Judy's trip to India

 We travelled from Pondicherry to Yogi Val on November 17, and I didn’t have a chance until now to talk about it.  Here's just a quick introduction to my home for the month!  Here is the building where I'm staying.  I'm on the 2nd floor to the far left, room 208.  I'm told by just about everyone that I have "the best" room.  Probably because of the views?  My Room: The Pool: A pomelo tree, all the food we eat is grown here.  We had pomelo juice one morning, so good! This is the Yoga Shala where we practice and the 200 hr classes are held Ganesha in the yoga shala The meditation dome Examples of the food we eat.  All Ayurvedic and very tasty!  It is vegetarian, with dairy contributed by the cows on the property Our eating area These ladies provide us with dairy, and they double as lawn mowers.  There is a man who has the job of moving the cows to areas that need mowing.   It is his full time job! The cows love him and he's ...

This is the view of Mount Arunachala from my room at Yogiville Today our whole group did the  14-kilometer Girivalam around Mount Arunachala in Tiruvannamalai.  This is a sacred circumambulation that purifies the soul, enhances spiritual growth, and is most auspicious on full-moon (Pournami) nights. On December 3 it is   Karthigai Deepam Festival , and I'm told over 5 million people come from all over India and the world to make this pilgrimage.   We decided to go today to avoid the crowds. Girivalam, which means “circumambulation of the hill,” is a sacred walk around  Mount Arunachala , one of the most significant spiritual sites in India. Believers consider the act of walking around this mountain to bring blessings, peace, and spiritual upliftment. According to tradition, Lord Shiva, in his form as  Arunachaleswarar , resides in this mountain, and a walk around it symbolizes reverence and surrender to the divine.    We chanted much of ...

 Today I went to Auroville to visit the Matrimandir  . These photos are from the Internet, you have to check in your  phone, camera and everything else you are carrying before entering the grounds.  I signed up for admission several days before and was able to enter the beautiful site, entry is limited. ... I'm finally getting back to this post over 1 week later!  I unfortunately came down with something gastro in nature and it flattened me for a few days.  The Matrimandir experience was amazing, and was everything I expected after my years studying Sri Aurobindo in the Advanced Integrated Energy Healing Program I completed at Langara in 2019.   I am going back to the Matrimandir again (all things going well!) and will provide more info then

Donna, who also is taking the same yoga training as me arrived yesterday morning.  Our driver collected her at the airport and then me at my hotel  to take us to Pondicherry. Donna wanted to do one stop along the way to Ganesha temple. The driver tried to talk us into going to the hanuman temple instead, but we were pretty set on Ganesh so that is where he took us We thought it would be a temple with grounds and space to explore. The driver stopped on a very busy road. He said we were there, but we couldn’t see it. But then we did.  It is a very humble temple. That is it under that little gold roof: We still had to take her shoes off even though there wasn’t really anywhere to go into. and here is Donna in front of Ganesha, who seems to be in jail. Poor Ganesha!  Well, that was a pretty quick stop. The trip down to Pondicherry takes about four hours down the coastal highway.  We saw lots of cows and coconut groves on the way.  When we arrived at our AirB...

 Yesterday, I decided to brave it and go out on my own.  Uber is a great way to do that!  To my eyes, it is so chaotic here, with no margin for error.  Here's a view from the back seat of the Uber. Gotta lover the bobble head dog on the dash .   I think the drivers here use their horns as bat radar and it protects them like a force field.  It seems that they drive (at speed!) within inches or less of people and other vehicles of all types.  It is a miracle everyone survives.  Or at least I haven't seen anyone die yet.   I felt so brave that I actually jumped into a tuk tuk at Marina beach to make my way back to the hotel.  Marina beach wasn't as nice as Edward Elliot beach in my opinion, but it was so nice to be on the water. I decided to jump out of the tuk tuk at Sri Ramkrishna temple on my way back, it was uncrowded and calm there.  Ahhh.   In the evening, I’ve gotten in the habit of going to the rooftop ...

 This is my new word of the day , courtesy of my hotel "Vanakkam" (வணக்கம்) means  "hello" or "greetings" in Tamil . It is a respectful greeting that can be used for both formal and informal situations and is often accompanied by joining the palms of the hands together in front of the chest and bowing the head slightly.  Kind of like namaste.  The word is derived from "vanangu," which means "to bow" or "to revere".  

Well, it's been interesting and certainly not boring.   Yesterday (Monday I think??) I hired a driver from the hotel, to go and see St Thomas's (Santhome) Basilica , the beaches, and a few other sights nearby, including a little shopping.   Easy!  Except.  The driver didn't speak English other than 3 words.  Hello.  Come.  Beach.    (Also "come come" when I didn't butt my way through the crowds fast enough to keep up with him!). Anyway, there must have been a bit of miscommunication with the concierge, because he took me to a very very busy Hindu temple " Kapaleeswarar Temple ".  There were swarms of devotees there, and flower garlands everywhere.   I noticed my driver didn't have shoes on, and I soon learned that there are no shoes allowed on the grounds, so my Birks were left outside the grounds with thousands of other shoes.  Also there are no "non-Hindu's" allowed inside, according to the multi-lingual signs....

All in all, it was a pretty smooth journey here to Chennai.  I'm comfortably settled in to my room here at The Raintree Hotel .  I'll be here for 4 days to get over my j et lag.  I decided to give myself lots of time to adjust, so I can be in fine form for the rest of the trip! The flights (total 18+ hours in the air) were comfortable and I actually slept a fair amount.  The views arriving in Hong Kong were amazing, even though it was almost dark at landing. I did have a bit of a scare when my luggage did not arrive on the carousel in Chennai.  Did I mention it was around 1:30 am?  I ended up in line to make a baggage claim.  I was showing the airline worker a photo of my bag, when the carousel started again and out came my bag.  The airline worker saw it come down and went running to fetch it for me :)  What a nice welcome to India to have that kind of service!  And the driver I booked was there waiting for me outside security....

 Hi!  This is the blog I'll use for my time away in India.  I'll be gone from Victoria from Nov 7- Dec 13, and will be spending most of my time at a place called Yogiville in Tamil Nadu, where I'm doing yoga teacher training.   Ma Yoga and Wellness , the studio where I practice almost every day here in Victoria is putting on this training, so it won't be wholly foreign to me!  I'm landing in Chennai, where I will try to recover from jet lag, then move just to the south to Pondicherry, to explore for 5 days.  From there I will head a bit inland to Yogiville for the rest of my time away.   Here's a map: If you are interested in seeing what I'm up to, watch this blog - I'll be posting pictures and my thoughts while I'm away Judy