Hello friends,
Happily settled in here in Tiruvannamalai. The weather is lovely and warm, my cold is almost gone, and I'm thinking that this is definitely more aligned with my hopes and dreams. You can breathe the air here, and there's a relaxed feeling about the people, and I think I might have mentioned already, it's warm.
Left Bodhgaya at 6 am on the 10th of January. Our taxi driver was waiting for us, which was a relief (you never know...). Traveled with my friend Michel from Montreal, and an Indian photographer from Bombay called Desai. Had a pleasant drive to Patna during which Desai told amusing stories about his adventures. One thing I learned is that taxi drivers, and specifically taxi drivers in Delhi, rip off Indians as badly as they do foreigners. He described incidents that involved either the police, or physical violence, or both. Somehow that made me feel a bit better, and also more confident in negotiating with them for a reasonable fare. Our plane to Delhi was "delayed," actually cancelled I suspect due to low ticket sales, and we went on a later flight. Michel and I parted company at the airport in Delhi, and as I had missed my connection to Chennai I had to arrange to get a seat on the next available flight. That gave time for some book shopping (got Malcolm Gladwell's What the Dog Saw) and a meal. Then the flight to Chennai; arrived 11:30 pm. My luggage did not make it to Chennai, so that involved some filling out of forms and sort of a hope and prayer that maybe they would get it to me eventually. The taxi driver had waited for me since 6 pm and we set off for the three and a half hour drive to Tiru. Two thirds of it was on a good four-lane highway with a lot of truck traffic. Easy going, the main problem being how to pass some of the slower trucks, some of them only going 40 km/h. About half the vehicles had no tail lights, and many of the trucks were moving building materials, mainly rebar for the concrete buildings that are everywhere. Also a lot of buses on the road taking people home for a big 3 day festival that's on right now. We passed a big new Ford plant that is just getting into production, and a lot of trucks were delivering shipping containers there. Then onto a two-lane paved road for the last bit. The road had some bad spots here and there, big potholes or broken pavement, but the driver seemed to know where they all were and would be slowed right down before we got to them. Arrived in Tiru at about 3:45 am. I had made a reservation at a guesthouse two days earlier, and let them know when I landed in Chennai that I would be arriving very late, and nothing seemed amiss. The front gate of the building was locked and a guy was asleep just inside the gate, so we had to wake him up. He woke up grumpy, opened the gate and right away started saying there were no rooms. I explained to him that I had reserved a room two days before, and confirmed a few hours earlier, but he kept saying there was no room. My friend, Meena, had told me that there are times in India when you don't take no for an answer, and it seemed like this was one of those times. I didn't argue with the guy, but I was inside the gate and I had set my hand luggage on the ground, and I just stood there and made it clear that I wasn't going anywhere. He kept saying over and over for maybe ten minutes that there were no rooms, to me in broken English, and to the driver in Tamil. When he realized that I wasn't going anywhere, the story abruptly changed, and it turned out there was a room after all, that had been vacated that day and hadn't been cleaned yet. I wasn't about to be too picky about that, so he showed me the room and I took it. Slept very soundly, negotiated the rate the next morning (only Rs300 per night), got the room cleaned, and all is well. I got a phone call at 10:30 the next evening and a guy showed up in an autorickshaw with my backpack. Amazing. Really didn't know how that was going to turn out.
So, Tiruvannamalai. When I was in Bodhgaya I was sure that I was at the holiest place on the planet. And now I'm living at the foot of Arunachala, and this seems like the holiest place on earth. How to decide these things? In any case, this place has definitely cast its spell on me. A fellow student of Mingyur Rinpoche, Bindu, arrived here on the 11th and we spent most of three days together. We were up early and circumambulated the holy mountain, starting at 5am in the dark, and back in town again by about 7:30 for breakfast. Then off to Satsang with Mooji (see him at mooji.org and search for him on Youtube), then lunch, then some wandering or a little shopping or whatever, and some dinner, then off our separate ways, and do it all again tomorrow. She was one of the people who planted the seed in my mind to come to India in the first place, and it was really great to have the chance to spend time with her here and walk and talk and just let our minds roam around in each other's company. Her Indian adventure is almost over, she's back in Delhi now for her flight home to Belgium, so now I'm on my own, doing mostly the same things. I slept in this morning though and didn't do the walk :-). The Mooji Satsangs have been a revelation. I knew him only from his website and Youtube, but in person the effect is very powerful. And it seems that the effect is cumulative and every day it goes deeper.
It's getting pretty near time to be thinking about booking my flight to Delhi for the trip back. A somewhat melancholy thought. If things were otherwise, I'd be staying until my visa expired. As difficult as it can be, India does get under your skin. Something changes. Hard to be more precise than that. So I'll just coast for these last days, let India do its magic, look at this mountain, listen to Mooji, let it all sink in...
Still planning to post some pictures.... :-)
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