Namaskar everyone!
How are you???? I wanted to tell you about my recent adventures in India over the last month. The circuitous journey that took me from the Mysore Plateau in South India to the floodplains of the Ganga River valley in North India via the dramatic landscape of rural Maharashtra can be described in no other way then a whirlwind!
To begin with, as most spiritual journeys or yatras, my trip began haphazardly with a slip on some concrete steps leaving me barely able to walk on my left leg and a huge swollen left elbow just days before my train departure. Fortunately now everything is totally healed. For those who have never ridden a train in India it is quite a uniquely colorful if lengthy experience. Following the Buddhas suggestion I took the middle path called second class sleeper, opting out of 2 tier AC first class at about 5 times the price as well as general seating which is a bit like southwest airlines if it cost $20 and they let as many people on as wanted to go (supposedly Gandhi and Meher Baba as a rule only traveled general).
My ticket cost a whole 12 dollars to travel 24 hours north over about half the length of the country from Mysore to Pune (pronounced Poonah). On the train a constant stream of chai and coffee wallahs parade yelling nasally "choiiiiii, choiiiiii, kafi, choiiiii!". They are followed by all manner of food sellers from snacks (chat) to full hot meals. Then there is a steady stream of beggers and people with intense physical disabilities. I saw one group of transvestite men dressed as women winking and stroking elbows while asking for bakshish. Then there are even performers like one extremely talented kid dressed like a clown who sang, played a drum, did yoga poses and swung a string around attached to his cap around his head like a propeller, I was happy to give him 10 rupees...
The Pune train station was one of the most crowded stations I have ever seen in my life, and I have tried to board a Mexico City subway at rush hour! I felt very bad for the people boarding the general train cars there as people were literally stacked on top of each other. A 20 year old enlistee in the Indian army preparing to ship out to J & K (Jammu and Kashmir) took pity on me and acted like a linebacker helping me out of the train station and securing an only slightly overpriced rikshaw, where I had a fantastic reunion with my Mom Evelyn and Mindy the Peapods!!!
This section of the trip is well documented on their magnificent blog at http://blog.podsweb.com/ I will only tell a few quick stories. From Pune we went to Meherabad, a town near the city of Ahmednagar that sprang up around the Avatar Saint Meher Baba in the Indian State of Maharashtra. Mahrashtra is an amazing place with a dramatic landscape that in a lot of places is bone dry even by Tucson standards. Meherbad was very hot and during the heat of the day felt like I was on the moon. The people who came from all over the world to pay respects to the samadhi shrine where Baba is buried however were incredible, loving and very musical. Every morning and evening people would gather around the lovely shrine to sing songs in many different languages, sometimes with tears in their eyes and I had a strange powerful feeling like I was in ancient Palestine shortly after the death of the Christ.
From there we did some "ashram hopping" visiting Shirdi where Sai Baba of Shirdi is buried (not to be confused with frizzy haired and lovable Satya Sai Baba), Sakori where Upasni Maharaj is buried, and finally Kokamthan where the guru Jungli Das Maharaj is alive and well without a single gray hair or ounce of fat on his body somewhere between the ages of 81 and 107. He was an amazing and beautiful soul who moved me very deeply. Once he found out I played tablas and sang bhajans he immediately put me to work in his ashram abhanga band 3 times a day blasted over an epic loudspeaker across the giant ashram, "It is your duty to do this" he said. Sounds good to me!
It was very sad for me to depart but there was alot more in store as we boarded two cars for the village of Ganeshpuri 5 hours away. Ganeshpuri is a truly remarkable place and very dramatic approaching from the north via Nashik where amazing temple and spire shaped mountains look like they are out of monument valley Arizona. This village and its neighboring village of Nimboli (Land of Neem trees) is where the great saint Bhagawan Nityananda, Swami Muktananda's Guru, decided to settle among the indigenous Adivasi people who he considered his children. It is an electric place where you feel an incredible energy. It contains natural hotsprings that Nityananda bathed in daily and told Muktananda to do the same. I followed suit... wow! it was lovely.
