming up the last few days and I have been perspiring more than my first week in Mysore, even though I was practicing earlier, around 6 am. In guruji's shala, the mornings are for westerners and the indians (there are very few) train in the afternoon, and they must be suffering...

After practice I had coconut jelly outside the shala where we normally all meet and chat for a little after practice. I thought I would just tell you a little about the coconuts here...
When you order a coconut, you have to tell the "coconut man" whether you want juice only or jelly. He then determines by the slight difference in sound the coconut makes when he taps it which one is only juice or if it is a little older and has started solidifying. He then chops off the end of the coconut and hands it to you with a straw to drink the juice out. If you ordered jelly, you hand him back the coconut and he chops off a sliver of the green outer layer, which you will use as a spoon and he chops the coconut in half, so you can scoop out the jelly and eat it.
Indians use the entire coconut tree... the leaves are used as plates and to make roofs, the trunk is building material and fire wood, and the young coconut fruit is juice and the shell is dried and used as fuel for fires. If the coconut is not used while still young it turns to jelly or the hard coconut, which is used in food and as garnishing food. Once the coconut is really old and completely hard, the inside is cold pressed and coconut oil is made from it. Also the hard brown shell is used to make spoons and lately arts and crafts too.

I then went to Tina's to say goodbye to everyone and Tina was packed some fenugreek roti's with tomato chutney for me to eat on the train... Leena was there as well and she had finished her panchakarma ayurvedic detoxification treatment. She has been quite down the last few days and yesterday she fainted twice and she think her nose is broken. Tina was saying that panchakarma should only be used as a last resort, but this doctor is prescribing it to every single Yogi who is coming to him...

I then had to return my mattress and scooter to Randy and pick up my yoga rug which I had embroidered... It was late because there was a power cut the day before... something you have to expect in India... I have even read in the newspaper that they want to shorten the business hours (go on until 21:30 or 22:00 and are closed around 12 to 4:30) in some cities to take the pressure off the electricity grids.

On the way to the railway station (if you ask for the train station they don't know what you mean) I picked up the pants I had tailored. I got to the train station half an hour early. I had bought a second class ticket on the Tippy express to Bangalore for Rs 70. At the airport I met Michael who was on the same flight (unbeknown to both of us until then) and he had come by taxi for Rs 1,500.
The train took about 3 hours to do the 135 km journey and the last few kilometres were excruciatingly slow considering I still had to go to the airport for my flight at 4pm. The train arrived at 14:15. As soon as I got off the platforms, I was harassed by taxi touts and offered rides to the airport for Rs 280 to 450. I really don't like tourists that pay without finding out what the locals pay because it is cheap in their currency and it is convenient. That is the cause of the harassment for others and the cause that tourists get ripped off. I went to the info booth and found out where I can get pre-paid taxi's and paid Rs 85. My rickshaw driver, Harish, was very nice and friendly and apologized on the way for having to get petrol as he knew I was in a rush. I got to the airport at 15:15 only to find out that the flight was delayed by 2 hours. Well that mean that I was not going to be able to get onto the bus to McLeod Ganj and I had to spend last night in Delhi.
Btw, my backpack was packed to the brim and weighed just under 20 kg and my daypack (hand luggage weighed another 10 kg. It contains the books I did not ship (package limit of 5 kg). When I left SA it all weighed around 12 kg.

While driving through Bangalore, I saw many signs advertising the coming of Amma to Bangalore on the 4th and 5th of March, just as I had seen in Mysore for the 1st and 2nd of March.

The flight with Jet Airways was very good again and the food delicious. I had the non-veg option again, chickpeas in gravy with potato patties. There was also a little packet named "After Eight", which I assumed would be chocolate, but this turned out to be a mixture of some seeds, but mainly aniseed, to freshen the mouth. It was good though.
Even though I had been sitting for most of the day, I was extremely exhausted and did not have the energy to get up to get my Lonely Planet guide and read up on Delhi, knowing that I would have to spend the night there. I was even thinking of spoiling myself and going to an expensive hotel in Delhi.

After the three hour flight, I found some energy and started informing myself of options. I phoned a few budget hotels in the Tibetan colony and was told that they were fully booked, or the telephone informed me that the number (from the lonely planet guide) did not exist. The number of the hotel that I finally got in the Paharganj area (described as a seedy area "due to its reputation for drugs and shady characters" in the lonely planet) worked on one phone, but when I phoned back on another phone it said the number did not exist, so I had to use the phone I originally got through on and it worked... very strange!!!

As I said in one of my first posts, on my first trip to India ten years ago, I had the worst culture shock I have ever experienced in all my travels and I got very stressed and aggressive. On that trip I only traveled through the north of India. On this trip I have been to the south so far and I have loved it so far. Now I was back in the north and people have been telling me that the north is far harder to travel in than the south, so I am expecting the worst.
I got a bus to the New Delhi train station for Rs 50 and then after having more attempts made at ripping me off by rickshaw drivers (like telling me that the hotel is already closed, so they can take me somewhere else and get commission) I decided to use my map and walk the last few hundred metres to the hotel using my map. A taxi would have been more convenient but a lot more expensive.

