beach life to ashram living

Wow. We have completed 2/3 of our journey March 26^th

Varkala, Cliffside, state of Kerala. .. Happy Western tourist zone overlooking the Beach:

March 20^this the day I braved to swim through the breakers and actually began to ‘swim’ in the ocean. The ocean is calmer past the surf, with only the occasional small wave to contend with. The swell would lift me up and gently drop me with it. I swam parallel to the beach, so as to not get sucked further out to sea by a current. I was still worried of sharks nibbling my toes, but my arms were never happier for a bit of exercise. (I’ve slacked off the last few weeks…..blame the heat and traveller’s tummy...or…perhaps… laziness). I felt more confident when other swimmers were also out past the surf, but this didn’t always occur. The first day when I came in, a lifeguard let me know he was watching and noticed that I was a strong swimmer. Compared to most Indian non-swimmers, this is true! Raven might answer differently, as she can outswim me like a fish, but she didn’t fancy swimming out past the surf with me. The lifeguards are always blowing their whistles and waving, and it is really difficult to tell who they are directing their actions towards. Some days I’d use that as an excuse to come in early, (are they blowing their whistles at me?) especially if I was out past the surf zone alone.  You should have seen me freak out when a plastic bag floated by half submerged. “What is that? Don’t touch me- don’t touch me!”  I swam around it, willing it to not touch me, even as I realized it was only floating garbage!

One day a boat buzzed by, with guys yelling “Shark!” No one but me got out of the water- it must have been a joke, but one I wasn’t taking a chance on. Since then, I have given up my strident worrying of sharks, because the life guards have said“No sharks” and a French woman named Deborah, who is a scuba diver instructor, has said “No sharks”.  Heath says “No sharks”, but he also jokes around about this, so how can I take him seriously?At dinner time up on the Cliffside, sharks are set out on ice for passing diners to peruse which restaurant they want to eat at. So, I know there are sharks in this water. Deborah and Heath both assured me that they are too small to be interested in nibbling my toes. Blame it on too many shark movies. Deborah put succinctly, it in her thick French accent,“F#@!-ing Jaws!” She may be a scuba instructor, but sharks are at the back of her mind when she swims,too.

shark soup anyone?

the cutest puppies in Varkala

We have spent 2 weeks lounging in at Cliffside, Varkala. We have left the western zone only a handful of times, me, once to take the bus into town to get to a bank machine,and a few times by foot to the temple junction to eat at a local’s restaurant and see some traditional dance at the temple. We were excited to see an elephant paraded around the temple one night. Our time at the beach has coincided with a Hindu festival called Holi (pronounced holly).  We were scheduledto be at the ashram, a few hours North, on the 25^th, but the promise of more elephants, dancing and fireworks at the conclusion of Holi convinced us to stay. There have been nightly fireworks, some which we were lucky to see as we were dining in the local Indian restaurant, overlooking a historic swimming pool/water tank. This one isn’t unique- there are tanks like this all over India. Women come to do the wash, and bathe. During the night it becomes more of a younger man swimming spot.  Think of a Roman Bath, perhaps. Raven connected this tank to what she was learning about Ancient Rome in her socials class. We LOVE those moments when she can really SEE what she is learning about.

coffee temple latte

We are glad we stayed the few extra days. Every restaurant made Holi food and gave small cups of it complementary to patrons. The puppies that we enjoy playing with in one restaurant loved it too! It was a sweet, sticky rice concoction. 

holi food

dogs like it, too!

The evening parade was amazing. Unfortunately the 15 promised elephants never showed up. One tourist said he saw 4 or 5 at the temple earlier, but we never saw them. The parade was amplified by loudspeakers and lights running from generators on the truck ahead of each ‘act’. We saw men with elaborate costumes, their faces heavily painted into gods. Before the parade started we saw them sitting, waiting, fully costumed, while posing for photos. During the parade they danced and cavorted with each other. 

We saw men balancing tall decorated structures on their heads, which turned when they turned as they walked down the road. We have no idea what stopped them fromgetting dizzy and falling over. There were truck floats depicting the life of Shiva/Krishna in all his forms, drummers and bands, symbols crashing, umbrellas turning, but alas, no elephants.

