India, India, India...

So much India to take in. Bright colored, mixed patterns of clothing, smells from foul to fragrant, loud honking and blasting Indian pop music off of street bikes, spices that ignite your mouth until your eyes water, and everything you touch, and I mean everything, is dirty. I washed my feet before getting into bed yesterday and the whole floor of the shower was a color I don’t even think you want me to describe.

Just a warning: this post is kind of long, and I'm currently exhausted, a little sick and delerious at the moment so I didn't exactly edit this...

We had such a good day in Cochin yesterday. Right off of the ship these Indian tuktuk drivers waited for us. We asked one to take us to the markets, wherever they would be, and bargained for $4 US currency. He agreed. So Leilani, Daniella and I sat in the back of the tuktuk in 30-degrees celsius, humid, thick heat. We pull up to a pretty view of the river, and thought our driver was being nice and showing us to be nice. He then pulled over at an old train station that isn’t used anymore. The red flag didn’t pop up until we pulled up to a laundromat. “Real India!” our driver said, waving us out of the tuktuk. I looked at Daniella as if to ask why on earth we were here. From the tuktuk we saw these shirtless, old Indian men under the roof of the laundromat- but only from the waist up. So naturally, Leilani grabbed my arm, tense in a panic, freaking out, “OH MY GOD we’re about to see naked old men holy shit oh my god what do we do what do we do?!?!?” We hesitantly walked inside to see about twenty old shirtless Indian men in skirt-type bottoms ironing their linens. It was quite comical in the moment.

It turned out that we were on a tour of about 15 locations. It ended up being the best day and the best way to see and experience the city. Our driver then took us to shops- government approved shops with scarves, fabric, bells, rugs, jewelry, beautiful antiques, small and large, from wood to bronze, of elephants, buddhas, ohms, etc., anything you can think of. We also went to a shop that sells sarees and other traditional Indian clothing- I bought a beautiful spaghetti-strap, dark red dress with a gold pattern down the middle that bunches at the rib cage that I’m super stoked to wear if you couldn’t tell. On the way back our driver pulled over and asked us for a favor, if we could go into one more shop. We went in, I ended up buying my mother some fabric for her next quilt, got back into the tuktuk and our driver asked how much we spent. After we told him the amount he was thrilled. He took out this receipt with the name of that last store at the top. His name was written down with the date and the time, and an amount of rice. It turned out that the drivers have deals with these stores that when they bring us there, the store gives them money for fuel, and for every certain amount of rupees that we spend, they get kilos of rice. So after all the money I spent that day, I felt better because I was feeding our driver, his wife and two little kids that he’s saving up to send them to college. I was very impressed about that system, and it made me feel better about giving my money to these shops.

The next day I left for a program to an ashram called Isha Yoga Center. Where do I even begin. It's the most incredible place, but ashram life is intense. And what an experience…We arrived late in the afternoon after a ten hour trip on a bus, 3 of which we spent hopping from repair shop to repair shop trying to get the broken air conditioning fixed. We ended up getting a new bus, but definitely spent all day on a drive that should’ve been five hours. After we got to our rooms and dropped off our bags we met our volunteer tour guide, Rajesh. He has been volunteering there for six years.

Sadhguru is a renowned enlightened master that founded Isha Yoga Center. We didn’t get a chance to meet him because he was leading a group through 8 days of silence locked in a room besides meal times, when they wear a badge that says SILENT- straight out of Eat Pray Love. We watched some videos on him. He looks like your stereotypical skinny, Indian guru with a long white beard and long white hair. In these videos he would take about some very profound, intelligent concepts, but then also about his motorcycle trips through the muddy forest, it showed him playing soccer with kids, and driving a range rover, but then would go back to clips of people greeting him, crying at his presence and bowing at his feet. It was quite interesting. We all joked that he could be going home at night laughing at all the poor suckers that follow him- obviously joking. He’s really incredible.

The strange part to write about is the meditation temple, and it’s going to sound kind of “yeah right". But inside this large, dark dome with a golden ceiling was this massive ellipsoid stone. This is the story: the particular mountain adjacent to the ashram is sacred amongst the people due to the energy it stores. The way Rajesh explained it to us was that just like a USB and computer chip stores information, this mountain stores energy. So he continued that Sadhguru spent three lifetimes to consecrate such energy into this ellipsoid stone called a linga. The reason for the shape is that the ellipsoid is unique- it is the only shape that can sustain such energy over extremely long durations of time. The Dhayanalinga at this center, the name for this specific linga, will store this energy for the next five thousands of years or so. Before we entered the meditation temple where the linga sits, Rajesh told us not to use meditation methods, mantras, or anything- just to sit there and that we would be able to meditate quickly as the energy emitted from the linga provides easy access to these dimensions of the mind. And man, did I feel it…

It was tangible. I walked in and felt this warm sensation. In doubt, I just thought it was body heat from other people meditating. So I sat down, sat cross legged, gazed at this giant linga, shut my eyes, and immediately fell into such a relaxation. If anyone has ever felt a rush right before falling asleep, it felt like that but over and over and over again, as if it had a frequency like a wavelength (which I guess you could say it did). I have never been able to meditate in my life. My mom took me to a meditation class a few years ago, and I just fell asleep after two minutes. But here it just worked. It felt like I was zoning out with my eyes shut, if I had to explain it. And I wasn’t just the nut-job of the group-everyone felt it. It was such a trip.

In terms of the yoga, it wasn’t my favorite yoga class I’ve ever taken. We did sun salutations, just that one 20-pose sequence, for 2 full, long hours. The yoga teacher had your stereotypical calm, soothing voice. As we sat cross-legged with our palms facing up to receive instructions, she would first introduce the sequence, slowly going through each move one by one, including the name of the pose in English, then Sanskrit, then indicate the number of breaths, where our feet and hand should be positioned, and what body parts should be tensed and what body parts should be relaxed. After, she had a man from the ashram demonstrate. He would walk to a platform in the front of the room, sit cross legged for three full, long breaths, stand up, and the two of them would go through just as slowly, include the same information-verbatim. Then we turned our palms downward, and she told us to visualize the sequence…for the actual duration of time it should take to complete it with the correct number of breaths for each pose. After the 10 minutes it took to do that, we finally did the sequence. Then she would say, “we will now demonstrate a few common corrections” and she and the volunteer went through the entire sequence again, then had to visualize it, then we could do it once more. After that, she explained the breathing pattern of 3-5-7; the first pose took 3 breaths, the next would take 5, then 7, then 3, etc. Then she had it demonstrated, then we would visualize it, then we could do it again. The moral of the story is that I will never sit cross-legged again if I don’t have to. This was a hatha yoga class, or hata as they spell it, that I had never taken before. I didn’t love it, but I certainly feel like I learned a lot. They do yoga for the meditative practices, with yogic science behind every breath, movement, and sequence.

So that was my India experience. I think so far Japan and Vietnam are tied for the 'favorite' title!