What ensued was too much to recapitulate but included the opening of the beautiful Hard Light ashram, a 5 day silent meditation intensive culminating in a Shiva Ratri fire ceremony (yagna) and an all night meditation, which was one of the most difficult and rewarding things I have done in my life. On the last day we visited two amazing project sites where Hard Light's seva wing TMA is working with an Adivasi school and distributing simple yet effective water purification systems to villagers. The conditions in the villages and the work being done there moved me very deeply and I am now planning out ways that I can participate in their fundraising work, particularly through music. The first of (hopefully) many benefit concerts will be held in Los Angeles on the 12th of July this year featuring Dave Stringer, so get your butts down there! For more info on the projects see www.tmaseva.org
It was again sad but exciting to leave on a bus and then a delayed plane to the sacred city of Kashi (Varanasi, Benaras), and amazing city on the banks of the Ganga river said to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. There is a weight and density there that does seem incredibly archaic. It also brought back a slew of memories as I had been there once before 10 years ago in 1998 with my tabla teacher from Nepal, Homnath. Funny things kept repeating themselves in the old city such as being asked not more then 100 meters into the fray "Hey man do you want to get high?!" Well I said no, and therein lies one of ( I hope many!) differences between me at 27 and at 17!
A colorful week at Kashi saw the departure of the Hard Light group one by one and my being righteously welcomed into Benaras. In a few short days I met an amazing vocal teacher named Krishna specializing in the songs of Kabir.
http://krishnakantshukla.googlepages.com/ I found a great room in a garden outside the city for a whopping 11 hundred Rupees (25 dollars!) month, a brand new handmade mattress, and a bicycle loaned to me by a friend. I feel very supported and look forward to spending some good time here. Tomorrow is Holi festival and I am advised not to go out unless I want my cloths torn off, covered in multi coloered paint and having cow dung thrown at me by wild Indian mobs high on Bhang! Hows that for an image?
Lots of Love and I hope very much you are well and dreams are manifesting.
Namaskar
Joss
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Pt. 2 ~ Reflections on Mysore
Hi dear friends!
Here is the next travel installment sent to all those who didn't send a frowny face mistaking my (mis)adventures in India for a chain letter!
Days have trickled into weeks and poured out into three long months already, some observations...
With all the cows, goats, sheep, lambs and other animals, India is a bit like a giant petting zoo! Just be sure to wash your hands and don't pet the ferocious bum nipping dogs (and in response to the many questions unfortunately for the many but fortunately for me the dog lives!).
I was complimented by my Indian friend Maya on how well i eat with my hands. Finally a country where my true skills are appreciated! According to esoteric yoga philosophy eating with your hands aids digestion as chakras or energy centers in the hands inform the stomach about the type of food that is about to be eaten. Also hand size corresponds to stomach size and eating 32 hand fulls of food is the appropriate amount at a meal. So there Mom!
Traffic in India is nothing short of miraculous choreography. Most traffic rules seem optional, I'm not sure why they paint those lane lines, stop lights? even driving on the left hand side of the road can sometimes be deemed unnecessary. The only rule that seems to be universally applied is don't hit the cows, who so daintily opt to gracefully and absentmindedly fall asleep in the middle of the fast lane or the roundabout center. Oh and of course bigger is better.
As in many things in India there is an implicitly understood hierarchy. Watch out for the gigantic Lorrie trucks with screaming horns and bad brakes, and similar to Mexico the bus is king. Indian buses are a unique phenomenon. The old axiom is indeed true, the older and more dilapidated the bus the louder the soundsystem and more elaborate the dashboard shrine. One old bus I saw even could do without a front windshield, air conditioned transport anyone?
I wax poetic about the buses because of 2 lovely trips i have been blessed to take orbiting around Mysore. The first was a lovely trip to the tea plantations of Koonoor, outside Ooty. Located in the Nilgari Hills these former hill station towns are high up in the southern-most tip of the Western Ghats, or the mountain range spine that runs throughout South India. At it southern end the mountains are spectacular, the headwaters of most of South India's rivers and some of the most beautiful old forests on the Subcontinent. Sometimes called the Kashmir of the South, these misty, cool and green-grey canopied mountains were absolutely magical. I even had some Northern California double takes driving through some epic cypress groves.
On our way we drove through Bandipur National Park and wildlife preserve wherein took place the great banana hold up! A huge white monkey stopped the car on a bridge by jumping up and down and then in the blink of an eye leaped into the car and stole a big bunch of bananas on the dash board! a real Monkey the Kid! in the Park we saw long tailed white monkeys, elephants, wild peacocks, boar and spotted deer.
The next trip involved a very crowded bus (not an extremely crowded bus mind you) where there was no one on the roof or hanging out the doors and there were no chickens. However had I not had sweat lodge training with Andrew Soliz and happened to be sitting by a window I would have succumbed to a sense of claustrophobia as every space seemed occupied, complete with crying babies and even a guy with an enormous roll of irrigation tube! The purpose of the trip was to perform at my first concert in India accompanying my singing teacher Srinath on tablas. Srinath being a Jain, sat behind me with a cloth over his mouth so as not to inadvertently swallow bugs on the trips. He periodically narrated the bus experience; very old temple, very big river...