I finally got into my room around midnight. The room had a TV and cost Rs 250. I have not had a TV in 5 weeks... It is amazing how quickly we fall into old habits... I fell asleep with the TV on :-)
Delhi is a lot colder than the south of India was. The night was cold and required blankets. I also realized that I have strained my lower back, which was already saw from overstretching it, when I picked up my backpack to get onto the bus. I was considering finding a yoga shala for today but have decided to rest.

In the morning I went in search of food and walked around Paharganj... Vendors were starting to open their stores and I was in danger of buying more stuff!!! Delhi is extremely cheap. You can pick up a pair of shorts with pockets and beltloops etc for about five Rand or less if you bargain.
On the breakfast menu I could not find any idli's or dosas anymore... The south of India is the rice bowl of India and the north of India is the bread basket. Tina said that that is why the north has got all the big brawny indians and the south has got the intelligent indians :-)

I then went to the internet cafe and started writing this post, because I was not yet ready to tackle the nasty world out there. I had to rewrite this post 3 times because of the internet connection dropping, or computer rebooting unexpectedly... Other than this particular experience, my experience of the Indian broadband services has been excellent.

I then finally headed to the Inter State Bus Terminal (ISBT) near the old Delhi railway station. I wanted to experience the life and vibe on the streets so I decided to walk instead of take a rickshaw. On the way I found the Metro , which I had read about. It only became operational a little over 2 years ago. It has 3 operational lines now and it uses a disk system. You can buy a card for Rs 170 of which Rs 100 is refunded for a day pass. Otherwise you have to pay for every trip. I paid Rs 8 to go 3 or 4 stations on the same line. It goes up to about Rs 30 I think. After you bought the disk, you enter by swiping the disk, then when you arrive at the destination, you have to swipe the disk again to get out and drop the disk into the system. The metro train was absolutely packed every time I used it and I never had to waid for longer than a minute for the next train... and the station was quite clean considering the amount of people going through it and compared to the streets!!!

At the Kashmere station, which is also the old Delhi railway station and the ISBT, there was a McDonalds serving Chicken Maharaja Mac, Paneer (cheese) Salsa Wrap, McAloo (Potato) Tikki Burger, and Veg Surprise Burgers. The meals were about Rs 62. I held back the urge to taste the veg surprise.

I bought myself a ticket on the Deluxe Air Conditioned Bus (there is also another deluxe bus without AC) for Rs 800 to McLeod Ganj, because I wanted the safest and best bus, which left at 8pm that evening.
I then walked back to the hotel through Old Delhi, past the red fort and Jama Masjid, places I had visited on my first trip to India. Here is a snippet of Chandni Chowk, one of the main streets through Old Delhi. In the background is the old fort. There are 3 churches on the right hand side of the road, a Jain temple, a Hindu temple and a Sikh temple. The streets are extremely noisy because the culture is hooting to let people know you are coming instead of relying on them to watch out for you.




Here is another link to the main bazaar road in the Paharganj area where my hotel is, and here is one of street side vendors making jalebi, which is very unhealthy too, but I liked it.

At 6pm I got my bags from the hotel and headed back to the ISBT, which was absolute chaos. I had to wait because I arrived early and there are lots and lots of food stalls around and I finally gave into my cravings and bought 4 packets of biscuits and chips. The chips were "Lays" and the flavour was "Magic Masala". Everything you buy in India is marked with either a green dot or a red dot, signifying vegetarian or not.
I then had to search for the bus, which was not near any platform, because there were so many buses. We finally left just after 8pm. I had moved seats because the women sitting next to me was sick and I did not want to catch her cold. Luckily there were extra seats in the bus. Most people in the bus were on the way to the McLeod Ganj for the teachings and there were quite a few monks on the bus. People were coming from all over the world. The lady who I mentioned just now came from Darjeeling.

I thought I would never get any sleep because of all the hooting by the bus driver, but luckily this died down to a more acceptable level as we got out of town and onto the highway. At around ten o'clock, we made a pit stop. It was a themed place called Haveli, meaning fortress in Punjab. I was feeling ill from all the biscuits I had eaten but decided to try to eat something. The food was not that great, but after the meal I got served, what we would consider mints. See the picture on the right. It is jaggery (raw sugar), misry (which looks like sugar, tastes sweet but is not sugar) and then aniseed.
I was lucky because the man who sat next to me got off sometime during the night and I had both seats to myself, and I got some sleep.

Leaving Mysuru after 4 weeks

Yesterday morning, Tuesday, I could not bind Supta Kurmasana, (see previous post...), but my practice was still good.

For breakfast I went to the Green Leaf restaurant and had Bisibali Bhat, which they only serve on Tuesday and Saturday mornings. Leena had been craving it when we arrived in Mysore, but could not find anywhere that served it. It is like a soup with vegetables and rice in it. Tina said she would give me the recipe.

In the afternoon I had my third and last cooking class with Tina. The cooking class was supposed to be on Wednesday, but was moved ahead. This was going to create a little problem for me... see later. We made idli's and the sambhar and coconut chutney that goes with it. We also made masala dosa's. Idli and Dosa are made from the same batter, which is lentils and rice soaked in water and then liquidized in a blender. Normally masala would refer to spices, when used like masala chai, masala aloo etc, but when referring to masala dosa, the word masala means the dosa has been stuffed and this could be potatoe (aloo) or cauliflower (gobi) etc. Both idli and dosa's are breakfast dishes. You can also get plain dosa, set dosa, which is thicker and contains some bicarbonate of soda, and you get rava dosa, which are made from semolina instead.

