International Yoga Festival

Saturday (28) - Arriving at Parmarth Niketan Ashram

bought blanket

International Yoga Festival - Sunday 1
Today was the start of the International Yoga Festival in Rishikesh. This is the festival I just missed two years ago when I arrived from Paharganj, where I had attended the Dalai Lama's teachings for a few days. However, it was a divine plan that helped me walk into this ashram, of all the ashrams that are here in Rishikesh, and that is why I am here today. This year is the 8th year the festival is being held and there are almost 400 participants here. There were about 500 participants here last year, and the decline is probably due to the Mumbai bombings last year and the recession.

This morning I did not attend the Kundalini Sadhana (spiritual practice) which starts at 4am every day. My body was still adjusting to the cold temperature and recovering from the long journey, so I had decided to skip that session. I started at 6:30 doing Sukshma Yoga with Swami Yogananda who was born in 1909, i.e.: he is 99 years old. He was quite something, shouting orders very fiercely in another language while a translator gave us direction, although the Swami knows English and would occasionally speak some English. He started doing some simple warm-up exercises and then moved on to some asanas, but finished with some very advanced asanas, including Matsyendrasana with one leg in half lotus and Yoga Nidra (both legs behind the head), which of course nobody could do, especially since we in a large tent and was very cold.

We had some light snacks like a banana and a bit of porridge and tea and next I attended Deep Yoga with Bhava Ram and Sundari Ram. Bhava Ram has an interesting experience of Yoga, since he used Yoga and Ayurveda to heal his broken back and recover from stage 4 cancer. He started the class playing the guitar and chanting a mantra to Shiva, the father of yoga. The class was not very vigorous as I expect most classes will be, but I need to relinquish my attachment of the hard ashtanga asana practice for a while. What I am feeling though, is that because I am experiencing so many different yoga styles so quickly, I am feeling ungrounded, and this is another reasone I am missing my ashtanga practice... a regular practice and a practice that I know, and a grounding practice.

At 10:15 there was brunch, which is one of two big meals we have in the day. The food is extremely sweet, which I am not enjoying. The porridge is already prepared with so much sugar, you cannot taste the porridge, only the texture. I am missing the fruit salads and dosas I had in Mysore.

At 11:30 there was lecture in the big tent, which was not very interesting. The big tent that they have put up for the festival has been decorated nicely with white and gold linen sheets creating a false ceiling on which the monkeys like to climb and look at us through the gaps. One of them decided to pee right above me. Luckily it just missed me and went onto my yoga mat... I guess I was blessed by the Indian monkey god called Hanuman :-)

At 13:15 was the first Reiki session, which was a simple introduction. She will do this every day during the festival at the same time and if we attend all of the sessions we will gain the level 1 Reiki certification.
At 15:00 I attended the Shinto Yoga class. This was very interesting and it had a very big Japanese influence. We did sun salutations the shinto way, both standing and kneeling and then we did some things on our backs, which he said was like a fish writhing. We had to do it for thirty seconds or more, which became quite difficult. Towards the end I felt like I was back in a martial arts class when we were facing a partner holding there hand and trying to throw each other off balance, but it was a very playfull atmosphere which was enjoyable. At then end we each got a piece of paper and a pebble from the ganges, which he said will help us clear our minds while we practice Dharana (concentration).

At 17:00 was the welcoming ceremony, during which some of the boys at the school in the ashram showed us some yoga poses. They were incredible, but what struck me was that the poses were sloppy, just like Krishnamacharya in his 1938 video, which Nancy had mentioned during her retreat. According to the book "The Yoga Tradition of the Mysore Palace", it was only BKS Iyengar who introdruced precision into the asanas, and the west has taken this even further applying anatomical science. Afterwards was the evening aarti (devotional singing), which happens on the banks of the ganges every evening. At 19:00 was finally dinner. I am finding that I am extremely hungry here, even though I am eating a lot, which I think is due to the colder temperatures. After dinner there were Indian cultural dances, which went on until just before 22:00.

IYF - Monday 2
I was late for the 6:30 class, so instead I decided to practice Ashtanga in the room, which by the way I am sharing with Prana, a guy who runs the ZenDen Mountain Retreat near Cape Town. The space was cramped but it felt good and I got up to Janu Shirshasana and then did finishing sequence so that I would be in time for the next class, which was Kundalini Yoga with Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa. She seems to be a big favourite with everybody and she seems to have been teaching at the festival for years already. She does not teach in the tent or in one of the large rooms in the three story building, but she teaches on the ghat (steps next to the ganges river). Yesterday I did not want to do this because I was very cold, but it had actually warmed up a bit since I arrived on Saturday and when I got onto the ghat I was happy I came, because it was so very beautiful.

