Back home...

So, I'm back in Mysore. In my room in the Green House and feeling amazing. My practice this morning was even better than it was in Uttarkashi.

Oh, Uttarkashi, well I had no wifi there so was unable to write on my laptop and I'm not going to write a whole blog on my phone, that drives me nuts.

After having such an awful time in Varanasi, and no all of it wasn't awful, but the heat was overwhelming and hard to adjust to along with all the other stuff. Then Rishikesh was better and I was able to enjoy the Ganga and food, but it is such a commercial zone for "yoga" mostly having teacher trainings led by 22-24 year olds and, well, that's all I'm going to say about that. They could probably use a good traditional program there and show people what that even means.

But after that we had bought our tickets to fly to Bangalore then ride to Mysore and realised it was two weeks away and time there in those northern cities seemed to go so slow, so we got a Jeep, a very packed jeep by the way, to Uttarkashi and found a place to stay pretty easily.

The place wasn't wonderful, but the young guy who made the food for us sometimes and took care of things around there was pretty awesome and it was fairly cheap. Uttarkashi is mostly undeveloped so there is no wifi anywhere and the food leaves a lot to be desired, but boy the vibration there is super nice. So light and airy.

They also have a Kashi Vishwanath temple which is very nice, and has an amazing Shakti temple in front of it that has an iron and copper trishul that Durga threw at some demons she was battling, and there is stuck, so they built a temple around it and worship the Goddess there. But I was still looking for a Kali temple, especially after the experience I'd had with a Kali murthy in Varanasi on my last night there, I was ready for some more. We had googled and found which temples were there and found most of them but noticed the Kali temple listed was in the Anandamayi Ma ashram and it was only listed under a PO Box, and we could not find it anywhere. So I let go of the idea of being able to find it and just enjoyed going to the Kashi Vishwanath temple daily.

One day after leaving said temple we were talking and walking, slowly, just seeing where the roads led and all of sudden came upon a painted red building and walked along it rounded walls on the street, then saw some writing in the Devanagari script which I can read and found out that it was the Anandamayi Ma ashram, well, fate had led us there anyway. And as we approached the gate the Swami who lives there came to the gate and invited us in, more fate? Then he took us into the Kali temple and opened it for us, showed us the meditation room and around the ashram. The biggest thing was that when we went into the temple, it was like someone had bonked us on the heads and our minds went blank. It was amazing and awesome. The sort of experience you look for and hear about around India. And we just sat for a while. Then the next day returned and sat, then again in the evening and sat, and boom, it began to grow on me this empty feeling, but also because there was nothing there in the mind, but I felt so full. No writing will do this experience justice so I really won't go on and on about it, ask me in person sometime if you see me around Gokulam or somewhere.

Eventually the priest had us staying for lunch each day and we just, or should I say I just enjoyed being there. I would even contemplate being a monk in this order if it was possible.

Then we spent two days in Dehradun waiting to fly out to Bangalore and during those two days nothing happened except that I was finally able to see Wonder Woman! And the next day to see Spider Man as it opened, so my movie fix was had and I was ready to leave for Mysore.

I'm purposely not writing about the bus ride down the mountain roads from Uttarkashi to Dehradun because it was an awful experience and I was sick to my stomach for two days...

We arrived in Mysore late Friday night, Saturday I awoke early and was going to a great breakfast finally and so many temples and had lunches and meetings with folks all day long, then Sunday was the pooja for Guru Purnima. And the big question, would Sharath attend because of all the talk about the tension between he and his mother. Well, it was just fine.They were together and seemed fine. He talked for a while and really made the point about Guruji being the guru of this lineage, and then she talked and said pretty much the same thing, but talked more about her being his daughter, then his student, then as he was older his friend. It made me tear up and many around me, it was lovely. We lined up after the ceremony and entertainment to touch their feet and give our regards and Sharath was surprised to me here and find out I'd been to Uttarkashi as he told me to check it out and that I'd like to discuss it with him (that hasn't happened and as it's his time off work I assume it will happen when he's ready lol) and then she talked to me and asked about Varanasi and I'm not sure how she even knew I went there but she did and it was interesting, and again, lovely. That word is the only one that comes for this experience.

But it also made me so proud to be a part of this lineage and this family. Which then also made me miss teaching so much that I had an ache of emptiness inside after. I love teaching Mysore style and really want it in my life, after my practice in the morning its the next most important thing to me, so now I've got to figure that out...

But this morning woke up and had an amazing practice, as I said before, then went to the idly man and to the temples in the city that I love and we went on the scooter and I rode someone with me with no trouble at all. So apparently I've cleared some shit out hahaha...

Okay, off here for now, have a great day!