After the cooking course I got ready for my yoga class at the Mysore Mandala Shala with Sheshadri. (I have commented on Sheshadri in the previous post already: In trouble with the law) Before going to the shala, I searched one last time for the idli man, the place that Michael had taken us to for breakfast one day and which served the big dosa's.... I finally found it... so guess what tomorrow morning is idli for breakfast :-).

The yoga drop-in class cost Rs 400 and we were 15 students in the room. Sheshadri is quite small, but he shouts at people too, just like guruji and Sharath :-). He started counting us through Surya Namaskara A and the first repetition of B. We then continued Mysore style (on our own) and he would walk around adjusting and assisting people. The students were all of very different levels, some were doing the second series, whereas others were using a printed page to try and remember the sequence of asanas in the primary series. Sheshadri was very good... I would get into a difficult pose and saw him walking toward me and I would feel apprehensive because I was worried he would push me too far, but I was never in any pain and he pushed me further than I have ever been in many postures, especially Marichyasana D and Supta Kurmasana. Yes, this time, with his help I bound the posture completely with my head under my crossed ankles...
The fact that I had eaten idli's and masala dosa's 2 hours before the practice was not very good though.

Today's practice was ok... I was not too tired, but because we ran out of water at home I was quite dehydrated... (There are no shops open at 6 am to go and buy a bottle of water.)

After practice, Jay, Myra, Lori and I drove to the idli man for breakfast... It was as good as we had expected again. This time we took lots of photo's to capture the good memories :-).

Today I have collected my tailored clothes, then I packed, but I have not weighed my bag yet. I cannot be overweight, as I still have 2 domestic flights and an international flight, all with different airlines. I have made a package of most of my books as could post 5 kg for Rs 350, but this is a special rate for books only, so I have to take the books to a tailor, who will wrap the books in a see through plastic bag first, then stitch cloth around it, leaving a small window free to prove that it is only books at the post office.
I also considered buying some chai (tea) spices today before I leave (I have made enquiries as to which is the best one), but because I am not sure how much my bag is weighing, I thought I better refrain.

I also had my final sanskrit class today... we had a test... did not study and it went well. We can now write words in sanskrit if I know the spelling of the word with our alphabet, but the word means nothing to me... The next course would teach us how to create sentences, but we would still not know the meaning of the words unless we used a dictionary.
The language spoken here, Kanada, uses a different alphabet to sanskrit, but Hindi, does use the sanskrit alphabet, but the words are different to sanskrit.

In the evening I phoned a bus company in Delhi (travel agents were not able to book buses) to find out what time the buses to McLeod Ganj (13 hours) were leaving Delhi and if there were seats available. Most tourists take a train or hire a car, because buses are dangerous, but since I am travelling alone hiring a car is too expensive and the train tickets are still waitlisted. I had bought 2 train tickets one for the first of March and one for the second of March just to see when I could get on the train. The bus is turning out to be cheaper and it is more convenient than the train, because after the 12 hour trip to Pathankot, I would still have to take another bus to McLeod Ganj for 4 hours. Since the railway company charges 25% of the ticket fare if cancelling a train ticket less than 24 hours before scheduled departure, I had to go cancel my tickets tonight and take the risk of trying to get on the bus in Delhi tomorrow.
On the way home I got stopped by traffic cops, for not wearing a helmet and charged Rs 100 fine... I am glad it was only that because I also did not have my driver's license, which they asked for...

Tomorrow I will be doing my practice, shower, eat, return the gas cooker, mattress and Scooter to Randy and then go to the train station where I will catch the eleven o'clock tipu express to Bangalore, arriving at around 14:00 and then at 16:00 my plane to Delhi leaves arriving at 18:40. It is all very tight, but if all goes well I will have just enough time to make the bus station and buy a ticket and get on the bus before 20:15.

I am feeling a little sad about leaving Mysore, as it has been home for a month and it is a very beautiful place, but I am also starting to look forward to going home now. I have been away for 5 weeks now and I have achieved what I set out to do for this trip. The next week is a little bonus of travelling, but I did receive an email today from a woman who is in Daramsala / McLeod Ganj and she reported that it is very cold and has been raining constantly. When I left SA, I had not planned my week off, and expecting India to be hot I did not pack any warm clothes...

Last led yoga class in Mysore and movie night

Saturday the 24th, was the day off and I really did not do anything, no stretching and no exercises... I really needed the break. (I usually do stretch and do some additional exercises before going to bed.)
Yesterday morning, Sunday, was my last led class in Mysore, as I am leaving a day early and missing Friday's led class. I also noticed this morning that the shala was getting a lot emptier, and the tailors around town, who do a lot of work for the Yoga tourists, are saying that this will be there last really busy week. Guruji is also closing his shala on the 14th of March to go on another world tour. I don't know exactly where he is going except that he will be in the USA to open a new shala there.

