India - Rishikesh - Phool Chatti Ashram

We didn’t know what we were doing in Rishikesh.  We had no plans, no itinerary, no information, nothing.  And we were loving it.  No expectations, no limitations.  We were just enjoying everything, really just watching to see what would happen next – because guaranteed, it would be at the very least a huge surprise.

And what a surprise we had in store for us.  Using a very special technique I like to call, “The Stranger Tap”, in which one taps an interesting-looking person on the shoulder and says, “Hey, what are you doing?/Where are you going?/Where are you staying?/What should we do next?”, which is actually a great way to be guided by the Universe in human stranger form, we came upon our destiny:  Phool Chatti Ashram.  Thanks so much to our stranger, Paulina, who gave us all the info and enthusiastic encouragement we needed.

I said before that an ashram is a spiritual learning center – Phool Chatti is no exception.  Well, except for one thing: they let foreigners come and stay.  They have an amazing program where you pay a few hundred dollars, live there for a week, have every meal provided for, and enjoy a 7-day program of traditional AND non-traditional yoga, meditation, chanting, kirtan (devotional songs/music), puja (worship), and ceremonies.  It sounded good, but maybe too good?

Wrong.  It was better.  It’s about 6 km outside of Rishikesh, nestled into the junction between the Ganga River herself and a mountain tributary – one of the most stunning natural landscapes I’ve ever seen, surrounded by mountainsides covered in thick jungle, parrots and wildlife flittering about, waterfalls and riverbeds and caves waiting to be discovered.  

The ashram’s environmental beauty was matched only by its internal beauty.  Physically, it was an absolutely charming ashram, not large but certainly not small – it easily could house 100 people comfortably (though the dining hall would be a bit cramped), and our group was about 25 people.  Occasional groups of visitors appeared sporadically, and ashram staff and permanent members (of which there are maybe 10) rounded out the daily faces – the human faces, at least.  The ashram also housed a veritable menagerie of animals, including 5 dogs (including our favorite, Pom Pom), 10 guinea pigs, 4 bunnies, songbirds, pigeons, canaries, and probably more that we didn’t notice.  It was impossible not to feel comfortable and welcome in the warmth of those bright white, red- and blue-trimmed buildings, surrounded by gardens and lotus ponds and fruit trees.  There was even a cow shed and pasture, complete with murals painted on the walls and fans for the cows to enjoy!  And spiritually, the ashram had such a beautiful energy about it – so relaxed, so present, like all the animals and people were so grateful to be there, it was very difficult to feel upset or uncomfortable; we had entered a vortex of positive vibrations. 

Phool Chatti Ashram, seen from above - including the gardens, Ganga, and tributary!

Our little room...

...and our view out the door!

The banks of the holy Ganga

Such a beautiful place to sit and enjoy life

 We were there barely a few hours – shown our room (which had a balcony looking out over the Ganga) and provided with our two GIANT blankets (it got a bit chilly at night), walked around the ashram and given an introduction to the daily routines we’d be participating in by one of the volunteers (the sweet and lovely aussie Kat, who became a dear friend), and then welcomed by the program director, Lalitaji (Ji being a respectful title like Sir) – before we found ourselves completely in love.  This was a heaven on Earth.  Neither of us had ever felt so at peace.  We had everything we needed – delicious food (and all you can eat of it), yoga and meditation, the river singing to us all day and night.  Every day until after lunch the entire ashram (and everyone in it) is silent; but we gladly accepted the invitation and encouragement from Lalitaji to spend the whole week in silence, saving our energy for internal work, reflection, experience, and enjoyment.

Such a peaceful place... the dining hall, which was always silent, is on the left

GUINEA PIGS (??!?)

So happy!

