Germany...

I've never had any desire to come to Germany, nor any compulsion not to just to be fair, but when I arrived here it was warm and sunny in India but was cold, overcast and rainy here. I did not know the language and assumed I'd pick it up quickly because I'm good with languages usually, but having studied French that made Spanish and Italian easier. German, or Deutsch as its really called, is not so simple. It's a very complex language, even though many words are the same or almost the same as they are in English and English is a Germanic language, most of the words and phrases are very far removed from what we English speakers know.

So I'd go to the market and have to type every word into Google translate until slowly they started clicking and I remembered them more often. But before then I was slowly becoming depressed. I got pretty down in fact and blamed it all on Germany, or Deutschland as it's really called. Why do other countries change the names of countries and cities rather than just adapt ourselves to pronouncing them correctly with the original titles given them?!? But that is another story...

I had a great connection with the students right away and it grew quickly, so that was the one saving grace. And that and my practice of asana, chanting and studying books and writing and just digging in to it all was my anchor.

Slowly, slowly I started to realise that I know that these things have nothing to do with Germany. They are my things manifesting all around me. So as I got more and more connected to the students and more students started coming more regularly and more often as this connection began to take hold for them too, I started seeing that it was my choice to be miserable. And I slowly was able to bring myself back to feeling like me again. But moreso and different as well. As is always the case when one grows from an experience.

In fact now I feel that coming here saved me in many ways.

When Sharath authorized me I got a lot of focus and loved the idea of sharing this practice more and more in different places, but I also love the idea of having a home base in India. And Sharath having told me to possibly teach in Uttarkashi sounded wonderful, but I've never been there, so what if I don't like it? But I'm not back in India yet so I can't judge that until I get there and see.

So an idea emerged of teaching there for a possible season, since it does have a winter that I'll love to avoid lol, probably 6-7 months, then having three months to study with Sharath, then another three months to travel and teach where I'm needed maybe in India, but maybe in Europe and the US as well. Costa Rica is probably coming up too, but that again is another story.

Then more started happening, I started realizing that being authorised also does just give you your teachers authority to share this practice, and gives you this clarity, or rather gave me this clarity. It also is teaching you to surrender to this path as a service to others. I am sharing my 17 years of what I've gained through this practice with others and also learning from them as well. It's quite an interesting and awesome thing.

So I'm still here in Germany but in just two weeks from tomorrow I leave for Varanasi to begin a bit of a journey around the north of India before I settle in to teach somewhere. Many of the holy places I'll finally get to see and with a travel companion who is also practicing Ashtanga and is from South India as well. So I'm expecting an adventure, and India being India, I'm quite sure it will deliver.

But a big part of my journey to India is this trip in Germany. I've got a lot of students here who really like the way I teach and I hope will visit me there as well, I also have some I may not connect with as much, and everything in between. I also have created a little home for myself in a country where I don't know the language but have found little pockets here and there that just feel so much like home. Little cafes with great chai, little cafes with great sandwiches and servers that I really connect with, an amazing falafel place where they understand my broken Deutsch enough to give me vier falafel instead of svei on the Halumi teller, movie theatres that show movies in English, not dubbed into German which is the norm here, and where the staff knows me now. I even found a little south Indian place serving idly and dosa made by a lady from Mysore! Notice, all of this revolves around food hahahaha, I do like to eat, but I'm eating with more consciousness than I used to.

Also I know the streets, and understand the train system where I didn't when I arrived and would end up in god knows where, and I have people to take long walks with and grass in the grünergürtel to lie in the sun in and even a river to go visit whilst eating a little pizza and being surrounded by pigeons.

It's a great place and everywhere has its issues, just look at the US, UK, even India, but I'm focusing on the good right now. When you focus on the good, the good comes back to you and surrounds you and so it is. Thank you Germany for being you and giving me focus and strength to find new ways to be happy!