Saturday, I had a lazy day and basically just shopped around town... Stores close around lunch time and open again either 15:00 or 16:30 and then stay open again until 21:30. At 13:00 there was another demonstration at the KR circle yesterday. Seems to be a very regular occurence. Streets just get blocked and demonstrators walk onto the road for 5 or 10 minutes and then it is over...
My shopping was not very successful yesterday, but I did scout out some shops and I tasted some of the local speciality sweet called Mysore Pak, which is incredibly oily. All of the shop attendants always handled the sweets with their bare fingers, which I did not like, but I haven't gotten sick.
I also phoned one of the local cinema's to find out about what time the movie Guru is showing. It has been on circuit for about 3 months and I am told is very good. The newspapers don't show the times, just what movie is showing. The movie house is called Skyline, right next to Sterling... in SA this would have been Cine 1 and 2 :-)

Instead of watching the movie on Saturday at 17:00, I ended up at Jaganmohan Palace at 18:00, the same place the talent show was last week Saturday, to watch some traditional Indian dancing by a famous Indian dancer. This time it was not free, but there was a seating plan and tickets cost anywhere from Rs 100 to Rs 1,000.
When "Amma", a women with the status of a saint, arrived, everything stopped and she was escorted into the auditorium with a choir of song from women following her. The dancing was very very good. Am trying to load a video snippet on the blog ...

Sunday, the shopping was successful. Bought some indian style outfits for my nieces who have just had a birthday, bought a Kurta (men's traditional garment) for myself and I bought some other bits and pieces. I found out that there are basically 4 different outfits, other than a saree, that women wear traditionally. All come in different fabrics from cotton, cotton/silk mix, crepe silk, pure silk, synthetic material etc, which affects the price as well as how much embroidery etc is on the garment.

1. Sharara: short top, with bell-bottom pants and a scarf
   
2. Gaghra: long/short top with long skirt and scarf
   
3. Salwar (Ladies Punjabi): long/short top with tight fitting pants or ali-baba type baggy pants and scarf
4. Choridar: long/short top with push-back pants (wrinkled) and scarf
   

After we were told that there would be no conference again this Sunday, I raced to the cinema to watch the movie Guru in Hindi without subtitles. The movie cost Rs 25 and started at 17:00 on the dot, no advertisements and finished about two hours and 40 minutes later with 5 min. intermission (yes, very short).
The movie was about a businessman who started with nothing and built a huge company but was then sued etc, as well as a love story. It was fast paced and only about 4 musical dance sections in the movie, but I also enjoyed that... and Aishwarya Rai, the bollywood actress, is very beautiful :-). The audience was quiet throughout the movie, which I did not expect, and the movie house was old and had outdated equipment, but not bad or extremely dirty... all in all, I had a good experience and I hope to see the movie with english subtitles again in future :-)
The story was shot in Bombay / Mumbai, and I recognised Chowpatty beach that I had walked to on my arrival in India at the beginning of my trip... What I also found interesting was that in the movie, the main actor always touched the feet of people he respected. I have not seen this being done other than by westerners doing it to guruji as a sign of respect. I always thought it was a little strange, but now that I have seen it being part of the Indian culture, I am more comfortable doing this myself to guruji. In fact today, a child begging for money touched my feet.

This morning, Monday, I had a brilliant practice... I got my chin onto my shin during quite a few forward stretches, my jump back and jump throughs went well and for the very very first time I bound Supta Kurmasana (sitting on the floor with legs in front, bend forward and put your arms under your knees and wrap the arms around your back, cross your ankles, place head under legs and then grab hold of your hands). Don't know if I will be able to do it again tomorrow, but that is ok :-)

At ten o'clock, I was met by someone to take me to Madhu for a massage. The last massage I had was by a women who had been working for 12 years at the Ayurvedic Centre in Mysore and she cost Rs 500. A massage by a westerner will cost in the range of Rs 1,500 to 3,000. I only get massages by someone who has been recommended to me. The nice thing about that lady was that she came to your place to give you a massage.
Ayurveda is the ancient science of indian herbal medicine and holistic healing. Lots of tourists try there fasts during which they have to drink medicated ghee (clarified butter) and eat only brown rice cooked with specific spices etc. I had considered visiting the centre, as they have consultations where they then explain to you what type of body you have according to the 3 doshas. The centre is a full spa with a 25 metre swimming pool, tennis courts etc., but their prices are in US dollars, so a deep tissue massage will cost over Rs 1,500.

Madhu was recommended to me last week and what impressed me was that Katie said she never screamed in pain before where others had, when being massaged by the "three sisters" as they are known, but Madhu made here scream :-). The cost was Rs 750, which is still less than a simple back massage back in South Africa.
So when we got there, Madhu was just finishing off doing his morning prayers. He did not have a nice house, like the houses in Gokulam, so no seperate puja room, so he just had pictures of the deities like Shiva on the floor and candles and incense in front of that. He then ushered me into a bare room that just had a wooden massage table only about five (5) cm high along the floor. I later found out that he comes from a long line of Ayurvedic massage therapists... ie: his father and his grandfather etc all did this, and the table was apparently over 800 years old. It was made of wood with absolutely no cushioning on it and its surface was not flat but convex, tapering down along the sides and then a little ledge... I guess so that would collect any excess oil running down. The oil he used (he said it was medicated oil... don't know exactly what) smelled very very good. The massage like the previous one started in a seated position, with the head, then down the neck and back. Then I had to lie on my back and he massaged the down the front of the body and down the legs. I always thought you are supposed to massage up the body towards the heart, but this is not the way it is done here. While massaging my legs, he stretched my legs in the split etc and he made me scream too :-) He asked me how many years I had been doing yoga and after hearing that it had been multiple years he said... "Well, I don't think it was regular (practice)!" No, I have never practiced yoga daily until now and that is why I am still so stiff!!!
Then he put a blanket on me and told me to relax and he left the room. When he came back I thought it was all over, but he said turn around onto my stomach and the massage (and the screams) continued... Then he got out a gas burner with a similar top like a skottle braai and he heated a little bag containing some medicinal leaves and he rubbed me down with the hot bag. At the end he asked me to push my upper body up and he stretched my spine backwards. Finally, he asked me to stand up and standing behind me with his back to mine, he grabbed my arms and lent forward picking me up on his back and stretching me. Maybe not the most hygenic of massage parlours but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

