pigrimage sept. 2009

Day 1&2 New Delhi

day 3

Last night swamiji gave a class on Ayurveda, and Yoga and practical questions which everybody thoughly was on the edge of there seat despite stuffing ourselves with another incredible meal. I love this hotel in Haridwar. it's 100 years old and has a cool and tasteful colonial decore and right on the Ganges. I woke up early for for ganga snana (ganges bathing) which was incredible and started yoga asana class at 500am with amy.. Something about being up early here doesn't seem so early. i think most of us are over our jet lag. her class was an hour hten we all sat on the edge of the Ganga and sang kirtan as the water rushed by. Our meditation was broken as a pretty decent sized monkey walked two feet in fromnt of us. Then swamiji gave his morning asana pranayama & kriya class. i wanted to bring him on this tour to show the students authentic yoga as opposed to what we commonly think of yoga in the west. He is a store house of wisdom. Today he stressed the importance of simple pranayama but as soo as we do longer than 15minutes without authroized teachers we can get the body into big trouble.

We boarded a bus early for the holy city of rishikesh. We got our first glimpse of the Himalayas with it's green lush jungles and it literally sent shivers up my spine. This is where the famous swami Shivananda had his ashram. He was the guru of thousands including the more prominent schools like Bihar School of yoga and Swami Satchidananda of Intergral yoga. (the woodstock swami). My teacher Radhanath Swami came here as a young boy and would sit in meditation all day on a rock. the town is filled with holy men and women yoga schools and ashrams as well as some a handful of western tourists. The village is breath taking with two suspension bridges crossing from one side of the village to the other. The Beatles stayed here in the sixties. The ganges is beautiful up here and I took our bath immediately.

The group is good and we've been singing and doing asanas regularly. At this place there is a really wonderful ayurvedic clinic right next door to us where we're are getting oil massages as well as shirodhara (a type of treatment where they gently pour herbal oils on your head). phenomenal. cheap too. 800 rupees for each treatment. (16 bucks).

I passed on the treatments cuz i wanted to go to the book store.

Day 4 5

I was against it. i thought it was not so reverential but i did it anyway. White water rafting down the Ganges. After morning yoga with Swamiji and pranayama we went upstream for about 45 minutes to this beautiful spot. Nothing is around here. No villages or buildings. just jungles and mountains and the Ganges. At this point the Ganga was joined by a smaller stream. A beautiful stream with crystal clear water. It was about 95 degrees so we all immedatly jumped in and starting doing yoga poses on a rock nearby rock.

Then we approached the Ganga all bowed and scooped up a cup of water in our right hand. With clockwise motion we offered the Ganga water back to her in reverence. I said a public prayer. "Ganga forgive our frivoulous water sports. but we pray this can give us a chance to appreciate you and admire your beauty in ways we wouldn't normally see. You.

So many saints have come and taken shelter of you-please give us shelter and forgive us for any offenses.

This day may i add was incredible. We boarded the two boats (not everybody wanted to do it). The rapids were big but the view was spectacular. Absolutely spectacular. We were all amazed as the jungle mountains spilled down on either side into the ganges which was carving it's way 1600 kilometers to the Bay of Bengal. These jungles are stil inhabited by tigers and elephants. Massive rapids (massive for me). our boat chanted the entire time singing loud to cover our fear "JAYA SRI RAMA. RAM RAM RAM!" "MAHARANI-RADHARANI!" was our mantras of choice as we sang and splashed our afternoon away. We stopped off where some other rafts were parked in still water where a mountain waterfall poured into the ganga. We not only took bath in that waterfall but jumped off of a 25 foot rock into the Ganga.

Our mood was still reverential and the entire trip was blissful. The famous Dassera festival was in the evening. This is to commemorate good over evil in the story of the Ramayana-one of Indias oldest epic. Good is represented by Ram and evil was the 10 headed deomon Ravana. A 25 foot effigy was built (the custom) out of straw paper mache, gasoline and heavy duty fireworks. Yes Inida does God great. They do festivals great. They do ancient temples and music great. They do safety really bad. Thow into the mix 50 school kids dressed as Hanuman. Could of been a recipe for disaster -but it all worked out.....we all stood on the banks of the Ganga along with the entire village as drums beat and fireworks exploded. kids dressed up as Rama marched in with the monkeys and liberated Sita. it finally erupted with ram shooting an arrow (basically some massive flaming bottle rocket on a string) that shot up and (was supposed ) ignite the Ravana effigy. Of course India also good at festivals. Not good at firework safety had the bottle rocket misfire perhaps scorging a few onlookers- and almost ruining the climax-the burning of Ravana (the original "Burning Man!"). they didn't let us down. No way. monkeys and men stormed ravana with a torch and lit him up at the feet. Straw catches on fire fast. Especially when it's teased with gasoline. And let's not forget the (at least they sounded like) sticks of dynamite in each of Ravanas 10 Heads. I ran. But i was safe. Thank Ram!

