Have You Had Your Rice Today

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(NOTE -- As I am behind in capturing and uploading my stay, I am starting closer to where I actually am and will be uploading out of sequence - sorry -- this is a post about our first stay at an Indian ashram.)

On the third day at the Ramanamharsi Hindu ashram, I see a large group of women and men dressed all in white in three rows of single file lines heading to the mountain which they will circumnavigate. Their journey will take from 3-4 hours and is considered one of many spiritual practices on offer here.

I find that eating here is a spiritual practice. I usually attend the milk ceremony in the temple for the morning ritual until the meal bell rings. We wait outside in line until the door is opened and then are directed to sit on the floor, in single rows. This morning I have a fermented rice patty with curry and a lovely warm milk coffee which now tastes better to me than what I was served in Paris. I've very much come to value the time sitting on the floor and being served. It often seems that there is an inverse relationship between how much I want somethign adn how long ti takes for me to receive it. The greater my desire, the longer it usually takes for me to get it. It is a discipline. I believe the entire format for the meal is a about spiritual discipline and about dissolving the ego. We wait in line and guides point to where we must sit. We sit on the floor and take our food from a banana leaf. The food is delivered in metal buckets. First rice, then curry or whatever else is on offer. I drink from a metal cup which I must first remove from my empty banaa leaf or I'm skipped and must wait again. Everything is eaten with our hands. But only the right as it is assumed taht the left is used for the unmentionables.
Eating at the ashram is not a social event. We sit in rows looking or not at the person across from us. Occasionally smiles are exchanged. The meal is usually over within 15 minutes or less. When you are done you fold your banana leaf over and place your cup on top of it and wash your hands in the spigots outside.
(More later - others are waiting to use the computer)

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