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| Albuquerque Airport |
It's
been a week since we arrived in Vrindavan and I am continuously amazed at my
children's almost seamless adaptability. The most difficult of changes being
the time change. We took about five days before we were sleeping normal hours
for this side of the planet. Riding in rikshas, monkeys everywhere, mantras
non-stop over loud speakers mixed with an endless stream of horns from the
streets, sitting on the floor and eating with our right hands.... all these
seemed to be joyously taken in and simply add excitement to the novelty of this
culture.
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| Srila Sadhu Maharaj |
Getting back to the
basics proves healing and uniting. We have pushed all the beds together in one
room so that we have one huge double California King size bed. This has become
the play ground, especially when there is electricity and we can escape the incredible
heat to the air conditioned room. Wrestling has increased as well as creative
sleeping positions and midnight musical beds. The staple diet, especially that
of kichori and porridge in the mornings has not been so well received. At
Vrinda Kunja, however, where the temple is populated by South Americans, they
have a nice variety and we go there often. We also rented a stove and receive
fresh cow's milk daily; which I am obliged to then boil, cool and store. I'm
still debating whether I have the patience for this on a daily basis. When I
don't get to boiling it in the morning, I boil it in the evening and make fresh
panir cheese which combines nicely with the evening chapatis.
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| Prashad |
The kids favorite place
to visit so far has been Vrinda Kunja, our devotional family’s main temple,
which has more grass and shady areas than any other temple we have seen;
(thanks to Srila Paramadwaiti's love for ecology). One afternoon Asraya did
non-stop handstands, back bends and front walkovers for over three hours! It
was during this incredible stunt that I fell asleep on the sacred grass of
Vrinda Kunja. I awoke to my beautiful daughter doing her endless stream of
yogic acrobatics and was melted by her enthusiasm. Finally, the spell of three
years of yoga resistance was broken and I joined her. Yea!
On the dangerous note, Asraya,
our warrior child, was attacked - her bag taken from her and bitten by monkeys
while climbing to a lookout above Vrinda Kunja. She is ok and the bites did not
pierce her clothing but it was quite a scare for all. Her sandal was also taken
by the monkeys and eaten as we watched helplessly from below. We threw them the
second one as we had no more use for it.
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| Distribution of School Scholarships |
For those who have
thought they may want to visit us here.... simply prepare for the austerity and
all will be well... if ya know what I mean. :) India is seen more through the ears and heart than the eyes. It is definitely comparable to another planet. My
20 years of practicing Vedic Philosophy is an incredible benefit, without which
I would be quite bewildered by the level of faith and devotion that saturates
this village. It is a way of living that puts God first, last, above, below and
everywhere in between. We
are all servants and yet business goes on "as usual" with markets,
taxis, pharmacies, bills to pay, clothes to wash, open sewers and trash
everywhere. One of the ongoing and forever unanswered questions of the Western
mind being: How does continuous worshiping not translate into keeping the
streets of this Holy Land clean?
