Living and Learning in Amritapuri, India: December 20-January 2, 2017

I have been writing individual posts about many of the things I have experienced over the last two weeks but decided it is time for me to update you on some of the other parts of my day-to-day life in Amritapuri.

Temple Music

The loud music from a temple in town played from 5 or 6 a.m. until 5 or 6 p.m. my first weeks here. I learned that the music came from a Narayana temple that was in the midst of a 41-day festival. I had no idea when the festival started or when it would end. One day last week, the music began as usual but it was MUCH louder than it had been the other days. It reminded me of the time in the early 90’s when the music coming from that side of the water started at 5 a.m. and lasted until 2 a.m. the next day, day in and day out. While the music had been loud this year, it was nowhere near as loud as it had been back then. I had even enjoyed listening to it when I was in my room. But I did not enjoy the blasting music that came into my room on that early morning last week.

The following morning, I slept later than I had slept since I’d been here. It wasn’t until someone else mentioned it that I realized there was no music coming from town. The 41-day festival was over! They must have played the music louder on that last day to mark the ending.

Equanimity

When I started this section I labeled it construction. Soon it became obvious that I should change the heading to equanimity. Amma teaches us to strive for equanimity in all situations. I have had plenty of opportunities to practice that lesson on this trip.

This has been the first time in the 28 years I have been coming here when there was no construction noise. That quiet ended a few days ago when workers started making the stair railings in my building higher. The railings had already been raised on the first four floors so they started this time on the 5th floor, my floor. So for the last few days I’ve been dealing with the sound of an electric saw cutting through metal pipe. I have NOT been feeling equanimity.

Notes:

1) After I finished writing this part of my post, it occurred to me that they had finished my 5th floor railing in one day and the pipes have still been being cut on my floor. Is it possible that they are using the 5th floor as their staging ground and the racket will continue until they finish all 16 floors?

2) I went to lunch shortly after writing Note 1. While I was there, I was griping about the noise and the possibility that it might not end for days. When I returned to my room, the saw, the workers and most of the pipe was gone. I don’t know if they’ve already finished the job, moved higher up in the building, or just stopped for the day. Regardless, if this was a test, I flunked it.

The other area where I have struggled to maintain a sense of peace has centered around having ants in my flat. For the most part they are not a big problem now, but when they come back in large numbers, I have no equanimity.

Christmas play

I promised I would publish one more post about the Christmas play but that is not to be. In the past, I have been able to get play photos and audio recordings of some of the songs but that is not possible this year. I will put some of my photos from the rehearsals in this post instead. As you look at the pictures, keep in mind that the cast had only 15 days to make the costumes, backdrops and props; learn the acting roles, dances, songs and musical accompaniment; make power point slides in English and Malayalam; and figure out the sound and lighting and much more.

When I meet people by watching them rehearse for a play, I tend to think of them in relation to that role forever. This year, I find myself doing that with the actors who played the gorilla and the giraffe. I saw the person who played the giraffe on the bridge to Vallikavu yesterday and asked him if he missed being a giraffe. I told him I’m likely to continue thinking of him in that way. He laughed.

Seva

I have been handing prasad to Amma on most darshan days and doing the prasad assistant seva twice a week. I love those sevas. In addition, I have cleaned rudraksha seeds twice and plan to do it again. I’ve also been helping Chaitanya in the cafe in the morning, making the pancake batter and helping getting everything needed for the orders, such as putting honey, butter or peanut butter on toast or adding oatmeal, ragi porridge or hash browns to orders. I then pass the plates to the person who gives them to the customers. Sometimes I cut up tomatoes, wiping down counters or do other tasks. Last night, I helped keep the bakery and the cold drink counters stocked. I’ve been enjoying participating in this way.

Rudraksha seeds

In the past, devotees climbed the rudraksha trees to harvest the fruit. During that period, I remember seeing volunteers separating the fruit from the seeds and then brushing the seeds clean. I learned this year that, at some point, they realized they were harvesting the fruit before it was ripe. Now they wait until the fruit ripens and falls from the trees. After the fruit falls, the animals and other critters eat the fruit. Then the garden staff can just pick-up the seeds from the ground.

Once the majority of the fruit has been removed, the seed is soaked. After soaking, any remaining fruit is much easier to remove and the seed can be brushed clean. It is still a painstaking and slow process but much less so than when they were dealing with unripened fruit.