The concert was in a small town 2 hours outside Mysore again on the Mysore Ooty road. We performed first at the gala cultural festival, outside an enormous old Shiva temple. Srinath sang, Kumar played mrdung and another young man played violin while I did my best to play tabla. It was quite an experience, equal parts joy, excitement, education and humiliation! People were supportive afterwords and I was grateful for the opportunity to try my hand at carnatic music.
So it is with a bit of nostalgia that I leave Mysore in a week. It has been quite a lovely three months, more then two of which studying with my lovely teacher Srinath and over a month living in his apartment building in a boisterous fun neighborhood near the city center. The Peapods (My Mom Evelyn and Mindy) will be arriving next week, and i will meet up with them in Pune to begin a four week Yatra or spiritual pilgrimage throughout the North to end in the holy city of Benaras (Varanasi, Kashi).
Big love to everyone and I hope many blessings and magical occurrences are transpiring.
Namaskar
Joss
Here is the next travel installment sent to all those who didn't send a frowny face mistaking my (mis)adventures in India for a chain letter!
Days have trickled into weeks and poured out into three long months already, some observations...
With all the cows, goats, sheep, lambs and other animals, India is a bit like a giant petting zoo! Just be sure to wash your hands and don't pet the ferocious bum nipping dogs (and in response to the many questions unfortunately for the many but fortunately for me the dog lives!).
I was complimented by my Indian friend Maya on how well i eat with my hands. Finally a country where my true skills are appreciated! According to esoteric yoga philosophy eating with your hands aids digestion as chakras or energy centers in the hands inform the stomach about the type of food that is about to be eaten. Also hand size corresponds to stomach size and eating 32 hand fulls of food is the appropriate amount at a meal. So there Mom!
Traffic in India is nothing short of miraculous choreography. Most traffic rules seem optional, I'm not sure why they paint those lane lines, stop lights? even driving on the left hand side of the road can sometimes be deemed unnecessary. The only rule that seems to be universally applied is don't hit the cows, who so daintily opt to gracefully and absentmindedly fall asleep in the middle of the fast lane or the roundabout center. Oh and of course bigger is better.
As in many things in India there is an implicitly understood hierarchy. Watch out for the gigantic Lorrie trucks with screaming horns and bad brakes, and similar to Mexico the bus is king. Indian buses are a unique phenomenon. The old axiom is indeed true, the older and more dilapidated the bus the louder the soundsystem and more elaborate the dashboard shrine. One old bus I saw even could do without a front windshield, air conditioned transport anyone?
I wax poetic about the buses because of 2 lovely trips i have been blessed to take orbiting around Mysore. The first was a lovely trip to the tea plantations of Koonoor, outside Ooty. Located in the Nilgari Hills these former hill station towns are high up in the southern-most tip of the Western Ghats, or the mountain range spine that runs throughout South India. At it southern end the mountains are spectacular, the headwaters of most of South India's rivers and some of the most beautiful old forests on the Subcontinent. Sometimes called the Kashmir of the South, these misty, cool and green-grey canopied mountains were absolutely magical. I even had some Northern California double takes driving through some epic cypress groves.
On our way we drove through Bandipur National Park and wildlife preserve wherein took place the great banana hold up! A huge white monkey stopped the car on a bridge by jumping up and down and then in the blink of an eye leaped into the car and stole a big bunch of bananas on the dash board! a real Monkey the Kid! in the Park we saw long tailed white monkeys, elephants, wild peacocks, boar and spotted deer.
The next trip involved a very crowded bus (not an extremely crowded bus mind you) where there was no one on the roof or hanging out the doors and there were no chickens. However had I not had sweat lodge training with Andrew Soliz and happened to be sitting by a window I would have succumbed to a sense of claustrophobia as every space seemed occupied, complete with crying babies and even a guy with an enormous roll of irrigation tube! The purpose of the trip was to perform at my first concert in India accompanying my singing teacher Srinath on tablas. Srinath being a Jain, sat behind me with a cloth over his mouth so as not to inadvertently swallow bugs on the trips. He periodically narrated the bus experience; very old temple, very big river...
The concert was in a small town 2 hours outside Mysore again on the Mysore Ooty road. We performed first at the gala cultural festival, outside an enormous old Shiva temple. Srinath sang, Kumar played mrdung and another young man played violin while I did my best to play tabla. It was quite an experience, equal parts joy, excitement, education and humiliation! People were supportive afterwords and I was grateful for the opportunity to try my hand at carnatic music.