We ate dinner at our favourite restaurant, the one by the pool. We decided to go back to our hotel room before the 11pm fireworks show. The fireworks were predicted to go off all night- and they did. We never did bother to leave the hotel room again, as an 8pm nap is disastrous for evening plans! We heard them go off until the grand finale at 3:30 am.

Arriving at AmritapuriAshram March 28

After a final latte and western breakfast at Coffee Temple, we shouldered our bags and jumped into a tuktukto drive us the few kilometers from our beach paradise to the train station in Varkala. After a half an hour train ride to Kollum, the beginning of the backwaters, we boarded a ‘tourist cruise’ boat to take us along the scenic waters. The canals and waterways stretch for 900km along the coast and inland. We followed a stretch that paralleled the open ocean. In some parts we could see the ocean to our left, as the land was only a narrow strip. We took about 1/3 of the 8 hour cruise, enough to see the narrow canals and brackish water goings on like fishing, industry and village life near the water.  The way they fish the canals is by using cantilevered Chinese fishing nets. We disembarked across the water way from the ashram. The outside was not what we were expecting, a complex of pink concrete buildings, including some high rises. We crossed the waterway via AmritaSetu, the ashram’s new pedestrian bridge.The huge and indestructible looking bridge was funded by Ammain the aftermath of the last tsunami to hit this area in 2004. It will expedite the next evacuation as the villagers, devotees and tourists will not have to rely solely on the boatmen to take them to safer ground.

Raven had passed tome her cold. It was inconsequential, but as soon we arrived at the Ashram, I was exhausted. Morning meditation on the beach starts at the reasonable hour of 6:30- followed by yoga at 7:30, but so far the only person to be awake at that time is Raven (reading, of course). I’ve given in to the sleep. And midday naps. If my body needs it, it can have it. It is hot and humid here. The ashram has plenty of shade, and some breeze off the ocean, but my body is slow to acclimatize.

The Amrita ashram, even when Amma(the hugging mother) is not here, runs like a well-oiled machine. It is quiet now thatAmma started her south Indian tour, taking 300 or so devoteeswith her. I wish we had met her. When people talk of her, they say she is pure love. The day we arrived, we were shown an introductory video to Amma, the ashram and her astounding humanitarian deeds. It is beyond impressive. She has created an NGO called Embracing Humanity. Outside of the incredible things she has done for Indians, she even donated 1 million US to Hurricane Katrina victims. Check out the website at http://www.embracingtheworld.org/

This place has a peaceful feel to it. Devotees chant and pray throughout the day, but there is no pressure to join any activity. Selfless service (SEVA) is promoted with the realization that people do what they can. Over the years Amma has been able to raise vast funds and do incredible humanitarian aid with them, but there is no pressure here to donate. Our lodgings are simple, but adequate, at the very reasonable cost of 15 dollars a day. The ashram provides alternate western food at a very low price (even to Indian money standards)if you need a change from the included but never changing thrice daily rice and curry meals. Ammabelieves that her meditation classes must be available free of cost to anyone- “spiritual knowledge is the birthright of humankind, and that to charge for meditation classes is like charging a baby for breastmilk.” Even the morning yoga classes are only about 2 dollars each.

The amount of recycling here is impressive. Heath can attest to that, when he comes back super sweaty after completing his volunteer time or SEVA. Outside of every housing building is an easily accessed recycle area. There are separate bins for paper, food (no need to worry about meat and bones in a Hindu country!), clothing (to be made into rags), hair and dust, sharps, solid plastics and food wrapping plastic like chip bags. Heath found out that a factory in Chennai takes the food wrapping plastic and heats it to extract the oil out of it. The predominate amount of garbage around India (and Nepal) is this plastic food wrapwaste. In this age of plastic ‘sanitary’ wrappings andmore material possessions, people toss things out, like they used to, but now the garbage doesn’t decompose. What used to be wrapped in banana leaves or paper is now in non-biodegradable plastic- with no education to the public about alternatives, and no national recycling plan. Unfortunately, many of the plastic water bottles say, “crush before disposal” or “throw away”. Personally I blame the large corporations. Pepsi Co distributes much of the pop, water and juice, but because the Indian government doesn’t force them to deal with their wastes, they don’t bother.  No deposits on beverage containers in this country.