In the afternoon, I finalised the embroidery design for the pants I am having made and then I had my second last sanskrit class... The final class on Wednesday will be a test, so I need to revise a little. I basically have two days left in Mysore.
I have decided not to visit the Tibetan village as it is 2 to 3 hours drive one way and I am going to visit the Tibetan community in McLeod Ganj anyway. Other than that I did not have any other unaccomplished activities / sights while in Mysore.

In trouble with the law

Yesterday, Thursday the 22nd of Feb, I had another good practice in the morning Mysore style. I took my time again and just tried to deepen the postures. I am starting to realise how soon my time here in Mysore and my daily practice will end.

Lori has been asking if we could all go to the Idli man that Michael had taken us to for breakfast again. I have not been able to find him. After my breakfast yesterday, I asked Dev, the rickshaw driver, if he could take me there. Ayuko (girl from Niigata, Japan), who I see everyday at practice came along. Dev took us to a very very popular restaurant which was packed, but this was not the street side stall we were looking for. After driving around some more unsuccessfully, Ayuko and I went back to the restaurant and had idli's and dosa's for breakfast there. It was very very good, but the idli's were not like the big idli's the idli man made :-).
So now the last option is to find Raj the rickshaw driver who took us there when Michael led the way...

Afterwards Ayuko and I went to the Sandalwood oil factory, which was established in 1917. Everything was very old and we did not see anybody doing any work while we were there, so we spent a very short time there. Outside was a small store where you could by 5 grams of Sandalwood oil for Rs 650... very expensive. Sandalwood oil has also been called "Liquid Gold" and is used in ayurvedic medicine as well as in perfumes. I bought some incense sticks and some soap.

On the way home I bought 2 metres of silk and linen mix material at Rs 600 per metre for pants I want to have tailored. That was quite expensive, but I thought it would be worth it. Myra reminded me that I need to pre-shrink the material before I give it to the lady doing the embroidery and I need to ensure the colour does not run, so I quickly went and washed the material in hot water.

We are not supposed to be doing yoga with any other teachers in Mysore, while registered with guruji. Jay had been to another class and invited us. As I have no time to do it afterwards, I took the chance. At 16:30 Katie (from Chicago), Joyce, Myra, Jay and I drove to Laksmi Puram Post office where we were met by someone to take us to a Ajay's Yoga Shala where we had a Vinyasa class for Rs 350. That means we did the sun salutation series (Surya Namaskara) A & B and then Ajay took us through some exercises that would help us improve our jump back and jump throughs. It was quite good, although I found Michael's workshop in Goa on this subject more informative, however, Ajay did give us specific exercises to do, which would ultimately strengthen us in the right areas. Technique is very important, but it definitely requires strength in the arms, shoulders and core to do it "beautifully" as Sally put it.

In the evening I washed the material again and I tried soaking it in salt water, but that also did not help... the colour kept on bleeding out. In the morning I washed it again twice, but to no avail...
The Yoga practice was led this morning and my body felt quite tired, obviously the two yoga sessions yesterday... Had a big breakfast at Tina's again today... always start with a big fruit salad of banana, papaya and pommegranate and then I had Fenugreek roti's and badam milk, which is hot milk with almonds, saffron, cinnamon and sugar.
After that I went into town to buy my train ticket from Mysore to Bangalore on the 1st of March. When I came out I found my scooter surrounded by 3 railway cops who promptly told me to pay a fine of Rs 250 for parking in a no parking area... There was a sign that bikes are not allowed to be parked there, on the floor where another car had parked (and there was building rubble lying around everywhere), therefore the sign was not visible . So I said they must take me to court. They walked me all the way around the railway station over sand mounds and railway tracks and more building rubble to a railway magistrates court. On the way I was told that it would be easier to just pay the fine of Rs 125 as it is just a petty crime. At the court, which was packed with people, I met some other commander or whatever with a few stars on his shoulder who insisted that rules must be followed and I need to pay a fine of Rs 150. Notice the change in amount again. I continued arguing that I was unaware of the rule because it was not clearly visible, but I kept calm and smiled.
Eventually I was asked where I was from and what I was doing here and then they told me politely to please leave :-).

I then went into town and looked at buying a Kurta for myself. A Kurta is the traditional garment Indian men wear. I think white can be worn any time as well as different colours, but for funerals, it has to be white.
I then went and returned the material I had bought yesterday and got my money back and went to another store (of the same chain) where I was given good advice and bought material at half the price and guaranteed that the material would not bleed any colour after 2 washes. I then had to race back home to back in time for my sanskrit class.

After sanskrit I ate supper at Anu's where the internet cafe is. I had asked Anu to please make Ragi Dosa's (also a normally a breakfast dish, not made from lentils and rice as the normal dosa is, but from a grain) as I have heard that they are very good and I have not had them yet. She promised to make them on Friday night... today.
At the Internet Cafe, Lori told me that Jay was in hospital at that moment in time... He had broken four toes in an accident on his bike... don't know exactly what happened, but I have had quite a few close shaves on my bike in the last few days... And people don't wear helmets here either.... People just drive out into the road without looking and nobody ever stops at an intersection without traffic lights, unless the traffic is really heavy or there is a police officer directing traffic.

Leena had organised a Salsa dance night at our place tonight. She arranged a teacher to come teach the salsa and planned to have everything on the roof, but realised that there was no electricity so ended up doing it in our flat. Leena and Lica prepared some food and invited a whole lot of people around.
I met a guy from Poland who said it was too expensive for him to register with Pattabhi/guruji (we paid Rs 26,900 for 1 month - 28 days in February minus Saturdays and 2 moon days) and he registered with Sheshadri at the Mandala Shala (for Rs 7,500 for a month).

Jay, Myra and I are actually planning to go to on Tuesday afternoon. In guruji's Shala there are about 60 students practicing in the shala at any one time and there are really only 3 postures in the primary series where you will get assisted or adjusted, namely Uthitha Hasta Padangustasana (standing balances), binding of Marichyasana D, and Urdhva Dhanurasana (bending back from standing position and placing your hands on the floor and then coming back up). Apparently Sheshadri has maximum 26 students and pushes you in every posture to your absolute limit... see pictures on his website. The guy from Poland said that the pushing deeper into the posture is nice the first day, but after that it is very very saw.
So there are many many yoga teachers in Mysore although there are only 3 well known ones. I have put some extra links under the Yoga websites section on the Yoga studio's in Mysore.

Wednesday the 21st

Monday, (19th Feb 2007), Tuesday and today were all Mysore style classes and have been great practices for me, but I am going very slowly through the series taking up to one hour and fourty minutes. Jay had a very interesting analogy, in which he described good days of yoga as having the eye of the tiger and moving deeper into the postures with determination and those days where you are stiff and sore as days where you just go "Miaauuuu"... :-)

It was Lori's birthday on Monday and she was very happy because Sharath said she can start coming to practice at 6:30 instead of 7:30. As things are getting a little quieter and as your length of stay becomes longer and your practice improves, you get told to come earlier. Those that have been here for a while arrive for practice at the shala at 5 am. But the best thing for Lori, was that she was told that she can start doing the first posture in the second series, which is really great!!!

We all met around 11:30, soon after breakfast, and went to Lalitha Mahal Palace, which is a palace build by the Mahara of Mysuru, just to host foreign guests (allegedly because they ate meat). The Palace is really beautiful and the first thing that Jay and I did was buy Lori and Myra a ride on the horse-drawn carriage standing in front of the entrance as a birthday gift for Lori. It was a silly thing to ride 3 times around the parking lot, but we all had a laugh. We had a look at one of the rooms for which the going rate is somewhere from $75 to $750 for the Viceroy Suite. We then spent an hour and a half at the pool, for which we had to pay Rs 175, timing it so that we would still get lunch as it closed at 14:30. We had the Royal Silver Thali for Rs 200 excluding any taxes, which is about ten times the normal price of a South Indian Thali. The Thali was served with the normal banana leaf, but on a silver plate. :-) Food was not that impressive though... The restaurant was very elegant though, with live music entertainment.

After that, I had to rush back to Gokulam (the suburb within Mysuru) for my sanskrit class, and then I walked to the main road and shopped for some fruit. From Thursday to Monday, I had driven almost 200 kilometres, which is a lot considering that Gokulum is only about 6km from the centre of town. In the evening I felt I needed to walk around again instead of using the scooter all the time.

Tuesday I took it very easy, and I actually did not mind not having anything on the agenda. I spent a few hours on the internet, adding links to this blog to interesting books I have found, and adding statistics, so now I can see how many people are accessing my blog. I'm a geek I know :-)
I also spent a few hours reading in my yoga books I have purchased.

In the evening I went shopping again... I am running out of cash so I am using my credit card now!!! I had found a Jockey store in town. Because my bill came to over Rs 1,000, I got a free bag as well, so now I do not need to worry about being able to fit all the things I am buying into my backpack... Cool!!!

I then also visited the bookstore again, where I had bought the books by the president of India, as I had seen some computer CD's. I eventually bought ten CD's, one of which is on Indian recipes, the others being for my five year old son to learn vocabulary, maths etc. Two of the CD's are animated stories from the Panchatantra and Ramayana (see weblinks for Indian Deities and Mythology).

