If you've never been to Mysore, you might wonder what a day here is like.
Well, no day is ever quite the same, and every trip seems to carry with it a different energy, but there is also a rhythm to life here in India that is simplistic and beautiful if you take the time to stop your busy, chattering mind, and just listen...
There is a quiet here in the early morning that penetrates deep into the inner self.
We awake at 2am to start our morning with some tea or coffee, spiritual reading, chanting, and pranayama. The first group of students starts to arrive at the Shala around 3:45am. The gates open at 4:00am, which is 4:15am "Shala Time". Everyone in the early shift has started their asana practice by 4:30am.
If you are not starting in the first group, you come at whatever time Sharath gives you. You can sleep in a little bit longer, or relax at home and hear the Muslim call to prayer at 5:25am and the again at 6:40am. It is an incredible sound that echos throughout the city. It is somewhat haunting, and yet, also comforting.
Around that same time you can also hear Chanting start up from the Krishna Temple near by, and Musical Prayers playing from some loud speaker, at an unknown location. Everything early in the morning is focused on taking time to turn the mind towards God. To practice Yoga, Union, in some way.
On the walk home from the Shala, you can see women out sweeping their front walk, men on bicycles calling out different vegetables or herbs they are selling, and as the sun rises into the sky everything is bathed in a beautiful soft light.
The sound of pressure cookers periodically releasing their steam into space is accompanied by delicious smells of traditional South Indian breakfast.
I feel that this early morning time is especially sacred here. There is an order to things, a peacefulness and calm that insulates everything, before the rest of the day turns into total chaos!
Everything else from mid-morning to evening seems completely unpredictable!
Anything can happen.
This element of sponteanuity creeps into the day, and it can be exciting and adventurous, but it can also be exhausting.
Usually by 6pm we are ready to take an evening bath (clean the dirty off our feet at minimum) and crawl into bed. With any luck we can get Jediah to sleep before 8pm!
The next day... We start all over again...
Well, no day is ever quite the same, and every trip seems to carry with it a different energy, but there is also a rhythm to life here in India that is simplistic and beautiful if you take the time to stop your busy, chattering mind, and just listen...
There is a quiet here in the early morning that penetrates deep into the inner self.
We awake at 2am to start our morning with some tea or coffee, spiritual reading, chanting, and pranayama. The first group of students starts to arrive at the Shala around 3:45am. The gates open at 4:00am, which is 4:15am "Shala Time". Everyone in the early shift has started their asana practice by 4:30am.
If you are not starting in the first group, you come at whatever time Sharath gives you. You can sleep in a little bit longer, or relax at home and hear the Muslim call to prayer at 5:25am and the again at 6:40am. It is an incredible sound that echos throughout the city. It is somewhat haunting, and yet, also comforting.
Around that same time you can also hear Chanting start up from the Krishna Temple near by, and Musical Prayers playing from some loud speaker, at an unknown location. Everything early in the morning is focused on taking time to turn the mind towards God. To practice Yoga, Union, in some way.
On the walk home from the Shala, you can see women out sweeping their front walk, men on bicycles calling out different vegetables or herbs they are selling, and as the sun rises into the sky everything is bathed in a beautiful soft light.
The sound of pressure cookers periodically releasing their steam into space is accompanied by delicious smells of traditional South Indian breakfast.
I feel that this early morning time is especially sacred here. There is an order to things, a peacefulness and calm that insulates everything, before the rest of the day turns into total chaos!
Everything else from mid-morning to evening seems completely unpredictable!
Anything can happen.
This element of sponteanuity creeps into the day, and it can be exciting and adventurous, but it can also be exhausting.
Usually by 6pm we are ready to take an evening bath (clean the dirty off our feet at minimum) and crawl into bed. With any luck we can get Jediah to sleep before 8pm!
The next day... We start all over again...
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