jai guru dev

ok so i'm back in action after 2 weeks of breathing, yoga, meditation, chaos and silence at the art of living ashram near bangalore... yes FROM CHAOS TO BLISS is the mantra here. there were 12, 000 people who descended on this ashram and then 2 million people at the silver jubilee celebrations at the very dusty jakkur airfield. and get this, there were 20, 000 indians who came from ALL over to volunteer for the 3 days of art of living celebrations. i thought santropol roulant had lots of volunteers. this was just a whole other scale!

it was mayhem, but everything worked out and it was an extraordinary experience. world spiritual, political leaders and famous indian artists and singers shared the stage (for the first time! there was an orchestra of 13,000 indian musicians on stage). speakers included presidents, ministers of health, the UN envoy for refugees, heads of state from mongolia, denmark, croatia, argentina, south africa... over 50 countries) ... really, i've never seen anything like this.

i feel great right now, after all this breathing and singing (satsang every night!). very clear. and ready to keep up all this pranayam (breathing) so i can feel this way all the time. now that 98% of the people are gone from here to delhi for mahashivratri, another auspicous spiritual occasion, there is calm and quiet here on the ashram.

i have made the best of the ayurveda treatments here! i had my pulses taken by an ayurvedic doctor and it turns out i am a pitta constitution - means fire - so there are certain foods not to eat, and in fact a raw diet is good for the system. i also had a abhyanga hot oil massage (yes, and it is 35 degrees outside!). and is was AWESOME, so was the hot shower afterwards. what a feeling! and have had the facial marma and body marma - these are pressure points on the body, as well as the famous shirodhara where the scalp and head receive a gentle massage by way of a steady stream of hot, delicious oil. "relax! be in the experience!"

i took 2 advanced breathing and meditation courses, the first had 5000 people in it! they had to build a new space (a tent) for it. when i took the advanced course in montreal, there were 40 people and it seemed like a lot. but that is canada, this was the world! LITERALLY! there were translators working overtime all the time. in the second course, there were a mere 1000 people; it felt very intimate actually and we used the mahalakshmi mandap meditation hall (in the form of a 5 storey-1000 petaled lotus; it is a stunning building). so we went into silence for 3 days! i really really loved the silence. and the meditations were intense. i found that my body and mind both started to shift - and become less busy. i could actually sit comfortably for them for most of the time. so the stiffness in my hips and back and legs are slowly dissolving.

one world family
so i am ready to move, once again. i go to bangalore tomorrow, then to pondicherry to the vegan-eco-forest retreat and will meet up with my nasik family once again - nitin, anita and sakhi - to participate in meetings about alternative education and much more. then i head to thailand and malaysia to meet up with jimmy to travel and be in nature together. i am looking forward to being with a good friend (besides myself, of course). after this incredible international experience and this silence, i am wanting to connect and converse, and be quiet, with a close friend.

i realize i was with quite a unique family here at the ashram with people from all over the world at the same time as my blood family celebrated harriet and mark's wedding on the other side of the world, in vancouver. but i feel i was part of all it; that i haven't "missed" anything, that i was everywhere and nowhere, but the feeling of love and connection was inimitably present.

jai guru dev!