Signs

My magic carpet is now very carefully rolled up and tucked away in my large red suitcase. It’s the only way to keep it clean; and God knows when you need to have a ride, it’s good to have a clean carpet…

How DOES one make decisions? When do you stay and when do you leave? (I read a book by Robert Svoboda recently called Aghora III. There was a wonderful quote in it that went something like this:

"the human brain is like a lawyer who has been paid to defend the client who pays the most money"." It’s true…

When I first arrived in Jamnagar, at the hostel I was in shock. It may not have been a good idea to have spent the last five days before coming to Gujarat, in posh hotels because the contrast of peeling plaster and layers of filth assaulted every sense I had. Walking into room number 4 of the International Hostel, was so shocking that I could not even stand to be in the room. I spent the first hour sitting on the bed of Smee, an amazing woman from Switzerland, who is in her third year of the BAMS (getting her degree in Ayurveda). She stays in the "new" hostel down the hall. We talked of pipes that had burst in her kitchen and how she had waited for two years to have them fixed, and plants and adjusting. She had a calmness about her and her room was lived in, in the way that you decide (surrender) to being there and make it your own. She had bought a fridge and a stove. Her meditation cushion was small and purple and she had books scattered all about her in a circle; books on plants that were ancient and had the smell of the books in India; a kind of moth ball smell. Then slowly, as my nervous system began to calm down and I looked around, there was a picture of Yogananda on her alter and I knew we would be friends; it was a "sign".

Eventually I made my way back to the room and laid down on the bed, staring at the cracks and peeling plaster. The bed was comfortable! (I suppose it was another sign)

I walked the streets looking for more signs. I visited the old hotel; the Hotel President, where I had stayed two years ago with Adrianne, Amit and Dale when we visited Jamnagar so that I could to go to the University. The President Hotel didn't have wi fi. Then I went to the Aram Hotel. They had wi fi but their beds were hard and it didn't feel right. I was beginning to feel like Goldilocks. Finally I phoned hotels.com; I was out on the street with the cows, camels pulling large carts, rickshaws, dust and the darkening sky. No hotels listed with hotels.com. Okay…I guess that was the final sign. I went back to the hostel and decided it was destiny. There was Smee, I HAD paid for the three months stay in the hostel two years ago and the bed HAD been comfortable…at last! a decision!…

The next day I spent the day at a conference about the value of the “COW”. I understood about five words, but it was interesting to watch yogis and scholars come up onto the podium and speak passionately, often referring to the dignitary who sat on a yellow platform, with legs crossed. I’m sure he was a revered leader and was honored and respected by all. When I made my way up there (twice) he said that he had my phone number. How did that happen? Oh well…

It took me four more days to get it together to find out where to buy buckets and soap and rags, but finally spent a day washing everything so that I could unpack.

Now, as the older students guide me and the other 8 students from around the world, who slowly began to arrive, things are slowly falling into place. Twice a day tiffins (a series of small metal containers filled with Indian foods; chappatis, dal, rice and veggies) arrive in front of my door. A woman comes (mostly) to wash my clothes for 200 rupees a month. I leave them in a bucket around noon with soap powder and she takes them away and washes them and she reappears 20 minutes later to hang them up on the clotheslines on my back porch. Another young woman is paid by the hostel and comes to wash the floors each day (supposedly), but mostly she moves the dust around… it’s all India.

So even though this sounds like a nightmare, I have to say that it is in direct proportion to the magic that we are learning that is called Ayurveda. The information is incredible and daily, as I make my way through the accents of the different teachers who come to teach us, I feel like I am swimming in a sea of light and it makes the immense struggle: the cockroaches, the dirt and all the rest, worth every precious minute. Just to be in the presence of the Vedas is a gift.

One of the gems I will share is an experiment the students and teachers are doing with the patients. They have divided up a group of patients into two groups. One group gets their medicines, the other group gets their medicines after a mantra has been chanted for them. The results so far, are that the group that is receiving both the mantras and the medicines is having better results. I am not at all surprised.

I am in the right place.