Day 6-7

How can we top yesterdays excitement? I'll tell you. Half of us took off in a bus and headed to Deva Prayag further up the ganges. This is the sacred confluence of two of the main tributaries. Some chose to stay back and shop and the shopping was pretty good so they are forgiven. But our trip was stunning. More and more into the country side. flying up the mountain on a 1.5 lane road, cliffs. Indian driving. What could go wrong? Fortunately everything went right. It was beautiful. First stop was the great Vashisthas hermitage cave. I've wanted to go here for a long time. In yoga class we do an asana called Vasistasnaa named after the great sage Vashishtha muni. It's the side plank. So this sage wrote many volumes of literature on yoga and transcendences rightfully called the Yoga Vashistha. We pulled over on this cliffed and walked down these through the forest on this long winding stairway. There we saw a bramana preist sitting in front of a temple reading sanskrit out loud. We joined him. He gave me something in English telling about Vashistha too read out loud and then pointed us into the cave temple. I was thinking this would be a little hole in the wall but it was a full on cave that went in at least 50 -60 feet - pitch black with a few candles. The preist said it previsouly tunnelled all the way up to Badrinath way up in the Himalayas where the great sage Vyasa compiled all the Vedas.

None the less this cave was alot bigger than i expected and with the aid of our cell phones and cameras managed to look around at the altar-two dieties of Lord Shiva with scattered flowers and water poured on them and the remnant scent of nag champak incense. Some one had recently been here in the dark worshiping as if it had been done by the descendents of this temple for thousands of years previous.

As we walked towards the Ganges, our guide in these holy towns Swamiji pointed out every herb and so called weed we passed and instructed us on the health beneftis of each one. THen he taught us how to brush our teeth with mature mango leaves.

Deva Prayag was gorgeous. i'm not going to get into it much but let the pictures speak for it. we bathed at the confluence of these two rivers that makes up the Ganga. At this point the river is offically called the Ganga and this is truly a sacred and beatufiul town. In the evening Swamiji gave us his going away class which brought us to tears. It was on the power of pranayama and how western version of yoga and asanas is unfortuanetly flawed and often inauthentic. he also spoke about how the lengtening of the breath teaching us that the deeper the breathing and slower breathing adds years to your life.

We lined up to embrace for tomorrow we leave for Vrindavan. Vrindavan is the sacred land of Lord Krishna and Bhakti (or devotion). Although we will practice asanas-it's really not a palace where asanas are part of there sadhana-it is the path of devotion and there is alot of singing goingdddd on which is ok by me! Not to mention some beautiful temples, very festive and wonderful place.

Day 7-8 Excited. Going to one of my favorite villages where i spent alot of time when i was younger. Vrindavana is the sacred land of Bhakti or devotion. It's the land of singing and kirtan. when i first went there in 1988 it was a bustling little village with lots of rickshaws, about two telephones in the town, old estates with vast farmland and ashrams dotting the countryside. the electricity would go off for about 8 hours without warning and only a few people would have a TV. Things have changed in this information age which has it's good and bad side. Vrindavan is super popular and every indian Guru has a temple or ashram here. it gets packed with pilgrims constantly-and now internationally and it's a little more congested. None the less i feel like this place is my home and i have many good friends and teachers from there.

LATER THAT DAY.

Fun train ride. We all sang on the train. India is the only place i think where you can sing kirtan on the train as loud as you like and the people really appreciate it and often sing along and clap! That wouldn't work on the Long Island Railroad or New Jersey Transit.

