Mendhi

This may be the last post for a while as today is the last day I will have a computer at home...  I know, so sad - but look forward to a more when I return home in two weeks!  The other day my cousin and I went in search of Mendhi.  We were told there were some boys on Devaragas Rd near K.R. Circle and were drawn a map and everything.  Devaragas Rd is like the busiest shopping area of the city center in Mysore, but we had our map.  According to the map and our reference these boys would be sitting just down from Food World on Devaragas Rd at the end of the street where it meets K.R. Circle.  First, the rickshaw driver has no idea where Food World is and drops us in the middle of the block.  We head off toward K.R. Circle looking for Food World and our artists.  Get to the circle and nothing - walk all the way around the circle, nothing.  The circle is a huge roundabout with several corners, we check up each block from the circle, nothing.  We begin to head back up Devaragas along the other side of the street from where we began - at this point frustrated, tired (we had already spent hours at the pool and stopped by a silks shop to pick up an order that was not yet ready.)  A long day was turning into a fruitless day.  Just as we were both about to give up, we decided to walk just a bit further and TaDa!  There they were, basically directly a cross the street from where the rickshaw driver had dropped us in the first place.  Now, check the vids...

More Mysore - Palace Lights

Yes, I have more videos of Mysore, India.  In two days I will be loosing regular access to a computer so I don't know when or if at all I will be able to upload more videos for the rest of the trip.  So, following are two videos of a visit I made to Mysore Palace.  Every Sunday night at 7pm the turn on the lights (you will see what i mean)  It is quite an event, the lawns are packed with visitors, many locals I think, some Indian tourists and a scattering of Non-Indian tourists.  It is beautiful and excessive...  check out in the second video that after the lights are on there is a band playing what sounds like British marching music. 

oh India - you're so crazy...

Here a few videos of random India-ness:

sorry i just had to...

this was on the way to bylakuppe - a sudden traffic jam on the country highway type road with tons of people in the midst of commerce, all seemingly transporting selling etc the same harvest...

At the end of the last video i say "goodnight" completely contradicting the fact that i introduce the video saying it is morning - the truth is that it was morning, very early, still dark and i had a bit of yoga head having just finished practice that began at 4:30am, that is my excuse...

stupid yogi... tricks are for kids

I have to share a little story with you.  Yesterday was conference here in Mysore.  Each week, the students gather to listen to lecture from Shrath (used to be Guruji) and ask questions.  The lecture that Sharath gave was great, about focus, and the purpose of yoga being to find steady state of mind throught purification of nervous system, etc.  When he opened it up to questions the first was "Do all students need to progress to the same palce / postures in asana practice in order to reach enlightenment."  (paraphrasing here)  Sharath quickly and succinctly andswered "No."  Pause.  Then he smiled.  He said that each of us is different and it is possible to reach enlightened state just by practicing primary series.  So another student had a follow up question regarding this and is it really possible to reach enlightenment by practicing primary series and what is Sharath's definition of enlightenment... "  So Sharath explains that it is necessary to really only be able to do one posture comfortably and long enough to turn the senses inward and reach meditative state conducive to progressing toward enlightenment.  Primary series may be enough to prepare the body, nervous system, mind so that this is possible.  It has to do with the way the practice is done, with what intention and focus, not with the postures themselves.  The follow up questioner then commented that Guruji once said that intelligent person can reach enlightenment from primary series, less intelligent person, second series, even less intelligent third series, and so on, etc.  Sharath laughed " I must be the stupidest...  I practice all the series."  laughing again.  It was fantastic! - humble and amused.  Then of course he went on to explain Guruji's meanig with that statment - that students should not be concerned with more poses, what's next, getting the next tricky posture.  But instead should focus on the inner work and becoming steady in the postures they are already doing.

bylakuppe - buddhist colony and golden temple

Greetings from India.  I recently went on an excursion to Bylakuppe and the Tibetan Buddhist colony there.  I got some video of the the colony and the Golden Temple.  Evidently they do not allow video to be taken inside the temple, however I did not know this until leaving...ooops!  So enjoy some forbidden footage from my visit:

what did i eat ...?