Puducherry

February 12, Puducherry

Happy 200th anniversary of the birth of Lincoln and of Darwin.

Happy 50th anniversary of Dr. King and Coretta Scott King's pilgrimage to India--now being retraced by their son.

And Happy Valentine's Day!

One political party here, the Sena, is trying to keep couples from celebrating Valentine's Day because it's further Westernization. Young people are playfully responding, sending Valentines and pink underwear to party members.

We are really glad to be here at the Sri Aurobindo ashram in Puducherry.
We like the pattern to our days. We meditate 2:30-3:00 in the morning, then back to bed. We rise later and bathe with a pitcher and bucket. We make our way through the lively, busy streets and crazy traffic to the ashram dining hall. We have all our meals in the Dining Hall and in silence. The meal is almost the same for each meal of the day and each day of the week and yet it always tastes good to us and is nutritious.

We walk to the ashram library.

The library has a kind of faded glory and books are musty and mildewed,
and still the place inspires a love for learning. The librarians work at old
upright typewriters, sit and read, and talk among themselves about family
and life. Everything seems quite pleasant and relaxed. A learned librarian
guides us and he always says, "it's a pleasure." At the library, we walk in
through the pillars, up the curved wooden stairs to the upstairs locked
collections of the library where we have received permission to view, two
books at a time, a collection of meditations on Sri Aurobindo's visionary
epic poem Savatri. We read a few verses and see the paintings a woman
painted based on the vision of the words described by The Mother. We
sit among sculptures, photographs, fresh flowers and mosquitoes reading
the beautiful poetry and seeing the beautiful images. For people who love
what we know of Whitman's poetry, Emerson's Oversoul, and the vision in
poetry and paintings of William Blake, this is a joy!

This is the way we spend the morning. Then to lunch. After lunch we each
do personal reading and writing and drawing and then an hour of taking
turns reading aloud. At 3:30 we gather with others for Tea Time and
conversation. We've met people from Kolkata and Chennai with whom
we've been very friendly. We ask questions and follow up on their
suggestions. We seem to be the only Americans here. There are
European people, mostly French.

After Tea Time, we return to the library or check email or explore. There
are 300-some buildings of the ashram spread out around the central city.
We walk to them -- cottage industries here include handmade paper,
batik, marbled silk, and by our rooms, incense is made from bark and
dried flowers.

We have classes at 6:00, one in Sri Aurobindo's prose writing Synthesis
of Yoga and The Divine Life, and the other class is in the many volume poem
Savitri. There are evening meditations.

We take off our shoes before we enter the Dining Hall, the Library, the School...

Last night we all filed out onto the playground. A regiment of elders,
all in navy blue shorts and white short sleeved shirts, were drilled in calesthenics. Then we all stood in tribute to Mother India. Then we sat and heard another old recording of The Mother giving a lesson and then sat afterword in silence. Then we filed by an open door with furniture and photographs of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, flowers and candles, a shrine to these two who their devotees see as manifestations of higher consciousness.

Oh yes, we witnessed a new car blessing at the Ganesh Temple--garlands
of flowers draped around the new car.

So far, it seems as if what we are to do here is be open and receptive,
to follow leads, to learn, keep silence, and not let the mosquitoes get us down.

We are so fortunate to have this time.

February 22, 2009

At the ashram we joined the Friday night Om choir. Tell Bryan!

On Sunday we returned with a group of volunteers to Auroville, the city being created with the dream of people the world over living in unity. We filled a bus and drove as the sun was rising, low and full and red in the sky. We drove through red dirt and dust to Auroville's plots of green, sparkling with early morning dew. We filed into the Matrimandir, the Mother Temple. Outside the matrimandir looks like a giant golden golf ball. As you walk up the interior spirialing ramps, the gold exterior creates a rosy glow. The interior is white marble with twelve marble pillars and channels of falling water. We all put on white socks to enter the central room which is carpeted white, under a huge domed ceiling. We sat silently in a circle on white cushions facing a solid crystal (the world's largest). Rays of the sun shine down from an opening in the dome and beam onto the crystal. It is a huge and silent, light-filled space. After 30 minutes, we filed out to work in the gardens. The two of us join a crew shoveling and carrying composte to a conveyor belt on a machine which sifts the composte, making fine dark soil. We worked a shift and then washed up for a meal. After the meal we were given a tour of the gardens by the man The Mother asked in the 1960s to create the gardens. He studied landscaping, gathered seeds and sapplings from plants from around the world to make the desert bloom. He created new flowers which The Mother named for higher consciousness attributes.

We are glad for our two weeks at the ashram. Before we left California, we were given a gift of a packet of folded oragami paper cranes with the invitation to spread peace. Before we left the ashram, we looked up significant people who guided our stay and gave each a crane, wishes for peace, and our appreciation.

We bussed from the ashram in Puducherry to Chennai to catch a plane to Mumbai and then on to Aurangabad and to Ellora. From Ellora we made day trips to Ellora Caves and Ajanta Caves.

Ellora Caves are carved out of rock from the top floors down. They are Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain temples. Ajanta Caves are a Buddhist pilgrimage site--temples hollowed out of rock and adorned with paintings. The Guide to the Sacred Places of Northn India is our companion book. The first morning at Ellora Bill was awake early ready to go with the excitement of a young boy--sculptures, paintings, and caves! Bill with his flashlights and headlamps was ready to explore. Such an adventure!

Wishes of peace for you and so much appreciation,
Love,
Barbara and Bill