Till Now Summary

So, we think the major construction here hit some major communication lines. Phone, Internet, everything was out for a few days. And, I can get the internet on the ol’ reliable iPhone, I’m just creating the most amazing phone bills for myself in the process. Oh well. Even locals were without communication for a few days which is interesting. Makes me wonder what it was like before cell phones. I think I got my first one when I was around 20, so I did manage to live before that without Facebook, blogs and immediate contact with whomever might want it with me, right?

It just means that once I post this, you’ll get a whole download of information because I haven’t been able to sync up or get on a computer to load the blog for a while. That’s okay.

I’ve gone back and read some of what I’ve written and I’ve left out quite a bit of detail. I asked for your forgiveness while I processed it. 

Back to Mumbai.  In Mumbai, we stayed in the Radhagopinath Temple, this is the ‘home’ of Radhanath Swami. This place is unique in that there are about 200 Brahmacharis who live here full time.  It is an amazing center of devotion and devotional service. We had daily yoga, daily Prashadam (this is an amazing thing I’ll explain later)/food, daily prayer and daily learning.  It’s a beautiful, beautiful place both aesthetically and emotionally. 

We got the chance to visit one of the many kitchens for a program called Mid-day Meals. This 1,200 square foot kitchen (300 feet of food, 300 feet of cooking, 300 feet of cleaning, 300 feet of storage) serves 260,000 meals A DAY to kids in school. The program, in total, serves 860,000 meals A DAY to school kids in India. Impressed? If not, think about how they have to also deliver every single one of these meals for a strict 30 minute window of serving, eating and cleaning up (in India remember, have we talked about the traffic here?).  Not Impressed yet? How about that there is a different meal each day of the week (6 days a week) and it’s all organic? If you’re not impressed yet, your hearts' made of stone... :)

We visited a hospital called BhaktiVedanta.  Devotional Service to the Lord Hospital. Yep. Love it.

From Radhagopinath, we traveled to an amazing Eco Village/Farm called Govardhan.  This place melted my heart. They are building a Yoga/Ayurvedic retreat center here that is the smartest, the SMARTEST living I’ve ever witnessed.  Converting Cow Manure into biofuel, building a swimming pool with all natural products (yeah, no red eye chlorine infested skin stuff), an Ayurvedic center, dorms, ‘cabins’, a whole area for the Cows, a new Temple, registration area, living quarters for employees, Organic farming, homemade milk, cream, ghee (YUMMMMMM), and so much more.  Not just smart in what they’re building it’s also HOW it’s being built.  The biofuel area is built specifically so that it can run from collection easily, into fuel to the nearby kitchen, into ‘waste’ that’s really great for the agriculture that’s right next to the repository.  This place is idyllic and brilliant and really incredible. 

What’s the cherry on top? The Service. We learned something about Bhakti.  Bhakti is everything you know it to be (or not), devotion, love, etc.; however, the next level of Bhakti is devotional service. The people I’ve been traveling with and staying with live their lives with Krishna/God as the center. Try this for just a couple hours, never mind a day or a life... ask yourself, what would God want? Not what would I want. What would God want? And, everything, EVERYTHING they do is in the service to God. So, the service has this most fantastic flavor to it. It’s sweet and delicate and caring and generous.  This is what really melted me at the farm.  I can’t explain it to you much better than that because it was so experiential for me.  

Then, we went to Vrindavan. I’ve talked some about it, in theory as well; however, this is another experiential place.  What really made it magic, for me, was meeting a man named Indradyumna Swami.  He is a Swami who has been studying God and serving for 40 years. He gets it. We were ever so fortunate to have his association for quite a bit. His schedule allowed for quite a bit of time with him, which is very unusual. These 'guys', Radhanath Swami and Indradyumna Swami and quite a few others have HUGE HUGE followings.  Indradyumna Swami could see that I was starting to get overwhelmed with everything and took a good amount of time out of his day to sit me down and talk with me about my path.  He never once looked at his watch, never once made me feel like I was taking his time, nothing. I actually was feeling a little selfish at how much time I had with him, knowing there had to be a whole line of people waiting to see him.  So, he gave me some guidance, thus how I got to Mayapur. If I’m really serious about this whole God thing. If I like what I’m experiencing. If I want to know more. I want to learn more. If all of that. THEN, he’s helped guide me.  And, because when we’re in the presence of a Spiritual Master, someone who get’s it, someone who’s done all this before, sometimes we get a little choked up and have a hard time expressing ourselves. He recommend that I go back to Radhanath Swami, and if he’s who I feel this with, ask for his guidance.  So, I go back to Mumbai tomorrow.  After that, no idea.

I’m sure in a week or so, I’ll be able to talk about Mayapur. Very different than Vrindavan, but also very interesting.  I’m so excited to have made new friends and glad to be able to come back and visit again.

Practicalities...

Laundry.  So, I mentioned I wash my clothes daily.  My roommate in South India left me some of her powder laundry soap which has been an absolute lifesaver, THANK YOU KAY!!! Tip for traveling. BRING A DRAIN STOP. In India, there are buckets everywhere for you to wash your clothes in. In case there’s not, bring a plug of some sort. I haven’t seen any and mine has been VERY useful. Get a flimsy one, not one of those hard ones, the drains are all different sizes.  You can get laundry powder here for something like 50 cents, so don’t bother bringing any. Also, clothespins are good to have. I bought them here for the other 50 cents of that dollar, but you can bring them if you’d like. 

Shoes:  I brought 1 pair of flip flops and 1 pair of sneakers. I’ve worn the sneakers a couple times and they’ve been useful... unfortunately, or I’d get rid of them. They can be a pain to pack.  I’m on my second pair of flip flops. There are shoes for sale all over the place and I got a great pair of flips for $5 in Vrindavan and left my ‘bad’ flips for someone less fortunate to find.

Stomach Issues: So, you’re bound to have some sort of stomach issues. I’ve been not ‘feeling it’ for about a day a two.  I highly, highly recommend a 24 hour fast when this happens. And, since I’m pretty cleaned out, 24 hours of not eating really makes a difference. Travel days are great for this for a couple reasons. 1. you’re traveling and you never know what you’re going to encounter in terms of food and facilities. 2. In India, on a Spiritual Pilgrimage, it’s often really great to help prepare your body for the next stop.  So, the trip to Vrindavan can only be helped by fasting on the travel day there, as opposed to potentially emotionally or unconsciously eating.

  

I ate 1 time today to get me through the day and I’ll be fasting through tomorrow.

Okay, do you feel caught up? I do. Mostly.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare