Final week in Mysore

Monday (23) - Shivavratri
Today is Shivavratri, so it is public holiday and there is no practice. Guruji is devotee of Shiva, and traditionally Shiva is regarded as the lord of the yogis. The first thing I did in the morning is drive into town and have breakfast at the Hotel Original Mylari. I mentioned this last week Friday in my blog when I went searching for it. They only serve dosas and idlis, so they are their specialty. I had eater here two years ago with Myra and Jay. A plate of 3 idli's or a dosa is Rs 13 and I had five in total :-). Feeling satisfied I hopped onto my scooter and drove up Chamundi hill to the temple. Two years ago I had been up two or three times, and had walked up the 1000 or more steps. This trip I had not been up once, so it was time I went and it was also a good occasion to do it because it was Shivavratri and people are all going to the temple's to do Puja. Chamundi Hill is apparently one of the eight sacred hills in South India. I had never driven up by myself, so it was a fun new experience. At the top I also visited the "Godly Museum", which is run by the Brahma Kumaris. It was a room containing murals explaining Raja Yoga, the science for attaining purity, peace and bliss, as taught by Shiva, the lord of the yogis.

When I got home at about 10:30 I joined five other yogis at Ganesh's place to do yoga nidra. Before we started Ganesh told us a little of what Shiva represents in the Vedic and Tantric traditions which was very interesting. I don't know if this is all right, because Ganesh is very difficult to understand. He cannot pronounce F. Sanskrit does not use F and he uses P instead, and he cannot say sh, which sounds like s, so when he was trying to talk about a fish, we all took some time to figure out what he was trying to say... Anyway, the E represents energy in Sheva and without E, it becomes Shva, which is death in sanskrit I think. The lingam of Shiva represents the universe and the womb (female). He told us of a story that Sheva asked Brahma and Vishnu to find the ends of the universe. Vishnu became and eagle and flew down to find the end but could not find it. He came back and was honest and said he could not find the bounds of the universe. Brahma became the swan and flew up to find it. He also could not find it, but bribed a flower to be his witness that he had found the edge. When he returned with the flower, Shiva knew he was lying and cursed the flower. The flower is apparently very very beautiful, but it is now never used in worship, and it has no scent. Sheva also cursed Brahma, and Ganesh said that you will find many temples worshipping Vishnu and Shiva in India, but none worshipping Brahma.
He also talked about the consciousness of both Parvati and Shiva being united and this represents brahmacharya, being married to one woman and this gives man the ability to stay focused. This relates to the what Sharath was talking about at conference yesterday.
The Yoga Nidra was an hour long today and again was really deep. The hour absolutely flew by, so really fantastic... and cannot pinpoint how he does it, but when I do lie down after my practice to meditate it is never this deep or feels this quick even though is is only ten to fifteen minutes.
Afterwards Amy and I went and had some fuit salad and she told me a little about Richard Freeman's Teacher Training. By then it was already 2pm and I went home to "take rest".

Sometime after four I went to the Ice Cream corner and had four scoops of ice cream after which I drove into town. Sauhardy bookstore was closed but I went into Rashinkar and spend over two hours looking at books. When I came out it was already 19:30 and the palace was all lit up, which normally only happens on Sundays between 7 and 8pm. On this trip I have not had a chance to do this, so this was my last opportunity. It was so beautiful seeing the palace and the huge walls surrounding the palace all lit up but I did not have my camera with me... I drove around the palace and then went home to get my camera hoping that the palace will still be lit when I got back, because it was Shivavratri, but that was not going to happen. By the time I got back it was back to normal lighting, but I spent time in the palace grounds watching the people lining up to do puja in the temple, kids and families playing in the gardens. Everybody loves having their picture taken, and people are all in a very good mood.

Tuesday (24) - Day trip
This morning I woke up at 8 and went to the maha idli man and had 5 dosas and 2 idli for 26 Rs. I knew that this was going to be the last time I would see him in a very long time, if ever, which was a sad thing. Mysore is a very beautiful city with lots of parks and green spaces, some really good restaurants and shops, a wonderful community of yogis, a yoga tradition second to none and a lot of history it can be proud of and it has become like a home for me. I have spent 2 months already here in total and have gotten to know the city very well and am often telling new people where to go and what to do.
After breakfast I wondered around the area and took some photographs of daily Indian life and then I drove to guruji's old shala and took photo's of it. I then went back home and spent 3 hours on the net. I was worried about getting a sunburn and decided to browse on the net even though I had planned to go on a day trip to the Bird Sanctuary and Srirangapatna.

By one o'clock, I really had enough of the internet though. I went home, shaved my head again and then by two I was on the KRS road towards Bangalore, with the sun beating down on my left. I found some boys swimming in the river and took some photographs. The bird sanctuary was nothing spectacular, however, the tranquility was wonderful and rejuvenating. I then went in search of the town of Srirangapatna, which contains the ruins of Hyder Ali and Sultan Tipu's capital, from which they ruled much of southern India during the 18th century. In 1799, the British defeated them and this marked the start of British expansion into southern India. At first I was very disappointed when I found it, because all I saw were some broken walls with lots of litter, but as I drove further into town, I found more of the ruins with actual signs indicating what they were. Seeing the ruins would definitely require a lot of walking if you did not have your own mode of transport, as they were very dispersed. I spent quite a bit of time there and by the time I was ready to head back home it was already after 5pm.

On my way back I drove to Sapna Book store to buy copies of the Mahabharata and Ramayana. There are many english translations of these Indian epics and I had been researching and asking people which one would be the best to get. James, the sanskrit student leading the Kirtans on Wednesdays, asked his Indian teachers and they suggested a particular auther, C. Rajagopalachari, who also happended to be a statesman and politician in India and a close associate of Mahatma Ghandi, who had written the books in Tamil and then rewrote them in English. During the morning I had looked at reviews on Amazon and decided that I was happy with this version.

I then went to meet Beth and Stuart, whom I met in Kovalam four weeks ago, at the Cafe Amarena across from the Mysore Palace. Stuart has just arrived and Beth has been staying at the Mysore Mandala Yogashala and she had written me an email some time ago wanting to buy me a drink as I had apparently helped her achieve the jump throughs. We chatted and had dinner until 9, when I finally left.

Wednesday (25) -
hit in the kahunas

lunch at stand up

speak to Sharath

shopping in town, bought the abridged Ramayana and a book on meditation as well as a lungi

Bombay Tiffany's

Thursday (26) - Final Massage
3 new poses

Final massage

Sandhya

washing

sanskrit

Chocolate

yoga bag, kurta, T-shirt

Robyn

Bombay Tiffany's Kaju Laddu, Jalebi, Mysore Pak, Kheer Khadam Basundi made with semolina

Friday (27) - Travelling to Rishikesh
lead class