Friday, July 17, 2009

Kamalashile - Part 4



Which brings us to day four and day three of the course. I woke up to find that my toilet kit had gone missing! That meant; no toothpaste, no toothbrush, no razor, no shaving cream and no mosquito repellent. 'Sarvam Guru Mayam'! A walk down to the bathroom and all I had to do was stick my index finger out at the first person I met and it was covered with toothpaste! Quick bath, back to the hall, clothed and I found that I was also one of those people doing breathing exercises while waiting for the rest to arrive, and arrive they did! This evening, we were given the freedom to just 'walk free' to any place we wanted to. I had to wait for Ravi again, but my patience wore thin and I just took off on my own with my trustworthy umberella though I didn't need it (Chayanna had mentioned that the rain Gods were particularly nice to us that day). A walk once again right upto the mouth of the cave was beautiful. Walking amidst lush green foliage without any aim, just gazing at the deep, abundant green is one of the most satisfying experiences that I have ever had. As I casually strolled back, a stranger came riding down the hill on his bike. I managed to hitch a ride back to the temple with him and headed out the nearest store and got myself one of those 'use and throw' razors!!!

A quick attempt at shaving without a mirror was quite amusing till Santosh (a young man who works at the temple) offered me his mirror! His mother who was nearby washing clothes, proudly stated that, he was her only son. For the past 52 years, the lady has stayed close to the temple, in service of the divine mother. Mentally, I bowed down to the divine mother in her and in sign language indicated that from that moment on, I was her second son! She was absolutely delighted and it was a really warm moment. A quick bath after that, dinner and satsang time!!! If you are wondering about the keyboard, I got it just before buying the razor! Satsang that evening was an extra special event for everybody! It was particularly extra special for me, for two reasons. One: The energy was so high that Chayanna actually got up and started to dance. The moment He did that, the energy in the place just sky rocketed. Everyone wanted to hold His hand and dance with Him. Everyone wanted to be close to Him! People were throwing flowers, screaming, spinning in pairs, singing, laughing! Two: My friends from Mumbai actually came up to the stage, dragged me to the back, carried me up and threw me in the air quite a few times!!! That was a total rockstar (with Kurtha and Veshti) moment. What was the real icing on the cake was that during none of this, did the veshti fall off! After satsang, that night, im sure a lot of people found difficulty in sleeping because of the intensely high energy. Come next day and it was the last day of the course! By now, I had a regular neigbour in Priyanka to ensure that my chair wasn't getting usurped! Post breakfast and a couple of beautiful meditations, we were asked to gently come out of our vow of silence, yet, be as silent as possible! Another couple of absolutely heart warming processes and after that, chaos ensued! We were exchanging smiles, email ids, phone numbers and what not! Absolute strangers, who had never seen each others faces before, never said a word to each other before in their lives, were hugging each other with tears of joy, love and gratitude. This I think is the most powerful force that His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has given to mankind. Such belongingness, I had never felt before. The presence of Chayanna right there, added so much more force and value to every moment. Group photos and hugs and warm shakes were going on, while I quitely sneaked close to Chayanna. Earlier, He had booked a ticket for me to travel back to Bangalore the same evening. The bus was to leave at 7.45 pm, which meant that I had to miss the satsang that evening. Priyanka did enough of rubbing salt, that I decided to ask Him if I could stay another day. Slowly, after bowing down to Him, I put forth my question and He vehmently agreed and asked me to immediately leave for a very famous temple which was about an hour's drive from there, so that I could make it back in time for satsang! My day was made. I was officially in love with everyone and everything at that moment! Vaidyaji was kind enough to take us (Pattu mami, Chaynna's sister, Shruti; Chayanna's neice and myself) to the Mookambika temple. Vydyaji looks very quiet and frail, but boy, can he drive?! The way he handled that old beaten down Maruti Van can put Peter Solberg or any of the other rally drivers to shame! Priyanka's sister; Deepthi who was looking forward to also join us unfortunately was told she couldn't come because of the sudden lack of space in the car (Pattu mami was a last minute entry and she had better influence than what I did over space in Vydyaji's car). Sorry about that. My bad. On the return, I found my throat was starting to get sore. We almost got lost a couple of times, but managed to keep to the path that brought us back home.

Return from the temple and I ran straight upto Chayanna's room to tell him that I went to the temple and how lovely it was and everything, but He had other plans for me. With a beaming smile He welcomed me in and pointed at the keyboard. The satsang had started about an hour ago, but He was in His room! I felt truly honoured at that moment. I quickly picked it up and ran up to the satsang hall and set it up quickly. 5 minutes later, Chayanna entered. As it was a saturday evening, we had a speical 'Ram' meditation. Satsang closed and during dinner, Mala asked me if I wanted to join them the next day to Sringeri and Shimoga. Post dinner, I finally pulled my guitar out and amidst a lot of teases from Shenoy mama and gang, we started another satsang session. Sudhee, Mrudula and quite a few more joined in and we went on till about 1.30 in the night. I was scheduled to leave the next morning at 7. Final pack up and with teary eyes and warm hearts full of love, we all said our goodbyes to each other. Another course had come to an end, but another beginning was being made. New friends, new situations, new thoughts, new memories... More Love, more peace, more strength, more responsiblities, more joy, more depth, more silence...

Jai Gurudeva

4 comments:

Unknown said...

simplyyyy awesomeeeeeee!!!!
no wordssss!!! gr8 work... i wish 2read it again n again 2 cherish d memories of kamalashile forevr!!
lovelyyyyyyy...

Shruthi Srinivas said...

Hey Jayanth, you're simply superb!!!
Remember how we were wishing and praying for our journey back to b'lore get postponed?? :-):-)
How can I forget that drive to Kollur and back..miracles all the way :-)

Hey guys we had an amazing time together..didn't we?..miss u all

manju said...

Lovely post Jayanth!

Jgd,
Manjula

Sougandhika said...

amazing experience Jayanth, ty for sharing so indetail .. cud visualize each n every moment ..

Jai Gurudeva :-)