Hello!
I am still so very enchanted by the culture here in
India. Today a new friend and I went to
one of the big bookstores here in Mysore called Sapna. Our rickshaw driver insisted on waiting for
us outside until we were done. Maybe for
30-45 minutes we said. Once we entered
the store, walked and wandered around the first floor, we realized that there
were two additional floors to peruse, we quickly went and told our rickshaw
chauffer that we would no longer be needing his services, since we didn’t know
when we would be ready. The first floor
consisted of many pens and notebooks. For
those of you who know me well, know that I have an affinity towards pens and
notebooks. I believe that this strange
liking towards stationary was passed on through my Guiv side of my family. My dear Daddy has (and still does) keeps a
very organized drawer or two of the most beautiful stationary that you can
imagine. Just thinking about it makes me
happy, hehehe.
India, a fascinating country. The bookstore was filled with spiritual
books, philosophy books, books on yoga and sacred texts, as well as
mathematics, engineering, physics, computer science. The two genres seem to be what comprised the
entire store. I see this not only in the
bookstore but also in everyday life here in India. India has some of the worlds most
scientifically educated contributors who are just as versed in the Bhagavad
Gita and spiritual practices. I see so
my beauty to have the two sides of the mind that seem to be polar opposites to
operate in one life. Maybe spiritually
minded individuals have a very logical way of living life? This is what I am coming to believe through
my own experience. There is so much in
the world that cannot be explained, yet some how it works in an organized
fashion. For example, how can we explain
sea turtle migration? These little (well sometimes not so little) creatures
travel over 10,000 miles, crossing the entire Pacific Ocean from the West Coast
of the US to Asia. How do they not get
lost? Do they have a compass or a GPS
system? Or birds, when they fly, they
all turn together at the same time. How
do they know when to turn? Do birds have
a language? A very wise woman told me
the other day that it’s all Grace. Everything,
all of it. Whoa. As crazy as that sounds, it rings true for
me. It gives me a sense of comfort that
there is a greater purpose to all of life’s experience. However it doesn’t let me off the hook for
doing my part; I do my part to the best of my ability and awareness.
Some
of you may be familiar with the following text; it’s pretty insightful and hits
the spot about faith and logic:
“In
ancient times material progress was painfully slow. The spirit of modern scientific
inquiry, research and intervention was almost unknown. In the realm of the
material, men’s minds were fettered by superstition, tradition, and all sorts
of fixed ideas. Some of the contemporaries of Columbus thought a round earth
preposterous. Other came near putting Galileo to death for his astronomical
heresies.
We asked ourselves this: Are not
some of us just as biased and unreasonable about the realm of the spirit as
were the ancients about the realm of the material?”
Ok,
enough of my jibber jabber…on a funny note, this morning we had a led
practice. I was balancing in sirsasana
(headstand) trying so hard not to fall over. Sharath was counting very slooowly
and I could feel, pesky little misquotes biting the backs of my leg. Somehow I managed to stay up and stay focused
on my breathing even though what my knee jerk reaction was to jerk my knee and
smoosh the little bugger. Or maybe do
Maziar’s infamous misquote dance. If you
haven’t seen it, do ask him next time your around him.
One
more thing, for those of you who are not familiar with Osho, he’s a pretty cool
dude and one of my favorite spiritual authors.
He’s very popular here in
India. Here is a quote from a book I am
reading:
“The
rebel goes into his inner world with open eyes, with no idea of what he is
looking for. He goes on polishing his intelligence. He goes on making his
silences deeper, his meditation more profound so that whatever is hidden in him
is revealed to him, but he as no preconceived idea of what he is looking for.”
Pretty
far out.
Peace
hommies,
Neda
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