February 10, 2009
Mt. Abu

We've spent 10 days at Mt. Abu. It's been good for us not to be in a huge city, but more than that Mt. Abu is a beautiful, magical place. In ancient times it was known as the place that increases joy. After Republic Day week-end, life quieted down here. The air has been clear, the skies blue, the mountains beautiful, the lake lovely, the sun warm, the evenings cool.

We've walked a lot around the lake, early morning when the monkeys also sit bathing in the warm sun, afternoon, sunset, little lights reflect across the lake in the evening. People rent horses, paddle boats, and feed the geese. We've hiked with the young couples and Gujarati youth tourists and families to sunset point and honeymoon point. We've walked to temples. One temple alongside the lake has a little manger of cows and a calf, another has 365 steps.

We've witnessed a lot of the rural and town life here and been friendly with people here on vacation from other parts of India. We've also had good conversation with people traveling from Brazil, Israel, and Germany. So many people have been friendly and helpful.

We've visited the sacred site of the Jains, the Delwara temples with their amazing marble sculptures, intricate, lacy, and extravagently multiple. The temples are called Hymns in Marble.

The Bharma Kumaris have their world center here. They have 7-8,000 centers in 95 countries. They have a university here and we have been students of BKU. We have sat in meditation with them and with their current leader a 93 yearold old energetic woman. BK teachers from aound the world are here for two week periods and they've included us in some meals, a picnic with field day games and dances, in meditations and teaching. It's been good to be included in such an international gathering. We've made nice connections with American and UK BK teachers.

We certainly don't see everything the way they do, but they are sincere and have created communities of meditation, cooperation, ethical living and service to the world. They are devoted to their meditaion and commited to living their values. Last night we sat with 100 BKs on the side of the mountain for an hour and a half, meditating as the sun set. There was barely any movement or sound among us.

Today we toured the hospital the BKs have here - free health care for all BKs and for the local people--all departments of physical health along with nutrition and meditation. They do many cleft palate surgeries for children. Though we are traveling with just a couple of pairs of pants each and a few shirts, nothing that looks professional, we were treated the same as doctors visiting from around the world. The hospital chief administrator met with us. When we said, "Oh you must be so busy..." he said, "I'm not so busy. I have time always for walking and meditating.

The BKs have one facility here to house 25,000 people which has the largest solar kitchen in the world.We will travel tonight on the overnight train to Mumbai then fly to Chennai (Madras) and then get a ride to Pudacherry (Pondicherry).We are healthy - full of gratitude and love.

Puducherry

From Mountain Abu, we traveled by overnight train, plane, taxi, bus, rickshaw, and foot to the Sir Aurobindo Ashram in Puducherry in the southern India State of Tamil Nadu.

Night time road travel is daring. Big trucks with huge heavy loads, cement mixers, and fuel tankers with signs that say highly flammable don't have tail lights and of course the bicycles, pedestrians, and animals don't have lights.

In Mt. Abu we wore our fleece jackets and layers of clothes during the cold mornings and nights. In Puducherry we wear our lightest clothes and our mosquito repellant.

The Ashram is not a quiet place of retreat but in a bustling urban area. We walk a few blocks through wild traffic from our room to the ashram dining hall where we have all our meals in silence. We read and study in the ashram's library, meditate with its guests and residents at its flower-festooned samadhi (tomb and shrine of Sri Aurobindo and Mirra Alfassa, known as The Mother), take in drama and dance at its theater, take classes in its school.

At night when the city's promenade is closed to motorized traffic, we walk with all the groups of friends, couples, and families along the Bay of Bengal.

Many women here wear streams of flowers in their hair and many women ride bicycles, sitting up so straight and strong. Being in South India reminds Barbara of her Peace Corps years in the Fiji Islands.

We read in the newspaper that 1 million Tulsi sapplings are to be planted around the Taj Mahl to produce lots of oxygen and cleanse the pollution. We've been filtering our own water and not using the plastic water bottles, and we are more conscious and conserving in our use of products and paper. Along the Promenade the lights installed by the city of Puducherry are solar. It's been lovely to walk the Promenade during the evening under the full moon!

On Sunday and Thursday evening the ashram community gathers for meditation at an enclosed playground but open to the sky. A recorded lesson from The Mother who died in 1973 is played followed by silent meditation. After we left the playground, we walked by the Ganesh (elephant-headed son of Shiva) Temple just as the men were carrying out the shrine. A painted elephant leading the procession reached out its trunk and touched us both. Other people were presenting their children to the elephant or bowing to it and the elephant touched its trunk to their heads. We've now been blessed by an elephant.

We visted the nearby Kali temple and Auroville, the experimental international community. Auroville was inspired by Sri Aurobindo and organized by The Mother. It was inaugurated in 1968 when young people from 128 countries brought soil from their homelands, combined and collected the soil in an urn in the geographical center of the community. The dream of Auroville is a utopian community of self-expression, self-development and service to the greater good. Auroville has organic farming and solar power. Somewhere between 1500 and 2000 people are living there from thirty-some countires. The dream is 50,000 people living in unity.

You are in our thoughts. We send our gratitude, appreciation, and love to all.

Love,
Barbara and Bill