Here’s a summary of our daily schedule:

Wake up bell: 5:30 AM

Morning Meditation: 6 AM

Chanting: 6:30 – 6:45 AM

Netti Pot Cleansing (I’ll explain that one if you’re interested): 6:45 – 7 AM

Pranayama (Breath Exercises): 7 - 7:15 AM

Hatha Yoga: 7:15 – 8:45 AM

Breakfast (on the balcony looking out over the Ganga): 9 AM

Karma Yoga (Service Work: cleaning, sweeping, etc.): 10 – 10:30 AM

Walking Meditation (In Silence): 10:30 – 12:30 PM

Lunch: 12:30

Free Time: 1:00 – 3:00 PM

Lecture/Discussion: 3 – 4 PM

Ashtanga Yoga: 4:15 – 6 PM

Puja (Worship ceremony): Sundown

Kirtan (Devotional Singing): After Puja

Dinner: After Kirtan (Usually around 7:30)

Meditation: 8:30 – 9 PM

What a week it was.  It was unforgettable, it was transformational, it was life-changing.  I wish I could put everything I felt and experienced into this blog, but I can’t even put all of it into words.  There was a lot of letting go involved: letting go of expectations, on ourselves and others, letting go of pressures and responsibilities, releasing tension and anxiety and desire.  Under all of that, we found something completely special and irreplaceable: Peace.  Blissful, imperturbable calmness.  Because for the first time, we really could feel, for REAL, that everything was OK.  No problems.  Food, shelter, warmth, exercise, prayer.  So if we felt that something was wrong, we knew, for certain, that it was only in our minds.  There was no real problems – just our minds looking everywhere for problems, because the mind needs problems to be able to convince us that we still need it.  What would the mind be without problems to think about and figure out?  But that’s a deeper, longer conversation, and maybe one that would be better to have in person. 

            But one experience I simply have to mention, even if I can’t explain its power or meaning adequately.  On day 3 or 4, we got to take a ritual bath in the Ganga.  Everyone dressed in white and marched down to the riverside, offerings of bright, freshly picked flowers in hand.  We sat along the banks of the Ganga and sang songs to her (yes, the River).  We prayed to her and asked for cleansing and healing.  And then we went in – fully clothed in white – and dunked into the frigid water.  And we were cleansed.  Our bodies, hearts, minds, and souls were purified.  Her power and gentleness seeped into every particle of our beings and washed away our sins, our grudges, our pain, our tension.  We were her children, and she was our Mother – she loved us unconditionally, and she forgave us everything.  Humbled, there was little to do but lay on the bank and cry, and surrender, to the great gift that is life.

            The week flew by.  Aphyna and I enjoyed our week long silence, although we broke it from time to time to speak with each other – eventually we found that there really wasn’t much reason to break it, because we really had everything we needed.  We often just sat next to each other on the rooftop, drinking bottomless cups of chai made with the ashram cows’ milk, and smiled at each other, or held hands, or let the sun warm our faces.  Lots of thoughts went through our heads, like how blessed we felt, or how much we wanted to share this with our friends and loved ones, how beautiful the river and the trees and the sky and mountains and birds were, how beautiful the moment was; and concerns too, like how we were feeling tired or sore from yoga, or how meditation was difficult, or how the discussions weren’t going how we wanted them too, how difficult it was to listen to other people chatting about their lives and egos outside of the ashram like they were at a bar, or how we didn’t know where we would go next.  But they all just came and went, like the water in the river.  We watched our thoughts come and go, and drank our chai, and smiled at each other, and held hands.

This isn't from our Ganga bath ceremony, where cameras weren't allowed, but it certainly is a Ganga...

...dip!!  Jai Ganga Maa!

Really incredible

Big smiles!

Here's our group picture from the end of the week!  Lalitaji is standing center-right!

Love you Pom Pom!

The garden gate out onto the Ganga banks

Enjoying our last day... I love this photo!

The balcony where we enjoyed our breakfasts and after lunch/dinner bottomless chai.

            I’m afraid that I haven’t captured much of the images in my head or the feelings in my heart in this entry; perhaps you’ll read this and think it was strange, or incomplete, missing large gaps of time and information.  Maybe it will spark your curiosity; maybe it will trigger some longing, or some anger or resistance.  Maybe it just sounded weird and boring and not very interesting.  Writing is hard like that: I’m trying to translate something that I felt or thought into words, but I can’t control what feelings and thoughts those words will trigger for you.  I could try to write down what I did every moment of that week in Pool Chatti, but even that wouldn’t ensure that you’d feel any of the things that I felt during those moments.  And that’s OK.  If there’s one thing I learned from my time in Pool Chatti, it’s this: It’s Ok.  Everything’s OK.  If you want to hear more, you can ask us, and we’ll tell you.  We’d be happy to.  For now, we have no choice but to let go, and move on to whatever beautiful thing the Universe had in store for us.