Arriving in the sacred but hectic town of Mathura. Sadhu's with yogi nots in there hair roamed the platforms along with pilgrims. Once this town was described by a persian historian as the most spectacular place on earth. Now unfortuantely Mathura is congested and busy with the beep beeping of horns from auto rickshaws. None the less there's an excitement in the air. Pilgrims are coming already for the sacred month of Kartik (lunar calender) which starts in a few days. Pilgrims will come all over india (and the world for that matter) to come to the village of Vrindavan for the month where according to legend and scripture your Bhakti (devotion) is multiplied by 1000 on this auspicious month.

As random as that sounds i remember when i was younger- you could actually feel an energetic shift when the month came and according to one of my Guru's, that Kartik becomes like a big wave which makes the pilgrim surf it and feel ecstatic or get crushed by the wave in a purifying distress.

We visited now D. Swami. or Maharaj, as we referred to him. He became our host and had us for dinner. We also went to Aindra's a local super star kirtan singers, evening kirtan. This man is possessed with Bhakti and is a celebrity of sorts. He runs a 24 hour kirtan for aprox. the last 20 years. singers and muscians take on shifts so the kirtan never ends. Theres 24 hour kirtans that have been going on in this village for hundreds of years. That's pretty impressive.

The next day after morning yoga class that i led, we go to visit an old friend of mine named Rupa. He's from italy but lost his heart in this village. He is an exceptional human being who has dedicated his life to serving others. We were so incredibly inspired. Here's a short list of things he's presently doing.

taking homeless begging children and providing them with food, clothes and education. He's got up to 1200 kids in his school now.

-daily feeding hundreds of poverty stricken children.

-building wells in areas where there are no water

-started an orphanage

-doing micro lending to families for leasing of rickshaws, sewing machines etc.

-educating young girls on human dignity and rights that they have and teaching them how to blow the whistle on inappropriate treatment

-dedicating part of the education to classical indian arts like music and dance

-created an incredible vegetarian restuant and bakery

-created a soy milk factory because regular milk was getting to costly

-created a himalayan summer education camp for the children

-created organic farm

-created a bakery that studnets work in

-created recycling plant

-using recycled plants and flower garlands to make beautiful paper products

-built a medical center for the poor

- has a vetinarian outreach farm for abandoned or sickly, injured or wandering cows (this is a big problem in India)

This is all i know if off the top of my head-but he's truly amaizing. we were all in tears when we saw the transformation of these children.

Both myself and Amy (co-teacher) volunteered to host fund raisers at our studios and at least 5 of us were inspired to leave donations to his efforts sponsoring children. We were all incredible moved touch and inspired.

Later that day after lunch at Rupa's Restuarant made from all organic produce from his garden, half the group went to the Taj Mahal.

My group stayed back. I"m not into the Taj but i wanted to leave an option for those who wanted to do it. The rest of who stayed back visited sacred temples and ashrams with Maharaj. I had a great day.

Day 8-9

Boarded Cars today to go to the sacred Govardhana Hlll. i was excited. One of my favorite places. Legend says that Lord Krishna lifted this hill with the pinky of his left hand to act as a giant umbrella to save the locals from an onslaught of rain by Lord Indra the god of rain.

Thus this is a magical place. Packed with pilgrims cirlcling the 22 klm hill barefoot. We weren't enthusiastic. It was hot and our feet are tender! I've done it before many times but never in this heat. We first stopped off at this magical place called Kusum Saravorava. A giant bathing "ghat" aprox. 14 elephants deep. (great measuring system isn't it?). this is a breathtaking monument. (see photo). we climbed out on the ledge.sat. meditated and sang together while the Vastu created architecutural masterpeice soothed our minds. Of course onlookers gawked as monkeys gave us the once over for stray food. (watch those monkeys). Gorgeous temples and monuments like this were traditionally built by kings as vacation spots.

In our culture the wealth buy vacation homes or condos. in this culture you'll find many find peice of architecture with spiriual significance built by royalty from hundreds of yeras ago. some are still running, some abandoned and some are owned by their ancestors and donated to current day sadhu's. the latter is where we went next. This is an old palace built again according to Vastu for a king and his entourage now an ashram for bramachari's. we sat on the roof as maharaj explained stories and we overlooked the village, the trees, the monkeys, cows and of course the Divine Govardhana hill.

