Ok, day two in Delhi was much better, I went to see the lotus temple, a huge lotus flower like building, very interesting. Then I took the metro and went to old Delhi to discover that this is where I should have been from the beginning. New Delhi doesn’t really have a soul, it is somewhat modern, yet no real urban feel. Plus everything is soooo expensive. The cheapest room I could find is 2000Rs a night, and it is a beautiful room, but the area is just ok, and pretty dead, and far from anything. So I will be moving today to old Delhi where it will be cheaper and will have more action.
I haven’t been writing to much on the blog since Kovalam, so here is a bit of what happened since I last posted some details of my days.
Well… where to start, after so many days, so much has happened. First, I rented a scooter to explore around Kovalam on my last day there and decided to go to Varkala, some 50 km away. It was an amazing day, a beautiful ride, and a very nice town and sublime beach… but all the trip ended with a mini scooter accident. I AM FINE, no worries. I hit a speed bump in the middle of the road, which, of course, had no paint to indicate it. I lost control and end up sliding on my side for a few feet, resulting in a few scratches on my body, a good one on my elbow and a pretty good one on my ankle. But thank god, no real injury, I just got up on the scooter again and drove back home. Mini visit to the hospital, 150Rs for that, she cleaned me up, and did two nice bandages on me. Thanks to my friend Sebastien and the first aid kit he prepared for me before I left I was able to redo these bandages for the next two days. Now, only a few subtle scares will remain for me to remember this. I am making it sound much better than it is, but no worries, I am fine!!!
The next day I hit to road back to Trivandrum to get to an ashram, or at least that is what the website said, and the email exchange didn’t say differently. When I got there, it was a home stay, as they call it, a big house with a few rooms to rent, with their own bathroom attach. I expected a nice small ashram where I could meditate, read and talk with other people staying there between the classes. It turned out I was the only guess. I thought to myself that was ok; I would make the best of it and have the chance to spend some one on one time with this teacher. So they gave me food, suggested I went to my room to relax or read, and then meet up at 6pm for a yoga class. Ten minutes later he came to my room to inform me his wife had just reminded him that they needed to leave town for a few days for a wedding. So he had arrange for me to go to one of his devotee, he would teach me and all. Getting more and more strange, or rather different than expected, but hey, I’m there, might as well make the most of it. So we did the yoga class at 6PM then he drove me to his “devotee”.
Before talking about the yoga class I would like to start by mentioning that this teacher is teaching to tourist in Kovalam a few times a week, he has travelled to USA to teach, he is some sort of a Guru, that is also how his devotee refers to him, as gurugi. Now I don’t know what it takes to be qualified a Guru, I don’t want to say he is not a real one, but I was not impress by the one class that I got with him. His devotee later told me that he can stop his hart beat for a few minutes, and stuff like that, but I don’t know. Anyways, the class… When he greeded me in his home, he invits me to sit on the couch, and asked me about myself a bit, then about my knowlogde of yoga, the yoga sutras, etc… I think I passed the test, then he fed me and sent my to my room. He is in his sixties, shirt and dothi, very slim, bearded and all. Interesting personage, beautiful home, living with his wife, his son and his wife and kids, it was certainly an interesting place to be for sure!
So at 5:55pm I arrive on the roof, for the yoga class. There is a man in the middle of a yoga class with him, one of his students that lives close by and comes regularly. So he tells me to sit, comes to me and asked me if I know a specific breathing exercise, which I did, so he tells me to practice for a few minutes. Then ask me to do a second technique for 30 seconds, then shows me a third and asks me to do it for 30 seconds too. During that time he has time to guide the other guy on how to finish, and then comes and site in front of me. He starts to give me a class. The class itself is interesting, he is a bit detached as a teacher, yet it is all good. The part that is harder is that people arrive, one after the other, until there is about 7 more people in the class within the next 30 minutes, which is the time the yoga class goes for, or so. So everyone seem to know the routine, they do a similar class, on their own, while he is teaching to me mostly. Then he asks me to go in shivasana (corps pose) for 10 minutes before asking me to meditate for 10 minutes. Meanwhile he goes on giving his class to the others, on some sort of a one on one basis. Then he fed me again and drove me to where I will stay for the next two days. It was not at his devotee’s house, it was at a friend of his house, but the good news was, I was alone there, my own house for 3 nights!
