After a day in Gurgaon at the Ananda Center, we realized that we will need a cell phone while we are here. Vidura kindly offered to take me to the nearby cellphone shop and help me with the process. Appearently he helped two other people in the last two days so the guys at the store know him quite well by now. We rode a rickshaw to the mall where the phone shop is located. That was an experience all by itself. It is best to close your eyes and pray. Despite the heavy traffic and extreme-close-proximity driving, there are not many accidents here. At least I haven’t come across any. Even when they happen, I heard that they are low speed accidents so they are rarely fatal. With all the honking and waving, somehow it all works smoothly. Honking is not only allowed, it is encouraged. Most buses and trucks have a “Please Horn” sign on their bumper. By God’s grace we arrived at the mall. Vidura inquired for the cheapest Nokia phone. Once the phone model is determined the next step is to get some passport pictures for the “mobile phone application form”. A copy of the passport is also attached to the application. Despite all this paperwork, within half an hour the phone got activated and they were able to add the pay-as-you-go minutes to my phone. We also stopped by the Hutch(sp?) shop, which is another cell phone service provider, to add international roaming to Dhyana’s phone. This store looked like from space age. When you enter the store, you first go to a touch-screen terminal where you enter your inquiry and get a number. A few minutes later a computerized voice calls your number along with a booth number that you go to. Unfortunately, we were told that a copy of the passport was needed to add international roaming. From that space-agey store you walk outside to the street, where dust, rickshaws and cows rule. You can observe multiple centuries all happening at the same time.
The air is generally clear in Gurgaon, at least this time of the year. The weather has been comfortable, somewhat warm during the day but comfortably cool at night for sleep. Since I haven’t been outside Gurgaon and outside the gated DLF Phase-I area (where Ananda center is), I can’t add my opinion but I have been told that it is like the Beverly Hills of India. Sure there is trash, dust and all that but it is quite nice in general. After a while you don’t really notice those things, trash becomes part of the landscape, honking becomes part of the music, cows become part of the local wildlife just like deer at Ananda village. In fact cows of Gurgaon seem quite well fed.
The weekend of March 3 through 6 (Friday evening through Monday mid-day) was the Mahasamadhi celebrations. We spent all day Friday preparing the local community center for the event. Many volunteers showed up and helped transform a beaten-up looking community hall into a beautiful room with flowers, colorful wall covers, altars, bookstore, boutique and gift shop. At its peak throughout the weekend, we had about 250 attendees, including many visitors from America and Italy. Swami gave speeches of over 90 minutes every morning (every day he was able to stand longer than the day before to deliver his speec). He looked and sounded great. He was constantly pouring his energy out encouraging everyone to be part of this wonderful work in India. Much of his talks were focused on different aspects of his masterpiece, “the Essence of Bhagavad Gita”, the first prints of which arrived during the first evening. It was an exteremely inspiring weekend. We met many wonderful people and devotees from India.
Saturday evening we had a musical program where Swamiji also sang with the choir. It was quite special to be able to sing with him on the stage.
Indians have great reverence for Swamiji, they flock towards him whereever he goes, bowing to his feet and asking for his blessing. Swami always greets them graciously, with most sincere smile and with no hint of ego. One of the greatest features of Indians is their openness. On Sunday as Swami was arriving at the hall, one middle-aged man bowed to his feet and asked for his blessing. He started pouring his heart to Swami explaining his trouble with his marriage. Swami listened to his troubles attentively and gave advice right there on the spot. All this happening in the midst of a crowd all wanting to get a dharshan of Swami. Indians have a great quality of open heart. They do not have any trouble of asking for help with what issue they might have with their lives even if other people might be listening. They do not mind that at all. One young Indian man asked my advice about his upcoming marriage about half an hour after we met. They are just so open. They do not have any of these barriers and personal space that we are so used to in the U.S.
The weekend events concluded on Monday afternoon with a fairwell lunch. At the lunch I had a nice chat with an Indian middle-aged man who was quite interested in our path and especially the community aspect of it. He had lots of questions about the community life. He also said he had two primary observations throughout the weekend. He said the first one was that everyone who was part of Ananda had light and joy emanating from their eyes and faces. He said he had never seen that so consistently across so many people before. He said the second observation was that there were people of all ages associated with Ananda. He said that in India when someone joins an ashram generally they are retired and older people (the fourth ashram stage). He was quite pleased to see people from all age groups here. How wonderful that people choose this way of life even at younger ages he said. I couldn't agree with him more. He hopes to visit Ananda Village during this summer since he is planning on spending four months in the U.S.
Suzanne and I left right after lunch because we had a flight to catch. I wrote most of this blog while waiting for our flight at the Delhi airport. We are now in Kolkata. Tomorrow morning we are heading out to Serampore to visit Sri Yukteswar's hermitage. We will be joining Durga, Vidura, Irene, Santoshi and the high school girls. The Binghams will also be with us.
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