I had attended very few Kundalini classes before and hated all of them until I did Gurmukh's workshop in South Africa last year in May. I did enjoy it, but I was still not convinced this was my cup of tea, so I had a little worry in the back of my mind. I did not need to worry though, because the Kundalini Yoga class was fantastic. Gurmukh's theme was one of Yogi Bhajan's (founder of this lineage of Kundalini yoga) sayings, "Understand through compassion, otherwise you will missunderstand the times", and she talked about the fact that we all pick our parents, our bodies etc through our karma and that we make a living by what we get, but that we live by what we give. Then she made us shake our bodies while sitting with our arms raised above our heads for about ten minutes and then another eight minutes standing up. I think my shoulders felt like my arms were lead after the first minute, but then the pain subsided and I could hold my arms up throughout and I felt elated. The session was quite similar to what Gurmukh had taught in South Africa. We finished by clapping hands while sitting in a circle in groups of four, chanting "Sat Nam", "Har" and "I god, you god".

Then we had breakfast at around eleven and I did not attend the lecture afterwards. The Reiki was very nice and we learnt more about the seven energy centres or chakras in our bodies. I then did the Vyayam Yoga session, which I found very interesting. The only problem I had with the session, like so many Indian teachers, they do not introduce themselves or their session. He started by singing and playing the harmonium with two assistants. He then did pranayama with us, but while we were doing the pranayama (seated) there was a lot of arm movement and mudras that we had to do.
He then handed over to one of his assistants, a young teenager I think with a shaved head, except for some long hair flowing down from the top portion of the back of her head. This seems to be something a lot of kids do here... need to find out more about this. Anyway, she then took us through some movements and explained that the movement follows the breath, so this was very similar to ashtanga, and the breath was also ujjayi. The movements were very circular and flowing continuously, there were no postures and the whole system is based on a system used by ancient Indian warriors, so one movement for instance was supposed to look like drawing a sword from the sheath. The hands and arms move with strength in the muscles, however, we should not be thinking of the muscles moving the body, but the breath, which is exactly what Gurmukh was teaching in the Kundalini class this morning.

I then went and had a "swim", more like a quick three dips in the cold waters of mother ganga with my room mate Prana. We bought a ready made small basket of flowers with a candle, lit the candle and sent it down the river before we entered the water.

Brunch at 10:30 and Dinner at 19:00 are almost always the same with two types of rice, dhal, kitcheree, chapati and naan, some vegetables such as carrots and green beans and sometimes some ochre. So it is very monotonous, but the desert is always different. Today was gulab jamoon and I had a total of nine of them... they were sooooo good! After dinner was satsang (divine association) with Pujya Swamiji, who is the head of the ashram where the festival is at. Pujya Swamiji seems to be a very well known spiritual leader, as I have seen pictures of him with the Dalai Lama, with Bill Clinton and with the Israely Prime Minister. Swamiji's right hand person, an american lady, who renounced the material life to lead a spiritual life of service to others unser Swamiji's guidance, who lives at the ashram talked about the first two yamas from the eight limbs of Ashtanga Yoga, namely Ahimsa (non-violence) and Satya (Truth). Ahimsa included mentioning that we should not eat meat as this could save our lives, our families lives and the earths life. Apparently there is no food shortage in the world, only a distribution problem, as we feed the grain to cows, chicken and pigs, that could feed the poor instead. Regarding truth, she said that we should always ensure that our words serve a purpose and are kind. She used the metaphor of the monks cleaning a clay Buddha and finding gold in a crack and then discovering that there is a clay Buddha hidden behind the clay, which was put on the statue to protect it from warriors who were marauding the country. The truth does not always need to be the cold heartless facts that are required in a court of law.
Pujya Swamiji was then asked a question about how we can make a difference considering all the poverty around us and he answered that we should live a simple life and give to those in need.

IYF - Tuesday 3
In the morning I attended a Kriya Yoga or Nada Yoga session with Sadhvi Abha Saraswati, who gives month long training to lead chants. We started off with some pranayama exercises and then went onto singing the Vaidika Shanti Mantra and she was really good because she actually was very clear on which syllables are high notes and low notes. There are only three notes, the middle one being the same as OM. There is a fourth note, which is a double note, which she explained in the Gaayatri Mahaa Mantra, which I have already mentioned in my blog about Kirtan with James. Then we moved onto the Mrtyujaya Mantra, which I love and we finished with the Asatoma chant. I can only tell you what the names of the mantras are because she actually handed out books with the words, so that is quiet nice!!!