When I got home, I had some home made chocolate that I had bought a few days earlier. There is a shop here that caters to the yogi's. Yogi's prefer the dark chocolate to milk chocolate because it is healthier as it has less sugar and because there is no milk in it (vegetarian). But you can order your ingredients with white, milk or dark chocolate the way you like it. I had some chocolate with cashew nuts, another with almonds, another with cinnamon and another with cardamon. Today I ordered some more to take home... cinnamon and cardamon were the best, but I also have now ordered dark chocolate with peanut butter, and best of all, chilli! You eat the sweet chocolate and it leaves your mouth burning... WOW!!!!

Today Myra finally told me that she could not go to Daramsala to see the Dalai Lama, so I will be travelling alone (I am happy with that too) during my last week on holiday... I am looking forward to it, but I am also sad that I will be leaving Mysuru within 8 days and I will miss practicing in the Shala with all that energy around me.

I had already bought a non-refundable ticket from Mysuru to Mumbai for the 11th of March, which I am not going to use anymore because my plans changed, so I lost that money. I had to buy a new ticket from Bangalore to Delhi on the 1st of March, and another from Delhi to Mumbai for the 11th of March. I also bought a night train ticket from Delhi to Pathankot which is a 12 hour train ride, but I am on the waiting list with 2 people ahead of me... So I guess I will have to let the universe take its course and see what happens... maybe I will have to spend a few nights in Delhi as there are a lot of people wanting to go to Daramsala for the Dalai Lama's teachings.



After I organised that I rushed back to Gokulam for another of Tina's cooking courses. Today there were 15 people as opposed to six of us the last time, but all six us were there again. Today we made Kerala stew (vegetables in coconut milk) which was excellent, lemon rice with peanuts which I enjoyed and tomato bhaat (bhaat is cooked rice), which I did not enjoy that much.

After that I went to a tailor, who will make me a pair of pants according to a pair of pants I left with her. She will also do some embroidery for the pockets. After my sanskrit class I went to town to buy the fabric for the pants, which I will give to her tomorrow.

Halfway

Thursday morning we had a led class at 6:15, because Friday was a holiday "Shivarathri". This time it was not Sharath, but guruji who led us through the primary series. It seemed a lot easier than when Sharath led us through, but there was one occasion, in Bujapidasana, where guruji nodded off sitting in his chair while counting. Some of the yogi's started clearing their throats to get guruji to snap out of his little nap. Luckily Saraswati was also on the stage and she gave him a nudge... I was actually practicing right next to him on the stage, but I like all the others was stuck in the pose waiting for him to finish counting the five breaths, which became like 15 breaths :-).

Michael had left the day before, and I had arranged with him to take over his scooter once he left and paid half the rental, Rs 1,200. It is a really new scooter that runs very well and has warning bells when you leave the stand up and switch the engine on WOW... Lots of people are jealous of "Pep+", the name given to the bike (the model).


So Thursday I set myself the task of finally getting to town and finding my way around and I wanted to visit the Ashok bookstore. During breakfast at Tina's I chatted to Misa and she decided to come along for the ride. Town was easy to find but traffic is so hair-raising... I almost hit a cow at one stage, so we parked the bike and walked.

We eventually found the Ashok bookstore after walking through the most amazing market, the Devaraja Fruit & Veg market... more pictures in my album!!!

I found a lot of books on Yoga and India. I have added some books to the books section on the right. Most books are a lot cheaper here in India. I also found bible story comic books for my son. There are also comic books for children of the Panchatantra and the Mahabharata to teach Indian children all about their gods.

Yesterday, Saturday, I found another bookstore, I think it was called Saudhary, that has a lot of computer books at like a quarter of the price of the books you can order on Amazon. These prices are actually printed on the back cover... so they are sold at these prices all over India!
I also found some computer CD's for kids to improve their vocabulary, spelling and other skills. I also bought two books written by the current President of India, Abul Karam. "Wings of fire" is his autobiography and "Mission India - A vision for Indian Youth" that is inspiring the youth of India to become a developed country by 2050.

Misa and I then visited the bookstore at the Rama Krishna Ashram, but this was closed until 4pm, so we went and had lunch and then came back. The book store was interesting and it did have books on other religions. Lica had bought a book here "Jesus lived in India", which I unfortunately did not find.
Then it was sanskrit class because there would be no class on Friday. Afterwards I went to the Internet Cafe to compare the prices of the books I had found with prices on Amazon.com.

Friday was a holiday as mentioned earlier and there was no practice in the morning. Jay, Myra and I had organised a rickshaw driver to come pick us up at 6 am in the morning (still pitch dark) and drive us to the base of Chamunde Hill from where we climbed the 1000 steps to the top. Many Hindu's do this on Sunday's, but today would be a particularly busy day too because of the religious holiday. We started at around 6:30 and got to the top just after 7. On the way we met lots of Indians (I don't recall any women - they seem to prefer driving to the top :-)) We got asked all the time where we were from etc.

The sun was already up when we got to the top. We visited the temple and walked around watching the pilgrims do puja (offering) to their gods, and then we walked the 300 steps back down to the statue of Nandi where the swami had his cave. (This is the swami we had had lunch with the previous week). From there Raju picked us up and we drove to town to a very popular dosa restaurant. Dosa's are made from lentils and rice batter and when done looks like a pancake almost. The restaurant filled up and the Indian people seemed to have idli and then the dosa for breakfast, but we just had the dosa and kept on ordering more :-).

