India Thrice: Back at Aurovalley Ashram

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All life is yoga

Two days at Aurovalley Ashram and the peace, joy and wisdom of this place is already filling my soul - and this in spite of a raging head cold, cough, fever. I really am detoxifying, and I can’t think of a better place to do it in. I am sitting in my simple, lovely, perfect ashram room writing; the birds are chirping outside my window, a gentle breeze wafts through the screened windows, and the sun is streaming across the lawns and gardens and marble terraces. This is another of those perfect places, perfect moments, that I have found in India. My heart feels it has found a home - and in fact, Swami Brahmdev (Swamiji) says this is my spiritual home. He makes me feel so welcome, and so free to be me. I feel I am given both care and nurturing, and also space and freedom. For me, it is the perfect combination. (Okay, that’s three perfects in one paragraph!)

I was also happy to discover that Deanna, from Colombia, was still here -- though she is leaving for home in a few days.

I wrote at length about Aurovalley Ashram on this travelblog when I was first here, in May 2006. Yesterday, a young English woman, Andrea, asked me my name, and when I said Mariellen, she said, “Mariellen Ward?” as if I was famous! Around here, it turns out I am. She read the blog I wrote about Aurovalley Ashram and decided to come here, and it changed her life. My friend Deanna, who has lived here two years, told me that they designed one issue of their magazine around my blog post and pictures. She said it was very inspirational.

This is very good news for me, as I have been feeling that I wish I had a really useful skill, like nursing, to contribute to the betterment of Indian society. But now I am feeling that writing can also be a good and useful skill. I feel validated about choosing writing as my main vocation, and I feel inspired to continue. Yesterday during satsang, Swamiji talked about how every person has their own very unique and individual path, and each person has specific experiences along that path to foster their growth. Challenges come our way, and it is our job to choose the positive, the path to greater consciousness. Pain, he says, is the greatest gift and greatest teacher of all. Pain can really help provoke us to greater consciousness (but not if we give in to self-pity and suffering). "Pain is a hammer in the hands of the divine," he says.

Swamiji is so natural, and honest, and he talks like a friend, not a “guru.” He is very rigorous in his talking and teaching, and has absolute integrity; but he is not heavy or rigid. In fact, I find him very light, and I feel happy around him. I laugh more than usual.

It just occurs to me that I’ve laughed a lot on this trip. I laughed a lot with Fifu and Jitu in Jaislamer; with Ashish in Benares; with Ajay’s family, who are delighted by having a toddler in the house; and now with Swamiji. Indian people feel joy very easily.

I will write more about the philosophy of Swamiji and Aurovalley Ashram as I learn more, but the essence is that all life is yoga. Swamiji is a disciple of Sri Aurobindo, a man who is considered to be one of the great saints of the 20th century in India. In this ashram, the symbols and pictures are mostly of Sri Aurobindo and his spiritual partner, The Mother (a French woman who came to India and discovered that she and Sri Aurobindo seemed to “share” souls). The Mother took over after Sri Aurobindo retired to contemplation and then left this earthly realm. The main ashram for the Aurobindo organization is in Pondicherry.

It is a philosophy that is largely free of religious hues, though it is very spiritual. It embraces the non-dualistic idea that god is in everything, and that there is one, non-dualistic truth (god) behind all the apparent dualism we see. Yesterday, Swamiji was talking about making positive and negative choices and I asked him, “If god is in everything, how can anything be negative?” Swamiji said, “God is in everything, that is very beautiful,” and then he paused before explaining about what he calls “the game.” The dualism of everyday life - man/woman, light/dark, life/death - is the game. And he said to play the game well, you need to make choices that lead you to greater consciousness. As your consciousness grows, so will your capacities - physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, psychic - and so will your ability to see life’s possibilities (which really are infinite). As your capacities grow, your ability to make more conscious choices grow, and your field of possibilities grow. This is “the game.

The Kettle

This is what it is like to be in India. I decided I wanted to have a kettle in my room, so yesterday morning I hitched a ride to Raiwala village (about a 40-minute walk from the ashram) with two lovely American women who were just leaving. One of the helpful young men at the ashram, Daniel (from South America), gave the driver instructions in Hindi as to where to drop me. I went to the household goods shop and could not make the proprietor understand what I wanted. He sent me to a few other places, before I called Ajay and had Ajay talked to him in Hindi. Like magic, a kettle appeared and it was perfect except that it didn’t have a cord. So, we trooped down the lane to the electrician’s shop, and a boy who looked about 12 years old made a plug for me. We watched him for about 20 minutes choose the right components, put it together and test it. We were all very happy when the water heated up and it worked! Then back to the household goods shop where the salesman packed everything up for me. I also bought a jug for making tea and an incense holder and the total came to about Rs 400 ($10 CDN).

