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Published: December 1st 2008
I love Varanasi!! So far being here has been the best part of my entire trip since I left America, and that's including my time spent on the island Koh Samui in Thailand. Varanasi is such a magical place that has so much to offer and entirely too much to do. When we first planned our whole trip, and I saw that Cami had us stationed in Varanasi for 10 days, I kinda freaked out thinking it was going to be boring and that there would be nothing to do, but it's the exact opposite. My days are so full that I barely have enough time to do half the things that I want to.
I wake up in the morning time and work out a little and stretch, then when we feel hungry enough we go for breakfast. We found a really nice place right on the ganges that is run by a woman from France, and the environment of the place is amazing! The place is called the Lotus Lodge, and it is honestly the best food I have had since I've been in India. My morning meal consists of museli with yougurt, honey, and fresh cut fruite piled on a plate. Every time I eat breakfast here and sit on the patio, overlooking the ganges, I really do feel like a rich king. Today me and Cami ate slowly while drinking chai tea and sat and talked for an hour or so. Then we ordered some more tea after we were completely finished with our meal and sat and talked for a little longer. You can't help but just feel relaxed and in a great mood after starting your day off like this.
After we finish breakfast we go immediately to our music lessons. I have improved very quickly in my flute playing because my teacher is very efficient, and am more motivated than ever to master this instrument! Every lesson I make sure to have my teacher spend at least 5 minutes of just him playing for me, it is a type of motivation of what I could be able to do if I stick with learning and practicing, and I think it really helps. Sometimes I get frustrated when he teaches me something new that is hard, but once I realize that I have learned all the other things he taught me and at that time I thought was hard, I know that eventually through practice I will learn the new thing he is teaching me. I had my teacher get his uncle who makes flutes to make me a flute and I got it today. It is not as nice as the flute that I was learning on because the bamboo is much younger, but he says the more I practice the more that bamboo will mature, and sooner or later it will be every bit as good as the one he was lending me. After our hour long music lesson we go for lunch, and then go to our 2 hour long yoga lesson.
Yoga is becoming more and more intense every time we go to another lesson, and I am learning a ton. Yesterday our teacher had as do a move called the scorpion, where you basically get up on your fore-arms with a hand stand type look to it. Once you are completely vertical and upside-down, you slowly bend your legs down over your head at the knee, but keeping the rest of your body vertical still, until the leg from your knees to your feet are parallel to the floor. You hold this position for some time, until you are told to flip forward while keeping your hands on the floor, and land your feet at last on the ground in an upward arch, like an n! It is absolutely rediculous, but suprisingly all this yoga practicing has helped me to get ready for this, and I almost successfully pulled it off yesterday. After yoga we go to dinner, and last night we had a night of absolute bliss.
We went with our yoga teacher and his wife, who are both Indian and both very cute in the fact that they are deeply in love and laugh constantly, and a man named Paul who is from England and has been traveling around for the past 10 years of his life. Paul has been coming to Varanasi to learn yoga from this man every year for 10 years, sometimes for months at a time. Anyways, we took a boat from that gaht we were staying at to a ghat that was around 20 minutes from where we were to eat at a really nice italian restaurant. The food was great and we sat and talked for a long time as we ate about yoga, and Varanasi, and of course Harry Potter. After our stomach's were full we wen't back to our boat and took it back to our ghat. The boat ride that late at night was something I have never experienced before in my life. To our left was hundreds of concrete temples, and buildings and things of that nature placed all along the river. There are also stairs leading down from these temples and buildings and houses that literally come down to rest snug against the ganges river bank. To our right was the complete darkness of the ganges, topped by a mysterious fog that surrounded us and touched down on the river, which was so still it gave the impression that we were floating on glass. I couldn't help but just feel amazing after eating delicious food with such great people and then having such a nice boat ride right afterwards, hearing the indian man paddling the boat in the background. By the time we got back to our hotel last night, it was around 11 o'clock and I was beat, but also completely content with the way the day had gone.
I am so thankful to god that he gave me this time in Varanasi, and have realized something amazing in being here. If you look past the fact that it is so over populated here. Past the fact that there is trash literally all along the banks of the ganges and floating along in the water. Past the fact that there is still so much poverty here in India and the animals all look like they are dying and sickly, you can still notice an amazing amount of beauty and love coming from here. The people have learned to live with what they were given, and none of them ask for anything more than what they have. As you walk down the small alleyways that connect everything in varanasi, you may see trash and shit from cows and dogs and goats, but you can't look past the fact that every single shop owner lights inscence to fill the air with a strong and beautiful scent to completely cover up the scent. You also can't miss how kids continue to run around and play regardless if their playground is a heap of trash. I know that the hindus believe in karma, and that they believe they earn every inch of poverty they are given, and although I don't completely agree with all of that I have realized that it is a great way to just be content with what you have. I'm am always wanting more and more, but hindus believe that what they have is all they deserve and by believing this you can forget all about material things and just be yourself. I have realized that to me some religions may not be entirely true, but the ideas behind them are all very real.
We leave tomorrow afternoon for our vapasana meditation retreat which is where we spend 10 days straight completely depriving ourselves of anything appealing to our bodies. We are not allowed to talk to each other, we are not allowed to read or write, we are not allowed to do anything but sit and be with our own minds. We eat only 2 meals a day and they are to be extremely bland meals consisting of probably rice and water so that none of our senses are excited. We are not supposed to experience anything that makes us happy, or that we believe makes us happy, for 10 days. I am really excited to go and do this, and think that these 10 days are going to be the most interesting 10 days of my life. I can't say that I have been completely out of contact with others for more that 1 day straight, let alone 10. I don't think that I will be taking anything out of this experience permanantley because I know afterwards I will be going back to the real world and it will eat me up again, but I think it will be a huge eye opener for what the mind is really capable of. I will not be writing again until mid december I think, but I'm sure that when I do I will have too much to say.
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mom
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Varanasi
I'm so delighted that you are having a wonderful experience. Love and good luck with the meditation... mom