Narasimhan, Diksha, Rolfing, Death Pujas and a Magical Night at the Palace, October 5, 2008

It’s been so long since I’ve updated my blog. I made myself take a week off from doing anything constructive. Narasimhan (more on he and his sister Jayashree later) has stopped teaching for a few months and I consciously decided to stop going to chanting with Jayashree who is only doing one more week before she quits to get ready for their trip. I start an introductory Ayurveda class with Dr. Kumar next week so this week was perfect for a “vacation”.

I wanted to see what doing nothing for a week felt like. No studying, no reading anything heavy or deep, no blogging, no planning for my future. Just being, no doing. Wow! What an experience.

I’ve had a lot of time at the pool and more time in my head. I’ve had a lot of great conversations with people I care about and have made some amazing friends. I’ve been rolfed, I’ve been diksha’d and I’ve watched a man bury a loved one. I’ve touched and been touched by some amazing souls.

I also feel like I’m almost ready to leave the cocoon that is Gokulam. My cocoon. It’s protected me and given me opportunity to transform from my old form to what I’m about to become. A friend told me last night that he saw an inner strength in me that I’m just now realising and that inner strength is the secret to my beauty, my sexuality and the core of the woman I’m about to become. I thought that was an incredible thing to see and more of one to say.

I’m surprisingly lost for words more than that so I’ll let my pictures from the week speak for themselves.


I took Narasimhan’s last philosophy course a week ago Thursday. One of the greatest things about this experience (Mysore) is my philosophy teacher Narasimhan. He's a real yogi. He shared with me that his family really kind of pushed him into it when he came of age because they thought he had the disposition for it and it's believed that one true yogi in the family will attain liberation for past and future generations of the family for 5,000 years!!!He's had some amazing experiences. He lived with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi for 12 years (after the Beatles and before he got famous). He learned Transcendental Meditation and now teaches that (which is what I'm doing). He's also spent time with some of the holy men in the Himalayas and has some freaking weird stories about that!

I've learned so much from him and gained so much from him. Sharath is my teacher for Asana practice, but Narasimhan is my guru.


He's one of the gentlest souls I've ever met and a true delight. He also knows a tonne! Not only about Eastern philosophy but about Western as well.

His sister Jayashree is a sandskrit scholar and a wonderful woman herself. She's gifted with an amazing voice and I truly enjoyed chanting the Gita with her.


And Jayashree recently had a grandson. Her daughter and grandson are living with the extended family (16 under one roof) for 3 months. They have this incredible cradle set up in the main room of the house.



Sunday night (before moon day) gave us the best Kirtan of my stay here. The crowd was smallish but such powerful voices!!!!






On Wednesday I went to my first Diksha or blessing from the Oneness movement. One of the recent arrivals to town is Ken, a rolfer. He’s been here quite a bit and I’ve really enjoyed getting to know him. He asked me along with several others to go with him to the diksha. What’s wierd about this is that it’s the same as Tony’s new “Oneness University”. Sergio and Marina did it years ago and were trained to give the blessing. I’ve never trusted the blessing givers in the TR environment but I totally trusted them and it felt right to have my first blessing in it’s natural environment of Mother India. I will do Oneness now. I looked into doing it here before I leave but there are no English courses before my visa expires.

Wednesday was also the day that we went to Sri Rangapatnam. See entire photoset. It’s an area by the river I’ve been going to with a number of different temples where they do pujas to their dead. It’s an amazing thing to watch. There is a Brahmin priest and usually another loved one that holds the person “burying” their dead while they totally submerge in the water. Then they do the puja and throw the clay pot containing their loved one’s ashes and bones over the back of their heads. It’s totally moving and a bit surreal since this is the same river that people bathe and wash their clothes in. It was quite a procession. We ended up with 12 (it started with Matt, Christian and myself).