There is a volunteer run ‘eco shop’ on the ashram premises. They occasionally show nature films. The store part of the place sells home-made soaps, essential oils and organic food items, mostly grown on an Ashram farm. Volunteers have also made items like jewelry, mugs, bowls and spoons made from coconut shells. Raven and I were most impressed by the little wallets out of juice tetra pack containers. They also make rag rugs from discarded clothing, and woven mats from discarded soft plastic. Nothing goes to waste in the ashram.

There is a beach at the Ashram, but it is forbidden to swim, as there are currents and a huge rock breakwater along the ocean’s edge. Thankfully there is a good sized swimming pool provided for our use. Men and women have separate swim times, and modesty is observed. For the men this means knee length shorts. No speedos. For the women, this means purchasing a special swimming costume, either a dress or pants that have shoulder straps and wide elastic across the top. The elastic typically traps a large air bubble when you jump into the pool. The suits are also awesome at giving wedgies. It took a few times to get used to wearing them.The pool is gorgeous. I don’t know how the water stays cool and refreshing in this heat, perhaps because of the shaded garden around it.  Mango trees grow over the pool, and we have found and dived for mangos that the crows have dropped in.

We are now a week in, and I am over the cold and feeling great. Heath and I are really enjoying our time here. Because Amma isn’t here, there are less people staying at the ashram, which means there aren’t any western kids Raven’s age. This is unfortunate, but she’s doing ok, finishing her school work (she only has a few items left to complete for the year),reading lots and watching videos. We have settled into a schedule. Chai/tea is served at 6am, but we are never up for it. There never was any 6:30 meditation, as I found out when I did manage to get up in time. I have started the 7:30am Amrita yoga class that runs until breakfast. This is practiced as a women’s only class, with great focus on breathing, prayer and meditation. It is hot, even in the morning, with little breeze coming off the ocean, but the fans in the room are not allowed to be turned on- similar to the rational of Bikrams Hot Yoga- “the body needs to build up a sweat to release the toxins”. The class is much less energetic that a class I would normally be attracted to take, but what I need to learn to do is to slow down, and focus inward on my breathe, so this is perfect.

Here’s my day:

7:30 -9 Women’s Yoga

9am Breakfast- rice/ curry/ sometimes the rice flour cakes or a maybe a chapatti, sometimes an egg or sprouts purchased from the western café to add protein

10:15- 11:15 swimming pool with Raven

11:30-12:30 visit the library, info center for mail, or down time

1pm  lunch see above, no chapatti

2pm –4:30 or 5:00 SEVA – selfless service- first dishes in the “western Café”, then join Raven for “arts and crafts”. We help bind and decorate the devotional books that get sold on Amma’s tours.

4pm- Hot Milk is served

5:30-6pm meditation on the beach

6-8- family time. Movie on the laptop (borrowed from the library), cards or reading.

8pm dinner

Bed soon after

Heath has mentioned before the soundtrack of India. There is always noise- cars drive down the road with loudspeakers blaring, and music is everywhere. There are two temples nearby the ashram, and for most of our stay, the loudspeakers (which are lined up down the road) have been playing Devotional music, even throughout the night. Luckily our family room is further away, because some devotees have been complaining about not being able to sleep because it is so loud. We keep the windows open at night, to let the cooler air in. The ashram would be such a completely tranquil place to be, but this music and chanting overrides the quiet moments, like meditation and yoga.The temple has been celebrating for 2 weeks. I am not sure what, but they had their own mini parade with drummers and girls in their finest saris holding coconut candles and fruit on plates as they walked by. The temple is outside of the ashram, but not affiliated with it. The locals fully support all she does for them.

Amma’s face is everywhere, on posters, in frames, reminding devotees to love and be good to one another. I realize now that we have been seeing her face the further south we travelled. There was even a poster of her at the Temple Café. I think people see her akin to Jesus- God who has come to earth in human form to remind the human race to take care of each other. Because we are in a Hindu society, people believe she is Krishna, reincarnate.  The first question we are asked is “Have you met Amma?”

Om Lokah samastah sukino bhavantu (om may all the beings in the world be happy)

Om santih santih santih (om peace peace peace)

Om NamahShivaya