--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, khazana108 <no_reply@...> wrote: >
> So places: All of it South India. Final landing place: Bangalore. The place I stay most of the time is about 125 kms from Bangalore. I am there for doing work, some overseeing works at several construction sites. Some working with special machines, a heavy jackhammer, much of the trip about 3-4 hours daily. There is a school, the school is being expanded, the additional rooms being created are actually very much needed, as the number of pupils doubled since last May. (I was there too 3 month in the school holidays). I usually do the heavy work, as I am fit (doing running regularly) and strong enough. Other westerners who live there, either teach at the school, mostly women, or do supervising and just other works and the different building sites. Somebody has to direct all the works, control the Indian workers organize materials, another person supervises the activities at another ground, has to be there. take deliveries, pay workers etc. > > We are here in rural India, not in Bangalore or Pondichery, there are almost constant power-cuts, since some day in June or July, when almost all of India was without electricity the situation has worsened considerable. On many days we will have power only about 3 hours, and you never know when. This is a major problem for all building activities. > > On the place itself, I have a bicycle to get around, I go for food outside, I know all the places, simple Indian food, meals, very hot, lots of chilly. > > The children are absolutely sweet, there is a smaller group of children, living on the site, the majority is brought by a bus or by their parents. The children who live on the site, I know all by name, some of them for a few years now. > > This basically is my second home, This year I was there more often than in Europe. > > Since I finished my works early, I took a week off, I took a direct night bus to Pondy, 4,5 hrs starting at 3 am, just to have some spiritual holiday, see and bath in the ocean. It's not a new place to me, but it's more of a city, I stay in a very affordable guest house, run and built by a German, I frequent the Ashram places (Aurobindo Ashram), the Samadhi, and I want to go into the Matri Mandir, the spiritual center of Auroville. I still don't know, if I will stay three days or more, I am playing with the thought of going also to Tiruvanamallai, which is on the way to Bangalore, where my flight will go off. > > This time I want to go into the Matri Mandir, I was there last 13 years back, on my last trips to Pondy I found the administrative hurdle always too much, you have to phone a certain number in Auroville between 10 and 11 am, just one hour, to be able to maybe get a pass for the next day. I missed this time on the date of my arrival, but somebody told me, as I have been there before, they would give me admission if I just go there on the next day. There is a bus leaving to Auroville everyday in front of the Ashram at 8.15 am, but that is Indian time. The bus brings you to the visiting center in Auroville, where upon arrival immediately a long queu is being formed. There is an A group and a B group, the A group are people who have an appointment to actually meditate in the Matri Mandir, the meditation takes about 40 minutes is in total silence, and is in the center of the building, starting from 10 am. But I have no reservation! No chance, the Indian lady says in a stern voice. I ask her if I can talk with her, then say I have been inside before, she says its full. But I could make an appointment, calling this number for the next day. If you want, she says, you can meditate in the petal. I lighten up and immediately agree. The petals are small rooms adjoining the main sanctuary of the Matri Mandir, the meditations are actually called concentration. I now find out that there is actually even an email, to make a reservation. So I walk the little path from the visitors center, and get to the main entrance of the Matri Mandir. I tell my story again, and get a pass for the petal, only two of the twelve petals are open for the meditation, 3 times are fixed in the morning, I am already late. I have to choose, do I want 'goodness' or ' courage'? I said, whatever, no I have to choose. Courage, I respond immediately, and the Indian lady smiles. > > I walk there, again a lady receives me, takes the ticket, I am alone in the room. It is breathtaking. The whole room is in a sort of orange crimson color, there is a foggy light coming from below, no direct window, I hear a reverberating sound, like coming from a motor, maybe the air-condition. I get white socks, and sit on one of the cushions. I am immediately pulled inside. The reverberating sound mixes with the sound of OM. I meditate on OM. Just Ooooohhhmmmm, a long continuing OM, no repetitions, just that. It's the first time I really accept OM as a mantra, nothing more just that. This is all that I need. I am in the pure state of the mind. The Sahasrara chakra is being felt, the heart is being felt, there is a state of total absorption. > > Later. when I told this story to a friend, she said, that when she meditated in the Matri Mandir, she heard OM as from a thousand voices. This revelation of OM is what I will from now on associate with the Matri Mandir. I feel that OM is all we need for a mantra. It has always been the universal mantra, the one talked about in the Upanishads. Sound is Akasha, space. > > I must have been quite spaced out when I walked back, had my coffee and pineapple cake at the visitors center, and I make sure I will have an appointment for the next day, for the main sanctuary. > > When back in Pondy, I went for food, a small meals place in the main road. I had rented a bicycle. At the restaurant I saw a small prayer card, photo, with some text in Tamil, and three photos of some saints, one I recognized: it was Vallalar, saint Ramalingam. He lived in the nineteenth century, and could have been a contemporary of Ramakrishna. He never became that famous, because he obviously didn't have a Vivekananda. But he was a great saint, his movement negated the caste system, cared for the poor, and obviously he ranted against tradition and the Vedas. At the end of his life, he locked himself into a room for many days, maybe month, I am not sure anymore, and told people not to open the door. Finally, after a long time the door was opened, and nobody was there. He is purported to have dissolved into the grace light, the Arut Perum Jyothi. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramalinga_Swamigal > > That room, is in a small village called Mettu Kuppam, near Vadalur. I had asked one Indian at my guest house, and he told me which buses I could take. Vadalur is about 60 kms from Pondy. That village, Mettu Kuppam, is somewhere close, on the way to Vadalur. > > So, seeing the poster at the restaurant, I went with my cylce to the bus station, took the bus to Cuddalore, and from there the bus to Vadalur, telling the conductor, that I would like he stops in Mettu Kuppam. You see, you have to do this communication with hand and feet, showing him the names written, mentioning the name of the saint, using typical indian pronounced English. It worked, the conductor shake me up, and let me exit, from there I walked about 3 kms to Mettu Kuppam. > I left the bus, there was a small road going somewhere. I asked people and everyone pointed to this road. I bought a chai and some water, realizing that I still have to walk a bit. Soon I was out of the small village where the bus had stopped, and I was definitely in rural India. The men wear all lungis, many walked barefoot, afair only one car passed by while I was walking, other traffic consisting of motor bikes, cycles, tractors and some lorries. Whenever I asked somebody it was one km and keeping straight. Sometimes it got 2 kms. After maybe 2 thirds of the way, an old man on a bicycle stopped, I asked him Vallalar, Mettu Kuppam? he was nodding, and still waiting. Finally I realized that he wanted to give a lift to me. So, we went the last bit together, and he would bring me straight to the temple, slowly moving. There was another temple in the front, but we went around it, to the backside, and there was a courtyard, with a big hall. We stopped there and he guided me, after washing hands and feet, we entered the temple, where a big flame was kept within a glass box, the eternal flame, symbol of the grace light. A priest was there performing some prayers, making a kind of an Aarati, all in Tamil, I prostrated and then asked my guide, where is the door, the place, where he left the physical dimension. As I couldn't talk in Tamil, I simply asked 'Kamera Samadhi', meaning something like the room where he took Samadhi. He immediately understood, and guided me around, to another building at the backside of the temple. There was a small courtyard inside the house and a very impressive brass door, with flowers in front of it. [http://distilleryimage7.s3.amazonaws.com/daa143fa0d5411e2973e22000a1de2\ 9b_7.jpg] I prostrated, and he showed me another place, next to it at the wall, where a few flowers were laying and a darker spot at the wall indicated that people touched this spot with their hands or put their hands there. I prostrated again, thanked the man, and sat on the floor to meditate their. This was the purpose of my visit, to see the place and meditate there. The old man prostrated himself and left. I had a beautiful meditation. Other people came, some very old women, some younger well to do family it seemed, everybody doing the same, prostrating in one way or the other, some would just sit down like myself and pray or meditate. The meditation was nothing extraordinary, it was just a beautiful meditation. After I felt I was done, I prostrated again, made some photos, and went out, when my friend A. phoned. A is a friend, I nowadays meet each time I go to India. He lives in Pondicherry since 30 years, but he is Italian. A lot of the information I have about India I have from him, he also gave me the info about this place. This time we missed, while I was in Pondy he had just traveled to Bangalore, and from there would go to the place I was just coming from. I told him that I had made the way just by bus, right to the village, and that I liked it. He was still in Bangalore, and it was possible, we could still meet up there - we finally did. I went back to the temple. The people from Bangalore were there who had passed us by in the car, the only car I saw on the way. The young man had an Auroville T-shirt. The would buy several books in Tamil, life-stories and poems of Vallalar, small photos they could distribute. I bought a small photo and the priest went to bring a small brochure in English, that was all they had in English. I had seen before in the Aurobindo Ashram, that somebody there had published big two volume books comparing Vallalar's mission and working with that of Aurobindo. I had read some of that years ago. Also Mirra Alfasa, Aurobindos successor and companion commented on Vallalar, saying that she liked the expression Grace Light, and that he was indeed involved in a similar transformation, as they were, yet, it seemed it was too early, and that he was unable to manifest this force on a more physical plane. After getting some light blessing, and vibhuti, I started my way back, I wanted to go back before it became dark, wondering if I had to walk all the way back to the bus stop. At the door, coffee was available, and the old man was there again. I wanted to thank him somehow, inviting him for coffee, but he refused. There was a small bus, going through all the villages to Vadalur, from there I could go back. The bus came, loud Tamil music playing inside, it filled up soon, a woman with her child sat next to me. As the bused moved through small villages, kids would wave behind the bus. In Vadalur, I took a Rikshaw, to go to the main temple of Vallalar, still before it gets dark. [http://distilleryimage6.s3.amazonaws.com/a9f6c0d60d5411e299e022000a1e8a\ c3_7.jpg] The sanctuary inside was closed, and I decided not to wait till it opens again, and just sat for a few moments to go back. It was getting dark. >From the main street, I could get the bus back to Cuddalore, from there back to Pondy. The bus to Cuddalore was full, a man with his son sat next to me, who started to play with my nose. For Indian kids, we westerners are very interesting, they easily make contact. Maybe our white skin, our body size. Finally, I took the bus to Pondy, I had put my bicycle at a place near the main bus stop, paid there, had some food, and went home just before 10 pm, where I had left around seven in the morning. On the next day, I would go to the Matri Mandir again, this time meditate in the main chamber, with the large spheric Christal in the center, and I would repeat this the following day. I spend two more days in Pondy, then went with a night luxury bus to Bangalore, where I had reserved a room not far from the main bus stand, Majestic. There I would see my friend A. We went together to our favorite Dargah, Tawakkal Masthan ( a Sufi sanctaury) a Hindu Amba temple in Rhajastan style, and finally a Jain temple, The Adinath Digambara Jain temple, where there is a beautiful 3 dimensional Mandala, symbolising all the worlds and directions and gods and Tirtankars in the Jain world. Alle these places are close by, there are innumerable small temples on the way, in these typical mace of small busy lanes. This area is called Chickpet and Balepet.
