Post Navaratri

Navaratri. What can I say? I am still shifting so much from the experiences I had there, that I might be able to put concepts to words by some time this fall. Suffice it to say, my heart snapped, crackled and popped wide open with a little help from my new friends (and a LOT of help from one closest to my heart in particular), and I no longer have any ideas of what the future holds. Prior to the trip, I thought I had an idea of the future, but was paralyzed with fear. The fear is gone... and every thought running around my head these days has to do with how I can bring more light through my heart to share with this planet. There's also quite a few thoughts dedicated in the general direction to that one closest to my heart...but I have to sit back and see what happens with all of that.

Prema and I wandered to Chilianaula for Ayurvedic PanchKarma the same day I tearfully waved goodbye to all of my new friends. She let me cry on her shoulder for awhile and held me up. ;-) Luckily, I was able to reject getting sick until we were at the ashram and unpacked, though the trip to the ashram was with a troubled and sour tummy. Then I was able to relax into "Delhi Belly in the safety of the ashram. Happily, I was not puking, and one bathroom had western style toilets. The timing rocked, as I saw Dr. Vijay the very next morning, weak and somewhat trembling.

Prema took tremendous care of me. I am so grateful for her. She let me rest and packed up our ashram room so we could move into the guest house. So sweet. I was relieved I only had to drag myself out of bed in order to place my body in the next one.

PanchKarma is definitely NOT a spa stay. I never thought I'd say this, but after day 3, I remarked to Prema, "I don't think I can handle 2 massages a day for 5 days!" The oil massage is no big deal, and I'm loving the steam bath (don't tell my masseuses, but I play with my sweat while it's pouring off of me when I am sitting in the box ;-) ), but the powder massage is gruesome! Do you remember giving/getting snakebites when you were a kid? Where you grab someone's arm with both hands and twist the skin in opposite directions? They do that on purpose while grinding this powder into my skin! Not just the arms, either -- the thighs, the stomach, the arms, the breasts, the back...Ouch!!

I just keep repeating "Om Namah Shivayah, Om Namah Shivayah, Om Namah Shivayah" in my head. The girls giggled at that when I told them.

And as far as enemas go...Let's just say it was a nice little extra special gift that I had diarrhea before the enemas started. For those of you who don't know what PanchKarma is, there's a great description on this website. http://www.babajiayurveda.info/EN-English.htm They are really not a big deal, but it was sweet to start my treatment "clean" so to speak.

The food is good. Bland, but good. It's really healthy, of course. Raju, our cook, immediately took to calling me "Butterfly" because of my eye glasses. It's kind of cool to have been given 2 new names in one week!

2 days after we got here, Muniraji came to stay for a couple of nights. We were able to receive chandun 2 more times from him. He hummed the whole time...

The people here are sweet, and it is nice to see some familiar faces from Herakhan. Aarti is an entirely different event here with the celebration having finished. Last night, we sang without a harmonium to lead us in song. THAT was a treat 2 ways: 1) I'm really am actually learning the words and cadence of the songs, so it must be getting close to test time, and 2) It's certainly a practice in non-judgement when the whole group starts to sing really flat because there's no music! I love it! Had to laugh...

Prema has left for her time share and I have a big room all to myself. Last night, a young woman from California who has been in treatment for 40 days(!) did a tarot reading for me that was amazingly powerful and, of course, dead on for everything that has happened, and everything that I can feel coming into my life. My immediate future calls for introspection and reflection, and I can't think of a more perfect place to be than here right now, for doing more inner work.

From my heart to yours,
Saraswati
aka
Celeste
aka Butterfly