Last Mysore Practice

Today was the last day of Mysore class with Sharath, before he takes his holiday for 2 years. Laksmi showed up on the dot at 5:15 and I literally ran up to the shala. I wanted to savor every moment possible of this last practice. I walked through the door and no one was waiting in the lobby. He called me in right away. The shala is emptying out, which means maybe 100 of us now. I haven’t talked much about Sharath. He is the grandson of Pattabhi Jois and has taken over the teachings that Guruji was doing.Sharath teaches with his mom, Saraswati. Here is his site: http://www.rsharath.com/sharath.html and am amazing demo from him: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzGr3jRjB64

I liked my practice. After 2 months of 6 days a week of practicing, I am truly flowing and gliding from pose to pose. Hmmm, I like it. I slow down to sputa kurmasana where I have been for 2 months. I try once, twice, 3rd time I try my legs behind my head first then lower down to the mat. Hands still not binding. I jump to the pose before and wait for Sharath. He comes over and wrenches me into it. I grab, hold and bind! He says to me go forward now all series. Hooray!!! Onward and upward from here.

After practice everyone is outside chatting away, drinking coconuts and snapping photos of everyone. The feeling is happy and upbeat. The majority of people are from Asia and Canada with a few more from Belgium and Sweden. Us Americans are few and far between. Not sure why that is, but the old timers said it has been more and more like this with less Americans. That’s fine with me, I like meeting everyone from all over and am impressed with how many languages everyone speaks. I chuckle, oh lazy Americans, we never learn a second language.

Off we go to chai and I decide to join in today. I usually have one coconut, buy puja flowers and maybe some wheat bread made by the bread guy and beeline home to let Laksmi go home to her kids before she has to be at Randy’s at 8:30. Today, I decide to take 20 more minutes and go grab a chai from Amruth Café. We sit outside in plastic chairs in a circle and drink our masala chai. Hmmm, that is good stuff. Shelley and I drink 2 glasses of chai. The glasses are so hot I have to hold the edges with my fingers, but it is amazing! I am bringing back a great chai recipe. More pictures and stories from everyone and it’s nice to have “adult” time with everyone. We finish out chai and Shelley and I go. She’s heading home and me to get Mags. I ask one of the rickshaw guys to follow me home to run Laksmi up to her house since I am late and she likes to make breakfast for her kids.

As we head home, I see Mags outside in her Tinkerbell pajamas and hugging 2 of our street dogs. We have a constant stream of all the street dogs now who come by for their breakfast and lunch. I am going to talk to our rickshaw guys tomorrow and see if they can carry on feeding them when I leave. Literally 15 dogs come by for a meal and fresh water every day now. Even one poor cow, who I have sadly watched deteriorate here, comes by for a meal of dog food and water. She is literally dying and when I see her I give her all the veggies and fruit we have in our fridge. It’s not helping and she is loosing weight incredibly fast.

We had our last vet appointment today at noon. The doc was coming by to check on #13 dog. He is a sweet guy, but has a terrible case of mange. I have been treating him with meds for 3 weeks and it is getting better. But he cries every nite and all day from the pain. I was having the vet come to our house as we can’t get a collar on his neck from the wounds. The question is can we neuter him and can someone look after him and help cure his mange? I am not sure who would take this one when we leave.

I had another session with Kumar in my transgression therapy. It seems I have a lovely spirit guide and she has been with me for many lifetimes since she was burned at the stake as a witch. Yes, I was her apprentice, but a good witch. She has saved me from my 50 foot cliff fall in Hawaii and my 2 car wrecks that should have been fatal. The last one I flatlined and went through the tunnel to the white light. She has been there and saved me. I was doing this session to finally get the pain out of my gluts, which has been here for at least 10 years. We got to the bottom of it and I was a princess in the 1600’s in Italy. My husband was Ray, my husband now. I never gave him children and died with that guilt of leaving him alone. I stored this pain in my hips. So this lifetime I got down to business and gave him Mags within 6 weeks of meeting him. ☺ Kumar helped me say goodbye to the pain in my gluts. It worked! I woke up for practice pain free and bound in sputa. I am still pain free. Something I haven’t felt for 10 years. I was all excite and skyped Ray to tell him about our past life. I think he might think I have gone crazy.

In other news, Ms. Mags was asked to be Krishna in a photoshoot. So we went to the shoot today and they dressed her up in this elaborate costume. I should have pics tomorrow. She did great but refused to put on the black wig with the bun. So Krishna is a blonde in this shot.

Tomorrow is moon day. Rest and relax. We are going to Shobha’s, Randy’s cook, and she is teaching Shelley ad I how to make coconut chutney and subji with rotis. Yum!

Friday is last led class at 4 a.m. Then Mags and I go to our favorite restaurants. Get in bed at 8 p.m. Get up at midnite and get in the car to Bangalore at 1 a.m. We fly out at 7:30 a.m. Saturday to Heathrow and then to Seattle. One more post to come before we leave.

Jai! Jai! Jai!