I was rolfed by Ken on Thursday. Someone described rolfing as restringing a guitar. It’s deep tissue work that concentrates on the soft tissue of the body. I’ve had a couple of weeks of very difficult practices where I’ve been stiff and sore. I’ve actually felt like I’ve been practicing with someone else’s body. My practice on Friday after the rolfing session was almost back to normal. It felt great!

Last night I had one of those magical nights that come along oh so rarely. I went with a friend to the Mysore Palace to see the lights and some of the entertainment. It's Dasara, a 10 day festival celebrating the triumph of good over evil. It was a beautiful night. The air was warm, the palace exquisite, the entertainment stunning and the conversation grand. We talked on such a heartfelt (really soul felt) level. It was real, honest and breathtakingly refreshing. He saw parts of me that I’ve only really started to see myself and opened up the door to restored confidence that I so badly need.






So, my week over I begin preparing for the last few weeks of my stay. I have 4 weeks left but it still doesn’t seem enough. I get weepy when I think about it, but I want to leave wanting more. I’ll be back that much is certain. There’s a lot I want to do in these last 4 weeks, but more importantly there’s more I want to be.

August 21, 2008

Feeling much better today. For the most part, this hasn't been the greatest of weeks. Bylakuppe (the Tibetan settlement) was so disappointing, followed by the Royal Walk. Two Indians came to speak with us at Alia's one day during breakfast last week and told us about this walk they have developed showing us "the unseen Mysore". They were so cute, software engineers, originally from Mysore, that now live in Bangalore. They wanted to create this walk to show off the city they are so proud of.

It was okay. The best part about it was seeing the Sanskrit College where Guruji taught and Jagn Mohan palace where he and Iyengar learned yoga from their guru, Krichnamacharia. The rest I could have lived without. I did learn some interesting things about Hinduism though. But after blylakuppe a morning in Mysore city dodging cows, their dung and listing to the noise did me in so much that I declared to everyone who would listen that, "I hate India!" The day really went downhill from there.

The other thing that's added to my malaise is the fact that the people that are here now are a very different vibe from the older students here around the birthday. The energy is very different. And, quite frankly most are pretty boring. I haven't had many interesting conversations since last week with either new or old people. Thank God for Christian and Eva, they are at least keeping me sane.

The bright spots of my week have been my practices...amazing to say the least. Like Christian said today, my base line practice exceeds my best practice ever at home! I'm going truly deep in forward bends and twists, back drops rock and my jump throughs and backs are even getting pretty good.

I also finished my TM class. I've kept up with my twice daily meditations even between the instruction days and I've really enjoyed them. I feel so peaceful and serene afterwards. It's the only meditation I've ever done that I've been able to stick to.

The other two things that have lifted my spirits include the fact that I remembered that I have a bunch of books on my iPod and have started to listen to them. Barbara Kinsolver, oh to write like her! That's made me feel more normal.

But, even more than that is the fact that I rented a scooter! I picked her up yesterday and rode here on roads without traffic for about 45 minutes. Traffic is chaos. There are no stop signs. You beep to signal that you are approaching a crossroad. You beep to signal that you are coming up behind someone, you generally beep to signal anything and everything. The only rule seems to be, if you see a gap go for it! It's like driving in Boston on steroids...except you don't have the luxury of a car around you...just a scooter. Luckily you can go faster than the rickshaws and there aren't that many cars on the road. The busses give me a bit of a fright though.

I didn't have a chance to ride today until late and by that time I'd almost talked myself into turning it back in...but I made myself get on it and ride. I felt confident enough to go down Contour Road along side of my neighborhood and then...up the main road, past the CRAZY traffic circle and up to the roadside helmet place. For $7 NZ I got a helmet that, according to Christian, makes me look like Schultz from Hogan's Hero's (EXACTLY the look I was going for!) I think I'll be confident enough to ride to town by Monday for chanting and philosophy class. It just gives me such a sense of freedom. It rocks!!!! It's also a real challenge to be able to ride in this craziness. It's chaos, but at least it's not aggressive chaos. Om Shanti.