After a quick snack I headed off for another session of Kundalini Yoga with Gurmukh. My calves are stiff from jumping around yesterday. She actually arrived on time today and was quite funny when she welcomed the newcomers, saying that those of us who attended the first few sessions will have stopped wondering, "Where are the downdogs?" as there are none. Kundalini is very different to normal Hatha yoga, and I can only remember doing one asana with her so far, namely Ushtrasana (Camel pose). Today she actually made us hold camel pose for a full three minutes while chanting "I will not take the bait" (of complaining and having a normal negative mindset). She gave us another hard class with the theme being another of Yogi Bhajans sayings "See others as yourself." My shoulders were really saw from her class because we were holding up our arms almost the entire class starting at 8:15 and she ended late again at 10:40. The partner work I did with Indra whom I had met in Mysore. She is from Malaysia and actually taught a workshop on kids yoga in Mysore, which I had missed. The end of the class was very enjoyable. Gurmukh asked an american lady who had studied Bangra dancing in India for six years to lead us in dancing bangra to two songs after which we got into a huge circle holding hands and singing and then repeating something the Dalai Lama had said.

After the big brunch, was a lecture with Pujya Swamiji during which he talked about what it means to be a yogi. It mainly means that a yogi is always content - santosha (one of the niyamas in Patanjalis Yoga Sutras). We should always be content. The reason people are unhappy is because they constantly want more and he said when he came to Rishikesh there were no shops between the ashram and Laksman Jhula (pedestrian bridge) and Ram Jhula did not exist, so people had to walk (this side of the ganges river is a pedestrian only zone) all the way up to Lakshman Jhula to go buy something and people were happy with that. He talked about a poor beggar within whom he saw a yogi, because the beggar was not complaining. He said god wanted him there, and his journey was over.
He also said that everybody we worship today is someone who had special powers, and that those people went through tests without complaining and always used their powers or gifts to help others and never to help themselves. We should accept the divine plan.
He made two other points, namely that we need to be consistent and that we should practice moderation and he finished by saying that the yamas and niyamas are the foundation of yoga - union with the divine. We can miss our asana and pranayama practice, but we should always keep the connection with the people around us and see the divine in everyone.
After some questions he concluded saying that the most important of the yamas and niyamas is surrender!

Afterwards was another Reiki session and then I wanted to attend the Om Meditation session, but I went to my room as I was in a bit of pain and have trouble sitting. Don't know exactly when I got hurt, but hopefully my left QL muscle will recover soon. In the evening after dinner was a cultural musical performance in the tent organised by the Uttarakhand (state) Tourism Department. It was absolutely fantastic. I was very unhappy because my camera battery packed up! What was also sad was that hardly any of the yogi's attending the IYF actually attended. I was there with Almendra from Mexico and Jetal from the USA. There were probably less than 10 others. However, lots of Indian people from outside had come including lots of kids, as well as all the Rishikumars (orphans and other poor kids going to school in the ashram) of course.

IYF - Wednesday 4
The program for today was slightly different in that there were no classes at 6:30, instead there was a walk up behind the ashram into the Himalayas with Pujya Swamiji. He seems quite fit because the pace was quite good. The walk was only an hour, so I was disappointed when we had to turn back. Afterwards I decided not to do Kundalini again as my back was still not happy. There were quite a number of other people who had sore legs or other complaints from the Kundalini yoga. I attended the Deep Yoga (San Diego) class again, which was very new agey again, but it is very grounding and nurturing.

At Brunch they served masala dosas today, which everybody enjoyed. The lecture today was with Dr David Frawley and his wife on Lord Shiva and Shakti energies. I had bought one of Dr Frawley's books during the trip on Ayurveda and yoga, and everybody else also seemed quite excited about the lecture, as he is I think the only westerner ever to have officially been recognised as a master of Vedanta. Kerry had heard him speak before the last time she came to the conference and said he was too intellectual and she went to bed as she had had no sleep. The lecture was very intellectual and Iola from Cape Town just immediately lay down and dozed because it was straight over the top of her head. I started taking notes furiously, but there was so much new information I could not keep up. I was also lying down on my chest so that I could take notes and not feel any pain, but lying down was not conducive to staying alert. At one stage I realised that his wife was speaking and I did not remember when she took over from him.

Straight afterwards was another Reiki session, and then into another session, so three sessions back to back, one and a half hours long each. The third session I chose to go to a Kundalini yoga class taught by Siddhi, an elderly german lady, who teaches hand mudras. Other people had loved her class and I also really enjoyed it, but again not something that I see myself practicing daily in the near future. We basically sat for the entire one and a half hours, learnt several mudras and then she put on some music and we would do the mudras in a sequence chanting to the music at the same time, so it was quite enjoyable.

