Finding god in Melkote

The bank credited my money that I never got from the ATM back to my account. It happened in 2 weeks, I feel pretty lucky and very happy about that.

We have 18 days left and it is going fast.  People are slowly leaving the shala each day and there is actual space to practice now. My practice is going well and I am noticing things about myself as the time passes here. As Guruji and Sharath have said along, and Sharath brought this up again in conference Sunday, be mindful of what you eat. Ahimsa, means non-violence. I have been a vegetarian for the last 25 years and vegan for the last 3 years, but it goes farther than a vegetarian diet. You need to eat clean, healthy food. I was doing great the first month I was here. Lots of Indian food and chapatis, then the bread man who sits outside the shala showed me his banana bread. It’s truly amazing and so yummy! So Mags and I were nibbling it for a good 5 – 6 days. It is really healthy, but my practice those days were heavy. I was having a hard time picking up my body to jump through an my hips started hurting again. When my hips hurt, I know I have toxins and what I call “junk” in my blood and nerves. The only way to get it out is to move, breathe and not miss any yoga. So day 4 of feeling like I had a ball and chain around my waist, I sat in practice and broke it down what had changed inside myself. Nothing…but the banana bread. So we’re laying off that now and back to fruit, coconut juice and chapatis.

We took a day trip to Melkote. Rachel, a friend from Colorado, came with us. They have many temples there. The palm reader and Vedic astrologer said I should go and put my hands on Dattatreya’s feet. He also said I needed to trust god more.  This was my mission with this trip. Not only to get out of town for the day, but to place my hands on the statue’s feet and maybe find a piece of god. God to me is everything, the trees, ocean, the universe. I have always said I fall along the lines of Native American and Buddhist beliefs. I was raised Catholic and I never bought into it. I remember sitting there in first grade after we had to go to confession. I was in Catholic school and we always had to confess once a week. I probably said, oh I ate a cookie before dinner and didn’t go to bed on time one night for my mom, so the priest sent me out to the pews to say 10 Hail Mary’s and 2 Our Father’s. I remember sitting there in the pew thinking, what a crock of crap this is. So at 7 years, I was already 2 steps way out the door of the church, knowing in my soul that God is truly everywhere and anywhere and look at all the people all over the world who have a different god for their religion and race.

I thought I was doing fine with my faith, but when Mr. V, the palm reader, said trust in God. It hit home.  I live a good clean life and am good to people and animals. I even step over ants and have taught Mags now not to harm the insects, but Mr. V. is right. I have not bonded with God. I know the higher being is there and in all we do and see, but I guess it’s time to get real with my beliefs. India is no better place than to put your faith to the test. The Indians truly worship their gods and really walk and talk their faith here. So off to Melkote we go!

Our first stop in the car was to have the car blessed by a swami. Very cool, he came right out, chanting and had his oils and paints and was painting the windshield while praying. He touched Mags, myself and our 2 drivers/guides (Sanjay and his brother) on our heads. It was very cool and I felt pretty dang protected. We went on to Melkote, ventured up the 365 steps of this temple, one for each day. When we got to the top, I was blown away. You could see for miles and every inch of the temple was carved with deities. People crowded in line to get to the shrine and be blessed by the priests. It was very cool and Mags really enjoyed it. Each step we crossed in the temple, we would stop, touch the step with our hand and then touch our heart. Mags picked it up on the 3rd step.

After the first amazing temple, we headed to 2 more temples. One was a huge water pool with steps on all 4 sides. People were bathing themselves, their children, clothes and dipping their hands in the water and blessing themselves. Truly amazing to see this and witness their faith in touching this holy water. Our 3rd temple was Dattatreya’s shrine. We had to hike up some major steps and wind around the side of a mountain or I should say cliff. I have a bit of fear of heights and Mags was locked tight in my arms, plus you can’t wear shoes and the cliff rock must have been 100 degrees. I felt like we were on a true pilgrimage to get to Dattatreya. We winded around a huge rock and again you could see for miles and there was this tiny shrine to Dattatreya. I was a little let down, but nevertheless put my hands on his feet and felt very good about this.  This cliff is also where they say Rama threw his huge arrow into the stone and there is a hole in the mountain that looks just like Rama’s arrow went in about 25 feet. We stuck our heads inside the hole, which is about 5 feet wide and high.