For more info on Phool Chatti Ashram and their programs, visit their website at phoolchattiashram.com

India - Rishikesh

We REALLY stuck out at the train station - people couldn't stop staring!

 Waiting for us on the other side of 48 hour train journey (surprisingly the train was only 8 hours late!!) full of babies and swamis and lots of samosas and chai and most of all, sitting, was our first visit to the real North India.  

Indian folks are so friendly - they didn't seem to mind lending us their baby!!  

Our bunk-mates, Swami Deva Ramdass (a swami is a holy person who has chosen the spiritual life) and friend, on their way back to their Ashram from a quick trip to South India.  They were really nice!

Situated high on the banks of the River Ganga (mutilated into Ganges in English), Rishikesh is nestled into the foothills of the Himalayas, crossed by tiny glacial tributaries and steep mountain slopes covered in jungle growth.  It’s truly breath-taking, one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen.  It’s also one of the holiest places in India – just the Ganga in general is seen not as a physical river but as a Spirit, a Goddess that was brought down to Earth by ancient Yogis to cleanse the Earth and the souls of human beings.  That’s why it’s believed that throwing the cremated ashes of a loved one will save their soul and allow them to reach the higher planes of existence.  Pretty heady stuff.  

One side of the Ganga and one of the neighborhoods of Rishikesh, Laxman Jhula

Walking through the hilly streets - like San Francisco on LSD

This Baba on the left side of the photo just lives next to the Ganga, no possessions, no job, nothing.  And he couldn't be happier!  He was singing when I took this photo!

And you can really feel the vibration of Spirituality pervading the entire atmosphere.  You can’t turn around without bumping into a temple, an ashram (a cross between a monastery and a university where yogis go to live and learn the ancient holy ways), or a sign for a yoga teacher training.  Sure, there’s a thick layer of tourist materialism on top of it, but it doesn’t keep you from feeling the holy energy of the Ganga.  It’s so strong that no amount of materialism could keep you from feeling it.  The first day we were in Rishikesh we just went to the bank of the river and felt we could stay there forever – no wonder so many Indian people give up everything and just go to the holy rivers, and spend their lives bathing in their beauty and loving light!

Does that sound crazy?  Maybe it is.  Or maybe everything else is crazy.  Here in Rishikesh, you feel like everything is different.

Sitting on the banks of the Ganga - so peaceful.

HARE OM!

Wowwwww!  Om Ganga Mai!

India - Auroville - The Monsoon

Then, the Monsoon season struck us.  Some Oregonians might be familiar with the concept of “lots and lots of rain”.  Well, that’s what we got.  Damp, humid, wet, rain.  Every type of rain imaginable: pouring, pounding, misting, drizzling, dumping, flying-sideways, flooding, RAIN. All day, all night.  Thunder and lighting – one so close Aphyna and I almost jumped under the bed.  Mud ruined the roads, and threw us off our little scooter more than once.  Dampness seeped into everything in our room: the sheets, the clothes, our backpacks, everything sprouted white and green mottlings of mold.  And it gets into your soul, too, that dampness; and it makes you soft, sleepy, and damp.

It was difficult, at first.  It’s not easy to adjust so suddenly to such a drastic change in climate: from the hottest of the hot to the wettest of the wet.  But before long, we were starting to adapt: finding ways to stay sane when trapped in such a small space turned from an impossible task to a Divine gift.  We painted, we read, we learned songs on the ukulele.  We made soup, we meditated, we made Sauerkraut, we drank lots of chai.  We barely even noticed when the power was out – or rather, we barely noticed when the power was on, which was the minority of the time.  We didn’t see other people very much.  We stocked up on groceries when we dared venture out in a brief dry (or drizzle) spell.  We scrambled to wash clothes if we saw even a hint of sun.