Funeral

I attended a funeral last week. I always feel honored to participate in that experience. It is unlikely I will be in Amritapuri when I die, but every time I see a funeral, I think of how wonderful it would be to have Amma at mine. While I love that image, I fully believe that she will be there to meet me when I pass no matter where I am in the world.

Synchronicity

I love the increased level of synchronities that happen whenever I am in Amritapuri. I remember two from last week.

The first one occurred on Thursday. In the early evening, Amma told the person in charge of Western tokens he should hand out more darshan (hug) tokens. He gave one to the person sitting next to me, but didn’t say anything to me. I wasn’t feeling the need for a hug so I didn’t think twice about it. As I watched more and more people I knew lining up for a hug I began to feel the familiar longing… but I also felt tired. I started to walk towards the cafe but decided to not go that direction because I might run into the person handing out tokens and if I did, I would have to make a choice. I turned instead to go to my room and instantly walked into him. So much for avoiding putting myself in that position. He offered me a token. I laughed and took it… and had a wonderful darshan.

On Saturday evening, I was passing out plates of food in the cafe when Chaitanya told me I could leave early. I was surprised that someone was taking over for me and wondered if I had done something wrong. That didn’t seem at all likely, but it went through my mind.

As I walked out of the cafe, Swami Amritasvarupananda was singing Manyukal Mutum, my favorite Swami Ayyappa bhajan. There was no doubt in my mind that this was one of the synchronicities that are so common for me here. I sat and listened to the rest of the song. When it was over, I walked out of the auditorium only to find three Ayyappa devotees standing in front of me. They were the first I had seen on this trip. I believed this was no accident. (To learn more about my Ayyappa experiences from the past, read Story 2 and 3 in Overcoming Myself.)

To read the previous posts in this series click here.

Visiting Amma’s Vrindavan Field

On December 29, Gopika and I visited Vrindavan Field. This garden was started many years ago. At that time it was a tulasi garden. Over time, the devotees added many other kinds of plants. Several years ago, they discovered that some of the trees on the site were rudraksha trees. The seed that is inside of the rudraksha fruit is sacred. Since then, gardens all over the ashram have been raising rudraksha tree seedlings. The photo above shows an area that contains a combination of coconut palm trees and rudraksha trees. The tree in the foreground on the left is a rudraksha tree.

One of the first plants I was drawn to on this visit was a banana palm sprout that was growing out of a nearly dead banana palm stalk that was lying on the ground. You can see a tiny bit of the sprout on the left side of the first photo below; most of the photo is of the stalk. The second photo shows the full sprout. Banana palms only give fruit once; then they die and new sprouts take their place.

(Click on any of the galleries to enlarge the photos.)

The gardens and farms in this field have had to deal with so many problems over the years. For example: lack of water, flooding, disease, and poor soil. The staff have experimented with so many processes to enrich the soil and to retain water. Their effort has definitely paid off, but challenges still come and go.

This year a lot of the tulasi plants died and the garden doesn’t seem as lush as it did last year. But there is still plenty of beauty and the site is producing a considerable amount of food. I saw bananas, coconuts, tapioca, many kinds of spinach, beans, eggplant, okra, basil and moringa growing. There were plants that I didn’t recognize and I suspect many of them are edible.

Basil

Red spinach

Bean

Okra

Tapioca

Moringa

Tulasi

I didn’t see as many flowers as in the past, but there were some…

… and there were plenty of interesting plants.

As we were leaving, one of the staff offered to take us to see the rudraksha trees on the School of Ayurveda grounds. She said those trees were much smaller than the ones in Vrindavan Field. We gladly took her up on her offer and it was well worth it; the trees were beautiful.

To read the previous posts in this series click here.

Wordless Wednesday

Blatant Irony or Planting a Seed?

Today, an Amritapuri friend showed me this photo she took in Fort Kochi.

When she pointed out all of the litter behind the sign, I thought of how many times I have been picking up cigarette butts in Seattle and someone has stood watching me and then dropped the butt from the cigarette they were smoking on the ground right in front of me.

I like to think that if people see the trash bins in Ft. Kochi or watch others pick up cigarette butts in Seattle, it will plant a seed in their minds that will sprout sometime in the future. Perhaps at that time they will stop contributing to the litter problem. Perhaps they will even start picking up litter themselves!

I Was Wrong!

