--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb <no_reply@...> wrote:
> Very possibly. But to be honest I'd prefer to hear about > your recent Road Trip. It sounds as if it may have been > edifying. Yes. > If it's not classified :-), Some of it. > where did you go, > and did you have fun there? Yes, some fun, and great experiences (I would have reported some of it anyway), but also challenging situations. So places: All of it South India. Final landing place: Bangalore. The place I stay most of the time is about 125 kms from Bangalore. I am there for doing work, some overseeing works at several construction sites. Some working with special machines, a heavy jackhammer, much of the trip about 3-4 hours daily. There is a school, the school is being expanded, the additional rooms being created are actually very much needed, as the number of pupils doubled since last May. (I was there too 3 month in the school holidays). I usually do the heavy work, as I am fit (doing running regularly) and strong enough. Other westerners who live there, either teach at the school, mostly women, or do supervising and just other works and the different building sites. Somebody has to direct all the works, control the Indian workers organize materials, another person supervises the activities at another ground, has to be there. take deliveries, pay workers etc. We are here in rural India, not in Bangalore or Pondichery, there are almost constant power-cuts, since some day in June or July, when almost all of India was without electricity the situation has worsened considerable. On many days we will have power only about 3 hours, and you never know when. This is a major problem for all building activities. On the place itself, I have a bicycle to get around, I go for food outside, I know all the places, simple Indian food, meals, very hot, lots of chilly. The children are absolutely sweet, there is a smaller group of children, living on the site, the majority is brought by a bus or by their parents. The children who live on the site, I know all by name, some of them for a few years now. This basically is my second home, This year I was there more often than in Europe. Since I finished my works early, I took a week off, I took a direct night bus to Pondy, 4,5 hrs starting at 3 am, just to have some spiritual holiday, see and bath in the ocean. It's not a new place to me, but it's more of a city, I stay in a very affordable guest house, run and built by a German, I frequent the Ashram places (Aurobindo Ashram), the Samadhi, and I want to go into the Matri Mandir, the spiritual center of Auroville. I still don't know, if I will stay three days or more, I am playing with the thought of going also to Tiruvanamallai, which is on the way to Bangalore, where my flight will go off. This time I want to go into the Matri Mandir, I was there last 13 years back, on my last trips to Pondy I found the administrative hurdle always too much, you have to phone a certain number in Auroville between 10 and 11 am, just one hour, to be able to maybe get a pass for the next day. I missed this time on the date of my arrival, but somebody told me, as I have been there before, they would give me admission if I just go there on the next day. There is a bus leaving to Auroville everyday in front of the Ashram at 8.15 am, but that is Indian time. The bus brings you to the visiting center in Auroville, where upon arrival immediately a long queu is being formed. There is an A group and a B group, the A group are people who have an appointment to actually meditate in the Matri Mandir, the meditation takes about 40 minutes is in total silence, and is in the center of the building, starting from 10 am. But I have no reservation! No chance, the Indian lady says in a stern voice. I ask her if I can talk with her, then say I have been inside before, she says its full. But I could make an appointment, calling this number for the next day. If you want, she says, you can meditate in the petal. I lighten up and immediately agree. The petals are small rooms adjoining the main sanctuary of the Matri Mandir, the meditations are actually called concentration. I now find out that there is actually even an email, to make a reservation. So I walk the little path from the visitors center, and get to the main entrance of the Matri Mandir. I tell my story again, and get a pass for the petal, only two of the twelve petals are open for the meditation, 3 times are fixed in the morning, I am already late. I have to choose, do I want 'goodness' or ' courage'? I said, whatever, no I have to choose. Courage, I respond immediately, and the Indian lady smiles. I walk there, again a lady receives me, takes the ticket, I am alone in the room. It is breathtaking. The whole room is in a sort of orange crimson color, there is a foggy light coming from below, no direct window, I hear a reverberating sound, like coming from a motor, maybe the air-condition. I get white socks, and sit on one of the cushions. I am immediately pulled inside. The reverberating sound mixes with the sound of OM. I meditate on OM. Just Ooooohhhmmmm, a long continuing OM, no repetitions, just that. It's the first time I really accept OM as a mantra, nothing more just that. This is all that I need. I am in the pure state of the mind. The Sahasrara chakra is being felt, the heart is being felt, there is a state of total absorption. Later. when I told this story to a friend, she said, that when she meditated in the Matri Mandir, she heard OM as from a thousand voices. This revelation of OM is what I will from now on associate with the Matri Mandir. I feel that OM is all we need for a mantra. It has always been the universal mantra, the one talked about in the Upanishads. Sound is Akasha, space. I must have been quite spaced out when I walked back, had my coffee and pineapple cake at the visitors center, and I make sure I will have an appointment for the next day, for the main sanctuary. When back in Pondy, I went for food, a small meals place in the main road. I had rented a bicycle. At the restaurant I saw a small prayer card, photo, with some text in Tamil, and three photos of some saints, one I recognized: it was Vallalar, saint Ramalingam. He lived in the nineteenth century, and could have been a contemporary of Ramakrishna. He never became that famous, because he obviously didn't have a Vivekananda. But he was a great saint, his movement negated the caste system, cared for the poor, and obviously he ranted against tradition and the Vedas. At the end of his life, he locked himself into a room for many days, maybe month, I am not sure anymore, and told people not to open the door. Finally, after a long time the door was opened, and nobody was there. He is purported to have dissolved into the grace light, the Arut Perum Jyothi. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramalinga_Swamigal That room, is in a small village called Mettu Kuppam, near Vadalur. I had asked one Indian at my guest house, and he told me which buses I could take. Vadalur is about 60 kms from Pondy. That village, Mettu Kuppam, is somewhere close, on the way to Vadalur. So, seeing the poster at the restaurant, I went with my cylce to the bus station, took the bus to Cuddalore, and from there the bus to Vadalur, telling the conductor, that I would like he stops in Mettu Kuppam. You see, you have to do this communication with hand and feet, showing him the names written, mentioning the name of the saint, using typical indian pronounced English. It worked, the conductor shake me up, and let me exit, from there I walked about 3 kms to Mettu Kuppam. Now, Barry, I am running short of time, and will finish this tonight. :-) > > We know in advance that the Needy Sisters have no similar > adventures to relate. That's why they try to suck people > into Nitpick World. But you actually got out of the house > and away from the computer for a while. I find that somewhat > admirable. What did you learn from doing it? > > But only if you feel like talking about it, of course. I > just find myself these days more interested in the things > that are actually happening in people's live than I am in > the things that some use to hide the fact that not much > *is* happening in them. >