The whole process took at least 40 minutes, but I didn’t get frustrated or impatient. I chose to enjoy every moment. That is what India teaches, methinks. Then on the way back, I was walking next to a very small man walking a very large bicycle. We talked as much as we could, given his limited English and my limited Hindi. We got to his house, and he made me wait as he put his bicycle away, and then insisted on walking me right to the gate of the ashram, another 15 minutes away, for him. Indians are special people.

Jai Mata Ganga

This is also India. The ashram is very near a gorgeous stretch of the Ganges. Here the river is fresh and clean from recently leaving its birthplace in the Himalayas, and here it flows through Rajaji National Park. On the far side is rolling, mist-covered hills (the foothills of the Himalayas) and pristine wilderness. Yahav, a young Israeli woman and I walked down to the river yesterday afternoon. I couldn’t wait to greet Mata Ganga, but I didn’t want to go alone. We stood on the side of the river and watched the birds swoop just above the surface (I wish I knew what they were - they were quite magnificent) and reveled in the peace and beauty. I often say, this is my favourite place on earth. On the way back, a vicious dog appeared behind a barbed wire fence that surrounds a sadhu’s ashram and began aggressively barking at us.

He was really large and mean and scary, and I chose to get angry rather than afraid and yelled at him, which kept him at bay. But Yahav was scared, and the dog took a chance and ran out and gave her a small bite on the leg. Then, I really started screaming at the dog and it ran back, behind the fence. I was prepared to hit it with a rock, if need be. We walked quickly back to the ashram, and the staff cleaned her leg and told us that dog is really bad, and has bitten other women (apparently he doesn’t go after men). She is okay, though she is going to have a shot at the hospital today, just to be safe.

It was a shocking thing to have happen at the exact spot I consider the most peaceful on earth! And I know there is a lesson in this for me….

The Star

I have a star, or rather a planet. I think it’s Venus (though it could be Mars). It shone boldly above the lucid desert and Fifu Guest House around golden Jaislamer; it sat companionably beside the ladylike crescent moon poised above the Benares cauldron; and it shines above the garden-of-eden Aurovalley Ashram. It reminds me of the star I dreamt about when I was first planning to go to India in 2005; the very bright star that appeared when the back of the closet I was hiding in disappeared. I feel it is the star of my destiny and my dharma is to follow it.

There are no blog pictures of this, but you can use your imagination. I have the habit, in India, of climbing on rooftops and dancing under the darkening sky. In Benares, I climbed to the very top terrace of the Hotel Ganges View, generally unused except for storing plants and terracotta planters, at twilight on my last night there. The open-air mandir across the road was blasting very loud, rhythmic devotional music, and after looking around to ascertain no one was watching, I kicked off my sandals and started to dance. I threw myself into the dancing, so it was some time before I noticed a well-built man wearing nothing but a dhoti on a nearby roof waving at me. He was joined by two others - perhaps they were Brahmin pandits, I don’t know - who also waved and clapped. It was too beautiful on the roof, watching the setting sun and listening to the hypnotic music, so I kept dancing.

Here at Aurovalley, the roof above the residence building really is private. It’s one of my favourite rooftops for dancing in India. Tonight I danced under the stars to music on my ipod by John Lennon, George Harrison, Snatam Kaur, Sarah Maclachlan and Mychael Danna. Even though I am very sick with a terrible head cold and slight fever, I danced with joy and happiness and a wide-open heart. I am back, in my spiritual home, the bountiful Aurovalley Ashram where my faith seems to grow and flow like a river in spring.

"Organize your life around your highest aspiration" is the sage advice from Swamiji and the teachings of Shri Aurobindo. I think I am in the process of doing that ... though it would be a lot easier without a head cold ...

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Comments

[arun mehta]

venus it is!
Mariellan Yes that is venus.. it is crescent shape if you look with binos.. it is the brightest object in the sky right now next to moon Thanks for sharing Arun

[the_wooh]

in...vocation?
a lovely entry. Thanks :)

[Rohan]

Happy birthday!
Happy birthday from the old country :)

[gauri sachar]

information
may I please have the ashrams phone number and know the cost and what we will have there to be relaxed and learn