It was a beautiful house, two floors, 4 bedrooms, two bathrooms, a nice terrace and a beautiful flat roof top platform, empty of most furniture but two beds and an inflatable couch. I loved my two days there, I got to admit. A nice house by myself was good, taking care of my injuries, relaxing, talking nice walks around, meditating, reading, it was really good! His devotee, Shreeni, with whom I connected much more, came once to twice a day for a yoga class. Well, most of the time we would end up talking about yoga and meditation much more than doing it, but those were great conversations, filled with teachings. He meditates many hours a day, with a family and a career. He also cooks for the family often, so whay he brought me was his food, vegetarian, prepared with love. He helped me reconcile spirituality and daily life, de-dramatized the whole thing a bit for me, made it more accessible. I just need to get to 3 hours a day of mediation, no stress! Lol
Seriously, I think he was a guru to me, for those few classes, one on one, true being to true being, sharing on life and what is beyond. I did feel the echo of these moments for a few days, it was very special. Thank you again Sreeni, for ever you will be part of my “thankyous” before each yoga class!
Then I packed the bags and left for Thrissur, 7 hours of train, during the day, where I have spent most of this time sitting in the door, on the side of one of the carts, the door open, my back against it, the sun in my face, the wind coming in a bit, it was splendid, like in a movie scene. All day I watch incredible landscapes, residential areas, industrial areas, splendid nature, backyards, people, kids… it was like watching certain scene of a documentary.
Thrissur itself is an interesting town, absolutely not touristic. It was very interesting to walk around town and be looked at like I’m a movie star or something. Some younger kids almost look like they never saw a white man before. The good thing about this town is also that I was not asked to come into their shop every three steps I would take.
“My friend, come, come, visit my shop, looking is free, come in, come in! Maybe tomorrow?” “Nice souvenir for you, your wife, your family, come and look my friend, it’s free to look!” All the time, all day long! “My friend, what’s your good name? Where are you from? Good name, Canada is beautiful country, lots of rich people”. Sometimes I felt like I was a walking dollar sign.
So back to Thrissur, very calm place, beautiful to walk around, lots of nice churches, temples, and lots of stores. I don’t know who goes to shop there, but lots of nice stores. On my second day there, as I was walking a man started to walk with me and talk to me. The usual questions at first, my good name, where I’m from, if I am married or not, and where I was going. When I said I was going to get lunch he asked if he could join me for coffee. I wasn’t to sure about it but I said yes. It turned out he teaches meditation for a living. I thought this is interesting, what a coincidence. So I planned a morning class with him the next day. Now, not sure if he normally teaches meditation, but he spent more then an hour telling me about meditation, out of that was maybe 10 to 15 minutes of how to do it. After the few teaching I have gotten on meditation in my life, and all I have read about it, it turned out to be very interesting, but he didn’t know that I knew, he never asked. Maybe he knew, I don’t know. Anyway, I’m not sure I have learned anything from him about meditation but he did inspire me. He told me how meditation has changed him and told me how he now has some… powers! Telling you all about this guy would take way to much time, lets just say I’m not sure if I believe all that he’s told me, but I sure enjoyed our conversation, or should I say his monologue.
A few things that echoed the teachings of the guy in Trivandrum: practice every day, even if just for a few minutes. Two to three hours a day should be dedicated to meditation in order for a change to occur within about six months. At this point I try to do it every mornings, I am not able to pass the 30 minute mark yet. It seems after that I get more mental activity instead of less, my body start to hurt, especially my ankle that I have hurt, not comfortable when my legs are cross.
I’ll be heading for Kannur next, which I really liked, especially seeing Jeffrey again and meeting Jody. More to come in my next post, got to go now.
Peace and metta!
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