Now THIS is India

I'm finally getting to see the types of things I came to see!

I walked through a tiny village last week, with small dirt paths between houses made from mud and stones. Immediately I was approached by a little girl smiling and asking for a photo. Then she took me home and the whole family came out to say hi. Then I came to a group of boys playing cricket in a dirt field with homemade cricket gear, they were very excited for me to take their photos, and after a few minutes I ended up with about 30 little kids following me around and giggling at everything I did. An old woman invited me into her house to show me a baby cow that she was obviously very proud of. She asked for a photo, but first she ran to get a huge, silver bangle. She put it on her arm and very carefully adjusted it - she wanted to look her best for the picture. Her tree outside was full of chickens, and the village was so picturesque.

Today I went hiking to the top of a mountain across the valley from the ashram. On the way I passed a small hut. There were several children and a puppy sleeping right outside it, in the street - and a cow sleeping inside the house! Something seems strange with that picture...

The mountain was very steep, so there were stairs carved from stone most of the way up. At the top of the first mountain there was a lovely lake, and about a hundred cows and several herders. At the top of the second mountain, there was a small temple, dedicated to the monkey god. It was a tough hike but completely worth every sweaty step!

The HUGE event of the month was that the Guru of the Bihar School of Yoga came to visit. Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati is the guru of our school and many other places, and he is very famous in India. His guru's guru (like a lineage passed down) was the main person who brought yoga to the western world, so he's a big deal. We went and listened to him speak and got to chant mantras with him (well, me and like 300 other people). And he gave us all prayer beads and a special blessing. This was also a huge event because he rarely does public events anymore, since he's getting ready to go into seclusion (basically retire) and to focus on reaching enlightenment. Even though I didn't understand a word he said, I was thrilled that I knew several of the mantras and that I could sing along.

This week I am going to teach two full classes, so wish me luck!
Namaste!