LATER THAT DAY:

We got back by noon to our hotel after simple lunch at the palace. We were all on a shopping spree. Mila and me went for a great walk through the goshala (cow barn) to visit some beautiful ashrams. there are so many ashrams in this town it's unbelievable. It's hard to understand how quickly this village developed in the last 20 years since i first lived here. What to speak of the 70's when Maharaj first came.

The evening came quick and we all dined at 8 at another resturant near our in our hotel. Our hotel was quite nice and was more like a sanctuary villa from the rest of the noisy traffic. There were monkeys diving off my window sill jumping off into a lotus filled pond swimming under water to the other side of the basin. quite incredible to see. today me and Milla and me saw a monkey steal a mans glasses and then climb on a roof and start chewing them. You can often get them back if you exchange some bananas with the monkey. Often though the monkeys fake like they're going to exchange the glasses (or whatever item they steal) and end up taking your fruit as well. They're clever. They also steal wallets. climb up a tree and rip up your money.

Two couples Amy & Marc and Tj & Melinda wanted to get married in Mumbai so we made arrangements. Tonight the girls (except the brides) had a mendhi party, where they all got mendhi on their hands and feet by some of the young girls from Rupa's school.

THE NEXT DAY some were inspired to go to the Rupa's school and help with the little children and serve breakfast to the needy children.Laura loved the little children in pre K and kindergarten. They get washed (scrubbed) by the ladies and lice powder applied. If not for this bath they wouldn't bathe at all. Water is scarce where they live. The two brides to be had a super mendhi session going on and the rest went to visit another remarkable friend of mine named Giridhari. Giridhari lives out of the village (walking distance) and has built his home traditionally with earth and straw and cow dung. Sounds dirty and muddy right?!!! It was beautiful. Incredibly peaceful and will last hundreds of years. WHen you enter his peaceful garden where he grows his own vegetables you're shocked by the beauty that nature has to offer if you just let it be and perhaps direct it. Papaya trees were laden with multiple fruits, herbs and lettuce filled the front yard and on the side of the house we're three cows in his cowshed.

Sometimes we get cobras" he said. I don't like to kill them although i did the other day because he was coming by the front door two days in a row, but they have a purpose too. They're not agressive and they eat rodents and squirrels which can ruin the thatched roof. The peacocks and the weasels eat them. You learn to live in harmony out here.

We practiced yoga there that morning. You could see the cows while in down dog. Mila who had been learning harmonium sang for our delight.

Afterwards we had papaya for breakfast.

After breakfast it was last minute shopping and rode to New Delhi for a flight to Mumbai to finish our journey.

10-11

Everybody was releived checking into a 4 star hotel. Not that our accomodations were primitive ashrams but this was like being in a posh hotel comparatively from the holy pilgrimage sites we've been too. We've been studying two books on this trip. The Mahabharata (the history/legends of ancient India) whcih is a captivating spiritual soap opera. Also a book by my teacher recently released called A JOURNEY HOME: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN AMERICAN SWAMI. This book and this author are stellar. Tomorrow we will ahve darshan with the author after our morning yoga class. Everybody is excited and i'm sure they won't be disappointed. Radhanath Swami is very inspriational. His ashram feed 150,00 children a day. They have an incredible hospital, farming community and an incredible congregation. The ashram and temple they've created in the hectic and dirty city of Mumbai is like an oasis and is a fun a bustling haven for city dwellers and foriegners especially with their delicious international restuarant. Food can always be sketchy in India so i'm glad to point the students in the right direction when it comes to eating clean to avoid the dreaded DELHI BELLY.

Tonights a festival for Rasa Purnim. The full moon where Lord Krishna meet's with the cowherd girls and performs his all night dance.

Basically that means we're eating singing songs. 4000 people showed up for this beautiful event. It's funny to watch Americans mind. As the alter was unveiled it was adorned with beautiful flower arrangements back drops while the dieties were exquisely dressed. then classical indian kirtan with banasuri flute tablas harmonium and mrdungum drum played sweetly. We had front row seats. That being said Americans seem to be waiting for explosions, sword fights or a car chase.....but that was it. we just sit adore and sing. Even i was waiting for little kids to get up and do a performance so it made me force myself to make this huge public be personal and internal. God we can't sit still for anything. The indians though, they were another story. they were locked in in meditaion. they sat in peace and sang.

Next day:

IT's time for the wedding. We just found out it's going to be covered by the times of india as well as two News Stations! Times of India has the biggest circulation in the world(!!!)