Rain.

Negative: standing water surrounding our house.  Positive: Moat.

I actually PREFER candlelight dinners - much more romantic.  Who needs power?

SSUPER special limited India edition kraut - cabbage, okra, chilies, garlic, lime, himalaya pink salt!  YUM! 

These jars are HGFP Collectors items!

The terrace is still nice even when it's pouring!  Aphyna is tending to a burn wound from one of our scooter spills - our only injury so far! 

I think it may have been the onset of the Monsoon, grinding everything to a halt (or at least everything that isn’t entirely mandatory, which for us, meant everything), the dampness setting in, or all the foreigners starting to make us feel antsy, or just a plain thirst for adventure, which inspired us to consider changing our plans.  Why stay in Auroville for 2 months?  India is a huge country – almost as tall North to South as the US is wide East to West.  Why not explore it?  So we made a plan: we’d leave at the end of the month for Rishikesh, a popular destination for Hindu pilgrims (and tourists) making their way up into the mountains of the Himalayas far in the northern state of Uttarkhand.  And from there, why not further?  Maybe even Nepal?  We had a whole month before we head for Thailand – we made up our minds and hearts to make the most of it! Rishikesh here we come!

India - More Auroville

What we love about Auroville:

The farms.  Auroville is dotted with small-scale organic farms, growing a wide variety of vegetables in an even wider variety of sustainable, permaculture styles.  Each one expresses a unique vision for how people, land, resources, plants, and produce can relate and co-create.   One of our favorites was Solitude Farm, which displayed an inspiring hybrid of cleverly integrated organic, permaculture, do-nothing (a la Masanobu Fukuoka), and traditional Tamil farming practices; and they have some excellent marketing, too, including  a budding CSA, an annual farming/music festival, and a farm-to-table café that served breakfast and lunch 6 days a week!  Farms need to be sustainable for the land and for the people living on it; a farm-to-table café seems like a great way to get people to directly partake in the bounty of the farm, expose more people to healthy food, generate income for the farm, generate more positive buzz for the farm, and have some fun!  

Best green smoothies ever.

Planting Okra seeds - or "Ladies Fingers" as they're called here

The closeness to nature. Every day and night we’re reminded how swaddled we are in wildlife.    We’re sung to sleep by a chorus of frogs behind our bed; we’re startled by tiny geckos running along the walls and springing from behind bookshelves; we’re delighted by a family of mongooses that creep out of the jungle to eat the food scraps we leave for them.  The only wildlife we aren’t particularly fond of are the mosquitos.  I miss this kind of intimacy and companionship you can feel with nature when you aren’t so surrounded by other humans, where there are wild spaces where those wild creatures can make their own homes, so close to yours.  I don’t realize how deprived we are of that comfort until we feel it again.

Climbing trees is even MORE fun when you're looking for guavas!

Our friends.  We are extremely lucky to have some friends here in Auroville.  A few of them are left over from my visit here 4 years ago; one of them is a new friend that we’ve only just met.  But all of them seem to be playing an important role in our journey here, giving us the love and support and guidance I feel like we’ve been looking for.

Ongkie is an Indonesian/Chinese hybrid that moved to California at the age of 27 (that was in the 70s); he’s one of the kindest, gentlest, Zen-iest characters I’ve ever crossed paths with.  He lived at Green Gulch Zen Center in the Bay Area, CA, a Zen monastery where the resident monks live together, meditate, grow food, cook food, process, make crafts, and live a simple and pure and beautiful life.  What surprised me about Ongkie is that he isn’t rigid or structured or overly-anal-retentive or even very “spiritual”, at all.  His philosophy is closer to just accepting life exactly how it is, and not taking it too seriously.  He’s more concerned with having a peaceful life than attaining some kind of enlightenment.  Oh, and he’s Auroville’s #1 hairdresser.

He’s hilarious – chock full of gems.  Here’s some Ongkie advice:

-Your neighbor is complaining about you playing music next door?  Go to him and say, “I know a quiet place you could move to – the cemetery!”

