Blogs from Pali, Rajasthan, India, Asia - page 4

Like clockwork, with the first day of Spring, our temp has come back up to min of 10 and max of 32 degrees. Yesterday we celebrated Vasant Panchami, a Hindu festival celebrating Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge, music and art. It is celebrated every year on the fifth day (Panchami) of the Indian month Magh (January). Saraswati is the symbol of balanced learning and of the Sushumna Nadi. In Indian art she is depicted with four arms, representing the four aspects of human personality or psychic functions. Antarkaranas of mana (mind), buddhi (intellect), chitta (consciousness) and ahamkara (ego). Saraswati holds a book (representing the Vedic texts and truth) and the four arms also represent the four Vedas; the three forms of literature. Poetry (crystal Mala for the power of meditation/spirituality), prose (the sacred Vedic book) and ... read more

Yesterday morning was really chilly, surely no more than 5 degrees, numb fingers and toes, revitalising cold air.… though the max temp reached about 22 degrees. I need to get organised as I have a bit of a performance to coordinate on the 26th of Jan for India Day. Lots of good creative energy flowing already so hope to pull it all together. An Australian who has been in Japan teaching for the past 6 years or so just arrived and he has a background in fine arts. Hope we can employ his artistic skills in the school soon. We have a cute logo that was designed many years ago for Water is Life, Rainwater Harvesting Project, with an open mouthed bird receiving a few precious drops. It is painted on the side of the water ... read more

It's getting cooler in the mornings. A couple of days ago I saw a green parrot sitting with a heap of pigeons on the side of a building. So lovely. Like someone had coloured in one of the birds from a black and white print. The sunflowers are coming out, kind of ironic for this time of year, mid-winter! They look amazing. Saw a HUGE eagle yesterday, circling high above. The pigeons and other smaller birds were going crazy swooping around it and doing high and low dives in their ‘safety in numbers’ groups. The sunsets have also been extra specky! Just now there were straight lines of clouds… while the wind was blowing from the side direction,the lines were keeping their straightness! It is hard to capture the colours and awesomeness of it... It did ... read more

When it was Avatarpuri’s birthday, we snuck out of the party with Premanundji and did this fire balloon thing. It was a like a massive paper hot air balloon. We got one each and we put a wish inside with our mind. It was a bit windy and mine almost hit a tree! But it dodged it and sailed up into the sky until it was a small dot like a star. I waited for a bit to hear if there was an explosion when it hit the ozone layer! I only heard an “EEEK”. Maybe that means UFO in Slovenian or Croatian! The next day I asked everyone if they saw a UFO in the night! No one owned up. On Christmas Day my wish came true and I got a DS game card with ... read more

This is Avatar Puris birthday party. We stood behind the door with firecrackers and as soon as he came in, BANG! He a very big shock! Avatar got a camera from Samadhiji (best cook in the world) and some other fun things for presents! We had the lotto draw so Avatar could get rid of some of his things to make room for new ones! We played some party games and watched a slide show of pictures from the olden days. Later on Samadhiji cooked up some toasted sandwiches and we had a delicious dessert.... read more