So it is with a bit of nostalgia that I leave Mysore in a week. It has been quite a lovely three months, more then two of which studying with my lovely teacher Srinath and over a month living in his apartment building in a boisterous fun neighborhood near the city center. The Peapods (My Mom Evelyn and Mindy) will be arriving next week, and i will meet up with them in Pune to begin a four week Yatra or spiritual pilgrimage throughout the North to end in the holy city of Benaras (Varanasi, Kashi).
Big love to everyone and I hope many blessings and magical occurrences are transpiring.
Namaskar
Joss
Pt. 1 ~ Namaste From Mysore
Hello friends!
Happy new years from Mysore India. I have been here about a month and a half and I wanted to write and tell a few stories...
The first week or so was a clearing of obstacles so to speak, with jetlag, my back going out and getting bitten by a dog! ("watch dog, if dog dies within 10 days, then be worry" was loosely the advice of myayurvedic doctor!)
So with my newly diagnosed kapha-vatta dosha and an ayurvedic powder mixed with honey clinging to my back side I went out looking for asinging teacher and some good idlis...
One funny thing happened the first day I climbed Chamundi Hill, alarge hill in Mysore with a temple on top. While passing a large group of teenage students from Kerala filming some sort of dance videoon these huge steps on the back side of the temple, I was promptly asked to take part! After adamantly refusing they won the argument and I spent about 2 or 3 ridiculous minutes in front of the camera dancing to Bollywood music on a boombox. One dance I inadvertentlycoined they referred to as "the Svami" where my hands were in pranam while shaking my hips and bobbing my head, don't ask...
Tobias, my long time friend and fellow percussionist throwing away ourdrums to pursue Carnatic singing with reckless abandon, accompanied meto Chennai (Madras) to meet my Dad Arno who is here for a 3 weekspiritual Oneness retreat. Our friend Ramanujan, a wonderful rajasic morsing player from Mysore, who drinks coffee and tea and smokes cigarettes constantly while reciting drum compositions at top speed accompanied us on the sleeper car making it far more fun then it should have been!
Once in Chennai Arno miraculously overcame jetlag immediately and weall plunged into the searing humidity of the day after Xmas (not sureif I want to see what June is like!) We promptly were introduced to Ramanujan's teacher T. Bhakta Vatshalam, who Arno called Bhakta-Saab(a type of car apparently) and Tobias & I simply referred to as "The Sir"
He took a great liking to us and it was only later that we realized what a serious individual he was in the Carnatic music sceane here which was right then in the throws of "concert season" or one of the largest festivals of music in the world with as many as 50 concerts ormore a day throughout the city. Carnatic music is the classical musicof South India, and it is an ensemble affair. Many percussionists accompany a singer and violin player or group of instrumentalists as they seriously get their groove on for upwards of 3 1/2 hours or more.
So at Bhakta-Sahib's request we piled six into an old ambassador andzoomed off into the most insane traffic jam I have ever experienced, which somehow Tobias managed to sleep through while Arno and I grittedour teeth and sometimes laughed at the absurdity of it all. Wearrived at an enormous temple at sunset and were rushed in. The place was totally huge and it seemed as if we were the only ones without vibhuti and kumkum on! They placed us together in this small VIP arearight in front of the two most enormous metal doors I had ever seen while several hundred people circled around slowly. Brahmins in lungis carrying large copper jugs of oil or something ran around in ahurried manner. Then all of a sudden huge bells rang and the doors swooshed open revealing an absolutely enormous statue of Hanuman maybe 50 feet tall! I looked around and everyone was vigorously praying soI did the same, there was something totally beautiful, spiritual andalso slightly comic about my experience there in a familiar but alsodifferent world, I was happy to be there.
After the temple we walked across the street and were witness to what Tobias, Arno and I later agreed was one of the most beautiful concertsof our lives, sitting front row center we saw the Sir accompany an oldviolinist and his daughter who we later learned was TN Krishnan agreat Carnatic musician. After the concert we went back to the templefor a delicious feast served on banana leaves cross legged on thefloor. It was spectacular!
Our week continued more or less like this liberally sprinkled withc oncerts (from 1 to 4 a day!) where we were usually fed afterwards (webecame professional eaters!) and introduced to the musicians. We sawmany great artists. It was a smorgasborg for musicians like Tobiasand I, and Arno also became quite the appreciator (in no small partthanks to the delicious free food on banana leaves!).
