Varanasi wrap-up

The last two days in Varanasi were amazing. Monday night a small group of us chanted togetherafter dinner and had a group out of body experience during one of the chants. Two shared a visual experience and the other three were just "out there". I was cranky and tired after a day of bait and switch and more wild traffic and I felt my body do a "core dump" and I was totally refreshed after our chanting session.

Earlier Monday afternoon, about 8 of us set out to go to the Ghandi cotton factory. One of the local guides arranged auto rickshaws for us, which was a new an amazing experience in wildness/weirdness/unrestrained laughter. He did, however, hijack our trip to a friend's factory who happened to claim to be named Ghandi. We toured the factory first and it broke my heart to see children working the looms, yet the conditions were more humane than my ex-husband's factory in the states.

The children are so beautiful and I got many pictures. After the tour we were led to a very small room and asked to sit while they showed us bedcovers. The bedcovers were very beautiful, but the guys were very rude. At one point the pile of silk on the floor reached chest height as we were sitting.

I went outside with a friend and we learned Hindi from the local children. It got a bit overwhelming when they started swarming. Three friends came out and got me to go with them to pick up their tailor made suits at another factory. I declined to go inside there and walked back to the hotel, as it was very close.

Tuesday morning I went down to the Ganga and chanted a mala of Gayatri mantra at 6am. I had a beautiful meditation and then went and stood mid calf in the water on one of the steps. Men, women, and children were bathing and swimming there. When I stepped into the water, the river hugged me. Totally. She's alive! Ma Ganga. Total Love.

I wanted to go swimming so badly! The sun glinting on the water was so beckoning. I got the clear message that there was no difference between swimming and standing there. There is no better or worse, bigger or smaller, right or wrong. I was being embraced by Ma Ganga and that's that! Or not :)

I went to breakfast and signed up for another voice lesson with Anub-ji, one of Gina-ji's teachers. After teaching us a brief history of Indian classical music, he taught us a part of the Billawal Rag. I was so happy to be able to discern the notes when he was singing the thaat (scales). It's so beautiful!

It's an absolutely beautiful Rag about touching the feet of your Guru-ji and two and a half hours flew by like 15 minutes. I could study this music forever!

After that we went to lunch and I picked up my tailor made outfit. It was much too small, to my dismay. I had to wait for the shopkeep to come back and he very graciously gave me a refund minus the 150 rupee tailoring fee (less than $4.00). He rocks!

Somewhere between the restaurant and the shop I thought I lost my camera. We were checking out of the hotel in less than an hour and I raced back there to look. It was nowhere. I decided it was a great chance to practice non-attachment and it really was OK. I decided to check upstairs in the massage room where our lesson was and found it had fallen off the table and was in the corner. Score!

We had a moving ceremony with the hotel staff. They gave us rose garlands and we gave them a signed card and group tip. I hugged each and every one of them and took pictures with some of them. They were very moved. I miss them already!

I've had many insights over my 4 days (OMG I can't believe it was only 4 days!) and I think they deserve their own post, as does the overnight train ride to Agra.

More soon...

Om shanti shanti shantihi,
Becky