Om namah shivaya!

With a little pain in my heart left India again, on the last day of my visa. During heavy rainfall and traffic almost missed my plane, but here I am in fancy modern Kuala Lumpur. Arriving in a new country and starting to compare is unavoidable is my experience so far. Kuala Lumpur and the Himalayas of India, the world of opposites. No more cows, temples, woman in colorful saris, power cuts, mountains, Ganges river – but high tech skyscrapers, woman in burkas, girls in shorts, young couples walking hand in hand, top notch clean, wifi everywhere. I notice that I am only witnessing, still in my India air bubble (or at least trying to be).

Just received an email from my dear yoga friend Juta, who still is in Rishikesh, that gave me stomach pain. Seems I just escaped on time, massive flooding in the North of India. The yoga studio on the Ganges river, where we enjoyed our morning asana classes is now completely in the Ganges river! My heart goes out to all the people there.

A personal perspective
Travelling in India in is not always easy, but rewarding. Most people either love it or hate it. There are always two sides here: sun/moon, yin/yang, light/dark.

- Behavior: sometimes people can be extremely rude, like the hustlers at New Delhi train station, trying to rip you off. But most of the time the Indian people are so engaging, like one woman who hugged me after the Aarti ritual at the Ganges river and thanked me for visiting her country. Not just a hug, but one that touches body and soul.
- Smells: the smells here a so strong and can be overwhelming and penetrate throughout the whole body. On one hand you can’t avoid the smells of garbage, dead animals, unwashed bodies, smoke, urine. But the on the other side I love the smell of fresh naan bread, oils, incense sticks, spices, mountain air.

In the end it is always a personal perspective. Same situation, different for everybody. For some people black and white, for others it is in colors. Some people feel the rain, others just get wet. For me, I see India in bright shining colors, definitely the loving part – in love with India.

Sivananda Yoga Teacher Training course
It seems almost impossible to bring this intense month into a small summery. My Indian yoga friend Svati wrote that we don’t chose the events in life, but that the events chose us. That is how this whole travel time feels for me. With no plans I always ended up where I was meant to be, in this case the Sivananda ashram in the Himalayas.

Some facts about the daily life of 32 yogis in the making:
- Every day we got up at 5.20 am and started our day with meditation and chanting.
- There were two meals a day, mostly sattvic food. This means light, natural and easy to digest. According to the yogis this helps to make the body and mind to become pure and ready for meditation.
- Every day there was a Bhagavat Gita lecture, where we got life lessons like: living and working without being attached to the result of our actions and doing selfless service.
- On the day of the Kriyas (cleansing technics) we were all putting ropes in our noses and vomiting on the Ganges river.

We also got lectures about anatomy, philosophy, yoga and teaching yoga. Walking the spiritual path is a way of accepting things like they are, working on your karma, living with an open heart. Being in this ashram in the Himalaya mountains was just wonderful, exploring yet another path of yoga. Knowing this is the right direction for me.

Home is where the heart is
The Japanese Poet, Mashuo Batso said: “Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.”

My six months away from home feel like a lifetime and I feel far away from my ‘normal’ life. Happy that I still have two months ahead of me with my love. What an incredible adventures I have had so far. Many places where I have been felt immediately like home. With travel friends I created a ‘home away from home’ and found comfort in a new world.

The question in my head the last few weeks; what does home exactly mean?
A building? The place where you grow up? Where family and friends are? Is it a place where you can relax?

The dictionary tells me:
1) ‘The place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household.’
Hmmm permanently worries me a little bit. Too much attachment to one place.

The next definition I found is more inspiring:
2) ‘A place where something flourishes or grows.’

Home is not a building or town or country. Home for me is somewhere that you know you are meant to be at that moment. Home is everywhere and anywhere you want to be. Home is a place where you can be true to yourself, relax into lifeand pursue the constant journey to follow your dreams. A long as you carry on chasing what you believe, you will find yourself at home wherever you want to be.

The journey is home.

With love,
Om shanti

Marjolein