So after another long train ride (unfortunately without the help of Ramanujan) I am back in Mysore. Today I was offered to move in to the room downstairs from my wonderful singing teacher (Srinath) in aboisterous fun neighborhood south of downtown, I couldn't refuse andam leaving my small but very pleasant apartment in a quiet calmneighborhood tomorrow! (Its all about surrender...) So thanks forlistening to the stories! More to come and I wish you all the verybest, big love and clear intentions for this year!
Namah Shivaya
Joss
Happy new years from Mysore India. I have been here about a month and a half and I wanted to write and tell a few stories...
The first week or so was a clearing of obstacles so to speak, with jetlag, my back going out and getting bitten by a dog! ("watch dog, if dog dies within 10 days, then be worry" was loosely the advice of myayurvedic doctor!)
So with my newly diagnosed kapha-vatta dosha and an ayurvedic powder mixed with honey clinging to my back side I went out looking for asinging teacher and some good idlis...
One funny thing happened the first day I climbed Chamundi Hill, alarge hill in Mysore with a temple on top. While passing a large group of teenage students from Kerala filming some sort of dance videoon these huge steps on the back side of the temple, I was promptly asked to take part! After adamantly refusing they won the argument and I spent about 2 or 3 ridiculous minutes in front of the camera dancing to Bollywood music on a boombox. One dance I inadvertentlycoined they referred to as "the Svami" where my hands were in pranam while shaking my hips and bobbing my head, don't ask...
Tobias, my long time friend and fellow percussionist throwing away ourdrums to pursue Carnatic singing with reckless abandon, accompanied meto Chennai (Madras) to meet my Dad Arno who is here for a 3 weekspiritual Oneness retreat. Our friend Ramanujan, a wonderful rajasic morsing player from Mysore, who drinks coffee and tea and smokes cigarettes constantly while reciting drum compositions at top speed accompanied us on the sleeper car making it far more fun then it should have been!
Once in Chennai Arno miraculously overcame jetlag immediately and weall plunged into the searing humidity of the day after Xmas (not sureif I want to see what June is like!) We promptly were introduced to Ramanujan's teacher T. Bhakta Vatshalam, who Arno called Bhakta-Saab(a type of car apparently) and Tobias & I simply referred to as "The Sir"
He took a great liking to us and it was only later that we realized what a serious individual he was in the Carnatic music sceane here which was right then in the throws of "concert season" or one of the largest festivals of music in the world with as many as 50 concerts ormore a day throughout the city. Carnatic music is the classical musicof South India, and it is an ensemble affair. Many percussionists accompany a singer and violin player or group of instrumentalists as they seriously get their groove on for upwards of 3 1/2 hours or more.
So at Bhakta-Sahib's request we piled six into an old ambassador andzoomed off into the most insane traffic jam I have ever experienced, which somehow Tobias managed to sleep through while Arno and I grittedour teeth and sometimes laughed at the absurdity of it all. Wearrived at an enormous temple at sunset and were rushed in. The place was totally huge and it seemed as if we were the only ones without vibhuti and kumkum on! They placed us together in this small VIP arearight in front of the two most enormous metal doors I had ever seen while several hundred people circled around slowly. Brahmins in lungis carrying large copper jugs of oil or something ran around in ahurried manner. Then all of a sudden huge bells rang and the doors swooshed open revealing an absolutely enormous statue of Hanuman maybe 50 feet tall! I looked around and everyone was vigorously praying soI did the same, there was something totally beautiful, spiritual andalso slightly comic about my experience there in a familiar but alsodifferent world, I was happy to be there.
After the temple we walked across the street and were witness to what Tobias, Arno and I later agreed was one of the most beautiful concertsof our lives, sitting front row center we saw the Sir accompany an oldviolinist and his daughter who we later learned was TN Krishnan agreat Carnatic musician. After the concert we went back to the templefor a delicious feast served on banana leaves cross legged on thefloor. It was spectacular!
Our week continued more or less like this liberally sprinkled withc oncerts (from 1 to 4 a day!) where we were usually fed afterwards (webecame professional eaters!) and introduced to the musicians. We sawmany great artists. It was a smorgasborg for musicians like Tobiasand I, and Arno also became quite the appreciator (in no small partthanks to the delicious free food on banana leaves!).
So after another long train ride (unfortunately without the help of Ramanujan) I am back in Mysore. Today I was offered to move in to the room downstairs from my wonderful singing teacher (Srinath) in aboisterous fun neighborhood south of downtown, I couldn't refuse andam leaving my small but very pleasant apartment in a quiet calmneighborhood tomorrow! (Its all about surrender...) So thanks forlistening to the stories! More to come and I wish you all the verybest, big love and clear intentions for this year!
Namah Shivaya
Joss
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