-Maybe we should just simplify the English language.  That’s what they did with Indonesian to make it easy for people to learn.  Verb conjugations?  Forget ‘em!  I do, you do, he do, they do.  Much easier.  Different tenses?  What for!  Today I do it, Yesterday I do it, tomorrow I do it.  Much better!  And if you want to say ‘a lot of chickens’, you just say ‘chicken chicken.’  ‘A lot of people’? ‘People People.’  Easy.

-On Yoga: “I like Yoga, but in all the classes the teachers just talk too much, it’s too distracting.”

-On Auroville:  “Auroville’s not India.  It’s California.  It’s a country club.  It’s the place where the people who have been backpacking for too long come to retire and eat good food.”

You are a fountain of wisdom, Ongkie - We love you!

           

Ongkie doing his thing!

Such a cool cut!  She's so beautiful!

Betty is our next door neighbor at our homestay here in Utility community.  She’s always chattering away in French with her daughter, walking or riding their bikes or motorbikes past us sitting on the terrace, and never hesitating to say hello.  Imperturbably kind, generous, welcoming, and bright, she’s been pretty much the best neighbor we’ve ever had.  She let us borrow her sharpest veggie-chopping knife (still pretty pathetic in true Indian fashion) and she lets us use her internet when it’s free!  She took a few moments on one of our first days to point out some important locations on the map, including the best farm to get organic eggs and exactly where to fill up our 5 gal water jug with good drinking water.  She brought us cups of coffee on one of our first mornings and sat and chatted with us, and has come over a few more times since.

She’s been like our guardian angel here in Auroville – she’s not afraid to talk about big things like gratitude and dreams and family and conscious evolution right along with the small things like the best restaurant in town and how to bake a cake on a gas burner.  She’s just so encouraging, so positive, it’s somehow struck a chord within us of gratitude, possibility, and hope – just the kind of spiritual boost we needed. 

She moved to India from Spain, after living there for nearly a decade since leaving her native France.  Her 9-year-old daughter, Lhasa, that she’s raised almost entirely on her own, is one of the most mature young women I’ve ever met; she lives in an incredible home in an incredible community in an incredible part of the world, teaching French classes in the school and doing Reiki healing for free.  She couldn’t be happier, even if she doesn’t know if she’ll be here forever.  How did she do it?  She believed in herself; she believed in the overwhelming beneficence and abundance of the Universe; she learned to Trust in the Divine and let love, money, and objects flow through her life, letting go of them with faith that what she’ll need will come when she needs it.  She feels like whatever she has, it’s enough; whoever she is, it’s enough.  She’s learned to feel that sense of gratitude so strongly, so intimately, that she sometimes feels totally overabundant with giving.   

We can’t help but admire her, and be inspired by her.

Betty’s practice:  Every morning, meditate for 15 minutes; then, go for a walk in nature and look at all the beauty around you.  Acknowledge that beauty, connect with that beauty, feel how it resonates with the beauty within you.  Then, sit down and write your gratitude list: write your gratitude for everything and anything that you feel thankful for on that morning.  Next, you can express gratitude for all the things that you want to manifest in your life, as if you already have them.  This gratitude list will direct the flow of your life, and make all the difference, as you begin to live in gratitude.

Cute.  Cows.  Everywhere.

We came to India, and embarked on this trip, because we wanted to find the inspiration to reset ourselves, rediscover our spiritual life, and discover the next life stage for us: what does the Universe want from us next?   It’s a question I think everyone comes to at some point.  I expected something to happen – and I was concerned that even though we were traveling around the world, that important thing might not happen to us.  But here in Auroville, in India, we both had the sudden feeling that the new selves we were looking for were already here; we don’t need anything external to happen in order for us to suddenly change our ways of being, our perspectives, our habits, our consciousness.  What we really need is an internal change – we needed to discover those new selves waiting inside us.  What a joy to find them there, waiting for us! 

This is pretty random, but I can't possibly think of any context where it wouldn't be random... so... here ya go!