After I got home, I took the scooter to try and find my way to a silk store. On the way I met Misa and Quyen at the coconut store and they decided to come along. I took them both on the scooter, which turned out to be a traffic offense according to policeman on the way. Luckily I did not get fined. I left Misa and Quyen at Fab-India (the silk store) as I had an appointment to have a massage at home. Afterwards I went to find the silk factory. I found it and had a look at the showroom, but the factory was closed because of the holiday.

In the evening we had a Kirtan / Bajan (singing and chanting in Hindi). This time the musicians were playing the Sitar and the Harmonium and drums. Afterwards (8pm), 5 of us decided to visit the temple at the Maharaja's Palace were a lot of the Hindu's were flocking to do Puja. Again we met a lot of people trying to befriend us and children running up to us wanting to have their pictures taken.
At 10pm we then went to the Hotel RRR, which is famous for its Thali's (rice, dhal, curd, raita and a vegetable dish) served on a banana leaf. Dylan entertained us all with his recollections of the naughty adventures he had in Mexico.

On Saturday morning I had breadfast at Tina's where I met Myra. I told Myra my plans for today and she decided to join me on the back of the bike for my excursions for the day. We went to the Silk factory, which was very interesting. Unfortunately however, there was no tourguide or anything and we were not allowed to take our camera's in. When I was in Thailand I visited a silk factory there too and I remember everything was done by hand there. Here they had Japanese machines doing the weaving of the sari's. It was a deafening noise. I noticed that the Indian's were walking around barefeet and no protective gear at all. They were all very proud of what they were doing and as we walked through, somebody would always call us over to show us what exactly they were doing.
Unfortunately they did not show us how they took the silk from the cacoon, as they had in Thailand, we started from the raw silk having been rolled up and washed, from where it was wound onto pins, then the silk strands were doubled and then twisted. They had two colours, one representing left twisted, the other right twisted. Then 438 strands were rolled onto a big roller from where it was used on the sari weaving machines. They also used gold thread in the sari's and the price of the sari's basically just varied on how much gold thread was in the sari. Then the Sari's were dyed, washed and ironed.

Afterwards we went to the Maharaja's Palace as I wanted to have seen it by day before I see the palace lit up on Sunday night. Like most tourist attractions in India, there are no signs explaining the attraction, you basically need to hire a tourguide at a relatively expensive price Rs 450 (we paid 200) and after you have seen everything, then they have books etc on sale.
The palace is beautiful, but needs to be maintained better. The stained glass windows that are breaking are just being replaced by normal glass for instance.

After that we went and had lunch at Sixth Main, as most of the other restaurants were closed around 3pm. I then dropped Myra off and went to Coffee Day as I felt like having some Ice Cream. I was constantly hungry. Coffee Day was interesting because their menu was covered with Logo's from Microsoft Windows and advertisement for the new Windows Vista... "The WOW starts now". There was even a Coffee Day magazine with a Microsoft front and back page and one of the meny items was something like a WOW coffee.

At six in the evening I went to the talent show that Lica had invited us all to. She had bought herself a harmonium and was taking music lessons to learn to play it. The music school was putting on a talent show, which was called "East meets West" and the 'western' (including asian foreigners) were doing two performances.
The started 45 minutes late. The first performance was an indian dance by four young girls. This was very cute and nice. The second performance was the westerners singing amazing grace. This did not seem completely rehearsed. The talent show went on, but was very slow and it was obvious that there had been no dress rehearsal. It was a bit chaotic and eventually I left to go to bed. Lica said she got home around 11:30.

Sunday morning Leena and I got to the led class very late. They were already doing Surya Namaskara B when we arrived after running to the Shala... not very good!!! My practice was quite good and enjoyable today.
Afterwards I sat and watched the intermediate series being performed by the led class after us. Guruji was leading the class and he was wearing a T-shirt that had two words on the front "Bad Man", which we thought was quite funny :-).

I went to the organic market at the Green Hotel again and bought some date & flaxseed and ginger and almond cake and some other things. I met Lori and Myra, who told me about a portuguese family that made lunch on Sundays and Wednesdays and Dinners on Fridays. The food was apparently excellent and they were going today, so I decided to phone and reserve a space for myself too. It is served at their house, which they call India.Song. The food was absolutely delicous. Starters was cold potatoe and leek soup, the main course was a greek salad and desert was vanilla ice cream on chocolate sauce... mmmm. It was very expensive though at Rs 230.

After that I went to the Yoga Shala. There was no conference this Sunday, but I bought the Ashtanga Yoga book written by Lino Miele and had Lino, Sharath and guruji sign the book. Then I went home and started reading until 6:30 when I went to pick up Lori.

Lori had asked me if she could come with me on my scooter to see the palace lit up, which happens on Sundays between 7 pm and 8 pm. The Lonely Planet guide said that there are 97 000 light bulbs all over the facade of the palace and the palace walls. Lori had spent the previous day on Jay's bike, which she said was not very comfortable on the bumps, so now she wanted to be on my bike. Myra went on Jay's bike.
The palace was very beautiful lit up, but the band playing english and american fanfare music just seemed totally out of place.

It is Lori's birthday tomorrow and we have made plans to eat lunch at the Lalitha Mahal Palace, which should be a grand experience.