IYF - Thursday 5
Sat-chit-anand

IYF - Friday 6

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.

Visiting the ashram of Swami Nirmalananda

I noted yesterday that I have been on holiday in India for two weeks now, but it feels like I have had so many experiences in that time that it feels like I have been away for many weeks.

I lacked energy in my practice yesterday so I basically went through the motions. Looking around in the shala, I definitely feel like a complete beginner as most of the students here have been practicing for a long time and easily bind Marichyasana D etc, holding their wrists without a problem, while I am still grapling to get hold of my finger tips...
When the backbend (Urdvha Dhanurasana) came I pushed myself to overcome my fear of it and did it all three times. On the last repetition, I felt a twang in my spine, which is not uncommon and normally just means a tendon or ligament has moved over a bone. However, when I finished my practice, I realised that my thumb on my left hand was numb, which was a little worrying.

I then rushed home, to shower and pack some gear. Michael had told me very little of where we were going, only that we were going to sleep over and that there was only space for 3. I now can tell you that we (Michael, Licha and I) went to visit the ashram of Swami Nirmalananda, Viswa Shanti Nikethana. A swami is somebody who renounces all wordly things. This man lived from 1924 to 1997. He travelled outside of India for many years visiting holy men from all different religions. He then came back to India in 1964 where he created the ashram in the B.R.Hills (Biligiri Rada region) and then spent 11 years in silence. He then wrote some books, teaching his insights, which have won a few awards. His teachings are similar to those of the Bahaii faith, the idea that all religions believe in one and the same god. Often after a yoga class, a yoga instructor will read something during meditation that you can ponder on. Michael uses the teaching of this spiritual man.

The ashram is just over 100km from Mysore, but this is a three hour drive because of the state of the roads and the constant traffic of bicycles, scooters, rickshaws and trucks. We arrived around 12:30 and met Swami Pravananda who currently stays there. It was incredibly peaceful at the ashram without the any of the noises from the busy indian cities and there were lots of birds chirping, wind rustling through the trees... wonderful. Around 1:30 we had lunch, which was the usual rice and sambar, but served on a banana tree leaf. Of course I had to eat with my hands the entire weekend and swamiji actually remarked that I am obviously not used to eating with my hands.

After lunch we headed to the back of the ashram, where we sat for an hour and a bit looking over the valley, enjoying the smell and sounds of nature... Slowly I also got my feeling back in my thumb, but the muscles down the left side of my spine had spasmed and this remained.
Then we rested a bit and later that afternoon we visited a temple on a nearby hill.

Dinner was around six and we had upoma, which is similar to couscous. After every meal we also got served chai, which was incredibly sweet and no matter how often we requested that the woman who prepared the food and served us to use less sugar, it always came tasting like syrup. She also seemed unaware that westerners cannot stomach the indian water and would serve us water to drink every time and we would have to insist "Ila" (no) every time, then we would dry the cup and pour our bottled water. She also would wash the banana leaf, the plate, and try to put the food on the wet banana leaf, which we tried to quickly dry...

After supper we headed back to the lookout point and lay on the rocks watching the stars come out, seeing some shooting stars and the most amazing was seeing 3 satellites, two of which at the same time, crossing each others path. Two of them also seemed to reflect the suns rays on their solar panels at a certain point as they moved across the night sky, because they became brighter and brighter and almost sending a bright flash down to earth and then suddenly appearing like a very fast moving star again. I also identified the constellation of Orion and the little dipper, which I do not ever see in the southern hemisphere.

During meal times, we would chat with swamiji, who gave us each a copy of a book written by Swami Nirmalananda. After getting back from stargazing I started reading and was engrossed for the rest of the evening. We all had a bucket shower, seperately :-), using water heated from a coconut shell fire and then went to bed.
I had a rough night because the muscles in my back had cooled down and the cramp on my spine was agonising. I had to lie on my back with my arms over my head to try keep an arch in my spine to relieve the pain.

Saturday being our day off, we did not put on alarm, but we woke around 6:30 and went to the lookout at the back and meditated for about an hour while the sun rose.

Breakfast at eight was bhat (rice mixed with vegetables), and I really had not appetite, but I had to eat to be polite. After breakfast, the three of us discussed the retreat Michael was building in Mexico and Michael asked us for advice on some ideas he had for a new DVD.
Lunch again at one. Again I had no appetite, but this time at least the food was lighter... beaten rice with coconut.

Later we packed, paid our respects to swami and made our donations and then headed back to the city. Even though I have been sitting all day, I am absolutely exhausted. I am also not sure if I will be able to do my practice tomorrow, but the experience was wonderful and I am really happy that I have a copy of the book "A Garland of Forest Flowers".