Thursday, January 25, 2007 Life Extraordinary: Maris A. Mortel By Dorothy Bangayan The unlonely planet
(India, the country evokes in me images of spicy food, snake charmers and congested streets. Mysterious at the same time probably be too jarring for me to want to live in. So when a friend of mine got accepted for a month long scholarship in Chennai India, I asked her what Indian living is all about.)
LAST month, I went to India for an international scholarship training program sponsored by a non-profit organization called the Sahaj Marg Spirituality Foundation. Sahaj Marg is a system of Raja Yoga meditation that I have been practicing for many years, but it was my first time to travel by myself to India where the practice has its roots.
After a brief stopover in Singapore, I arrived in the airport of Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu state in Southern India and India's fourth largest city.
After passing a long queue at the immigration, I exited the airport and was met by a representative of the Babuji Memorial Ashram where all 33 program participants from 19 countries would be staying.
It was past midnight when I entered the quiet tranquility of the ashram located in a place called Manapakkam. An ashram is a place of rest or retreat. It is also a place where a community works, lives, and studies together -- mostly drawn by a common spiritual goal.
In this ashram people from all continents of the world stay to experience inner peace and quiet for a few days, weeks, or even months.
After a few hours rest, the stillness of the night was broken by the sound of a gong signaling that it's 5 a.m., time for an ashram day to begin. In the daylight I take a walk around, breathing in the cool, fresh air, and taking in the sights of trees, plants, flowers that are abundant in the ashram.
I watch squirrels flit from tree to tree, huge bees sucking on nectar, and crows flying overhead. I hear the sound of bird calls.
In this ashram, life is simple and straightforward -- 6:30 a.m. is satsangh or group meditation, 7:30 a.m. is breakfast, 12:30 p.m. is lunch, 5 p.m. is satsangh and then 7:30 p.m. is dinner.
In between them there are plenty to do, volunteers are welcome to help with meal preparations, washing dishes, gardening, or cleaning the halls and rooms. During the training program though, I spent the rest of my day with my fellow participants attending talks and lectures or participating in group discussions and interactions.
To me, meals at the ashram were fulfilling experiences in themselves. Almost every meal is a combination of iddlis (steamed rice cakes), vadas (deep fried lentil cakes), dosas (rice pancakes), or roti (oven-baked unleavened bread) served on a tin plate with a generous slopping of either dhal or sambar (lentil soup), coconut chutney, or a mixture of curried fresh vegetables such as potatoes, cauliflower, okras. Samosas (deep fried triangular pastry filled with vegetables) that are served hot as snacks are a treat too.
All of the dishes are vegetarian, and it was a pleasant surprise for me to realize that a typical meat-loving Pinay like me can survive on a month-long vegetarian diet and enjoy it! In the ashram the food served is considered Prasad, or blessed food, much care and joy is taken in its preparation and in eating it.
Although it was certainly a much cherished break from my daily grind and a golden opportunity for quiet reflection to end and begin a year, for a citified girl like me to get used to the ashram way of life so quickly was another personal discovery.