There is a lookout point up here too and it was so peaceful. We all sat there for awhile with a very old Indian man who hauls water and metal glasses up there to give people drinks. We must have sat there for 20 minutes just looking out at the countryside and in silence listening to the breeze. Even Mags hung out listening. The more I spend time with her here, the more she truly is a wise soul and very enlightened.

We walked down and Sanjay, our rickshaw driver, who came along with us as his brother has the car service, carried Mags all the way down. I am glad he came as he can translate for us and it makes things a lot easier, especially because Melkote had not one other westerner other than us. So we were quite the hit and Maggie was like Madona. Pictures were being snapped left and right and she was swooped up a few times by people to have their photos taken with her.

On to our last temple, which is covered in Sanskrit. We meet this guy who is a great cook and he invites us to his house for lunch afterwards. Yum! As we are heading down the road to the temple, Sanjay says, “Madame, God is coming!” Rachel and I look at each other and I said, well thank god, Mr. V. said I needed to see god. Sure enough there was a parade of men carrying those old thrones on their shoulders. There were 2 thrones and amazing umbrellas made of cloth were being carried by several men surrounding the thrones. The first throne had flowers and all kinds of puja to the god. The 2nd thrown had a huge statue of Shiva adorned with flowers. It was amazing! Our day had already been spiritual and blew both of us away. But just to have Sanjay say those words to us, “God is coming!” Well, he’s right, god is everywhere and a statue of Shiva is God and that is how the Indians worship here. I truly see God now in a new light. Not to fret, I am not coming back some reborn Christian or anything crazy, but I do see god now. I used to say god is everywhere, but now I know god is everywhere and I like this feeling. I feel about a foot closer to he/she than I did when I left Mr. V’s. Progress!

With my new enlightenment, I am finally joining about 20 of the yogis and going to Kumar’s 3 afternoons a week for an hour to meditate. Today will be my first class. He holds 3 classes a week, M – W at 5:30. I have no idea what will happen, but Mr. V. said I should also meditate on Fridays to keep me grounded. If you want his whole reasoning, it’s because Venus is my ruling plant, Fridays is the day of venus, so good to meditate and ground that day. So off to meditation I go. I’m also going to do the massage/past life therapy session with Kumar this Saturday. A lot of people here have done this and they say he literally stops when he hits pain in your body during the massage and then regresses you to the core of your pain. People have left healed, shocked, crying, happy, relieved, etc.

I’ll fill you in more on that after Saturday. Other than that, we have been spaying and neutering the dogs. 6 so far and all is going well. One ate my cable for the computer, so we have had no internet for 5 days. I have been working closely with the vet and Shiva, who manages the houses here. They have started a non profit Animal Rescue group. I am so honored at this and the group has come out from my work I started here. I feel honored and truly blessed at this. They are looking for a place now to house homeless animals. It will be a shelter/vet clinic. Free spay/neuter, free shots to homeless animals, foster/adoption and animal advocacy on treating all animals with respect. Those of you who have donated to this cause and there have been a lot of you, thank you!!! My goal is to spay/neuter 10 dogs and I am leaving the remainder of the money as a donation to help find a permanent place for the clinic/shelter. The group is called Sahana Animal Care Organization and there are 7 people here in Gokalum who will be facilitating this. All 7 are older amazing people, whom I know will make this a success. They are asking when I am coming back already as I would of course love to help them and be able to practice here again. In the meantime, I will be raising money for them from the states and helping them with marketing materials. They put out one brochure, but um, yeah, they need some marketing help.

So thank you everyone! We have a tribe of dogs who come hang out at our house now. Every morning the shala dogs come down, so we have about 4 – 6 of them and then the ones we have spayed/neutered come hang out for breakfast or lunch. It’s great and Mags is in heaven. Every morning when I get home from practice she meets me at the door and a new “bubba” as she calls all dogs is there to greet her.

Other than that, a few girls had us tag along to go to Pizza Hut with them last nite. That was hilarious. They have full on waiters who opent he front door for you, take your order and you dine on actual paltes and real silverware. The whole menu is vegetarian and it tasted really yummy. I’m sure that will help my practice!

2 weeks left of enlightenment. There so many more stories I could tell, but I have expelled enough wind and need to go to Sanskrit and my meditation class. The adventure continues. Namaste!