Three days ago, I wrote a post about my visit to Kuzhitura Farm. In it, I showed some tubs that were buried in the ground. I said they were being used to collect water. A friend of mine from Seattle asked me to give her more information about the new water catchment method. When I thought about it some more, I realized I had made an assumption that was probably wrong; while the tubs could hold rain-water, they weren’t big enough to provide much of a water source for a farm that size.

Yesterday, I had a chance to talk to an Amritapuri friend who works at that farm. She told me that the water catching system they have used for the last few years didn’t work well. The old system looked like this:

While the plastic did catch some water, it turned into a pond for turtles instead of a way to store water. The devotees who take care of this farm often found turtle eggs in it.

It was not a suitable home for the turtles or their eggs, however. It is hot here and many months there is little to no rain. During those times, the pond dries up. The staff decided to build homes for the turtles that would be more sustainable. Soon they will live in the tubs!

So Much Stillness and Beauty

Gopika and I decided to take a canoe back to the ashram yesterday after visiting Amma’s Vrindavan Field, the Ayurvedic Herbal Garden, and the Ayurvedic College, School of Engineering and School of Biotechnology grounds. I will write about our visit to those places another time but wanted you to see the canoe photos now.

Pushing away from the dock on the town side of the backwaters.

Starting to turn towards the Amritapuri ashram. I’m looking to the south.

A Visit to Kuzhitura Farm

On Wednesday, I went to Kuzhitura Farm. The farm is a 20 to 30 minute walk south of the ashram. I think I have visited it for five years straight.

When I walked onto the land, I saw two friends weeding a tulasi and basil field.

My attention was then pulled to a form of “spinach” I was introduced to last December. It is so tender and can be eaten either raw or cooked. I loved it so much that I found some seeds in the U.S. and planted them, but they didn’t sprout. I’m going to try again this year even though it probably doesn’t get hot enough in Seattle to grow that type of spinach.

Over the years, the devotees who have worked at this farm have tried various ways of catching and storing water. They had a new method this year. [Note: I was wrong about these tubs being used to catch water. Read I Was Wrong for an update!]

I saw so many beautiful flowers. (Click on any of the galleries to enlarge the photos.)

In the middle of the property, there was an Amma altar…

… and many other beautiful and interesting sights. Everything grows so fast in the tropics. Some plants that were a foot tall last year or the year before have grown to a height of five feet.

I saw butterflies, birds, and a dragonfly. I tried to take photos to show you but they all moved too fast, so I gave up and looked at them for myself. When I took the time to observe them, I noticed there were at least a dozen types of butterflies. The colors and markings on their bodies were exquisite. Maybe some day you will come here and see them for yourselves!

To read the previous posts in this series click here.

Wordless Wednesday

To read the previous posts in this series click here.

Amritapuri Tulasi Garden

The Tulasi Garden is the first garden I ever visited in Amritapuri. I probably saw it for the first time a decade or more ago. It has changed so much over the years. They have added land and there are so many different kinds of plants there now. Most of the plants are edible.

I really enjoyed my visit to the Tulasi garden last week. These first photos are of the nursery and some newly planted seedlings. (Click on any of the galleries to enlarge the photos.)

The garden had a banana palm that was at least thirty feet tall. It was twice the size of any I have seen in the past. I also saw several sprouts, the beginning of new banana palms. These photos show various views of banana palms.

I thought this scene of a coconut palm tree was beautiful.

These are old and new papaya trees. The short ones surround the tall one.

There was a wild orchid in the garden.

This is a photo of some of the rudraksha trees…

The seeds that are inside the fruit of a rudraksha tree are sacred. They are often used in making malas. I took these photos of the fruit of rudraksha trees, and the seeds that are inside of them, a few years ago. The second photo was taken at a work station where ashram residents were separating the seeds from the fruit.

Below are photos of other plants I saw in the garden.

And last but not least, I saw this unusual but beautiful tree as I walked back to the main part of the ashram.

To read the previous posts in this series click here.

Amritapuri Christmas Play 2017

The Christmas play was last night and it was as wonderful as I expected it to be. Every year I think the musicals can’t get any better, and then they do.

The title of this year’s musical was Walking Beside Us. It was the nativity story as told by a young child living at the Rosenberg School for Girls. It will be a while before I will have access to the photos from the play but I will share a video clip of part of a scene from one of the very early practices now. I think it will give you a sense of what the play was like.

The child who was telling the story of Jesus’ birth decided that one of the wise men was from Africa. In this video clip the woman who plays that wise man (in the play she is a man) is dancing with many types of animals. You will also see her teaching the animals how to do African dance.