I got up this morning for meditation at 7:30 and stayed for
45 minutes, my legs were kind of better today but not by much. When meditation was over I headed for
breakfast and discussed walking trials with everyone at the table, it was
raining this morning so everyone was hoping the day would get better soon. There is a trail after the dam you are
not allowed to walk because it is in the national park and there are lots of
leopards and tigers that roam around.
After I had my shower I decided I was going to go for a
walk… not to the forest part though, only near it. I spoke to some baby cows at the Ashram and then headed off. Finding the dam and crossing the Ganga
was easy and when a man told me not to walk a path because of tigers and
leopards I listened… and followed a different path nearby. It trailed along side the artificial
river that runs off the Ganges and seemed to go forever. To my right was water and to my left
was a steep hill and forest, which I heard lots of rustling in and then noticed
it was the monkeys in the trees avoiding me. Along the walk I noticed some step that went all the way to
the top of the hill and into the dense forest… I did go up these steps. I stopped at the very top where the
cement path stopped and turned into forest… I looked to my left and then to my
right seeing absolutely nothing and hearing nothing either. I knew that if there were a tiger
around the monkeys would be the first ones to warn me of it. I took my shoes off and climbed up a
steep rocky hill covered with plants.
Looking around me I tried to figure out what I would do if I saw a tiger
and thought climbing a tree would be the best thing but must of them were all
trunk. When I reached the top of
the hill all I could see was forest from every direction, behind me there was a
tree and I decided to climb it so I might get a better view of everything
around me. As I did this I heard
the monkeys start to scream at each other but they were some distance away. I have never struggled so much to get
up a tree in my entire life; my arms were shaking from exhaustion and my core
was so weak I could barely lift myself up. At this moment I realized how weak I am if I can’t even
climb up a tree and how helpless I was at the moment with my legs dangling
below me. I released my grip on
the branches and fell to the ground, arms and legs shaking and a very heavy
heart beat. If I tiger had come at
that moment I would have been done, I probably couldn’t have even fended off an
attack from my little brother at that time. Below me I could hear twigs breaking and then I saw goats
roaming around, I heard their herder making noises behind them and was so happy
not to be alone anymore. I
clamored down and when the lady saw me she looked at me like I was the most
bizarre creature she had ever seen.
I would have looked at me like that too; a white girl wearing no shoes
coming out of a forest in India… not something you see everyday. As I tried to avoid the awkward stare
and make a graceful decent down I sliced my foot open on a rock, I kept walking
though. Until she was out of site
did I look at my foot and notice I chunk of skin hanging off. I walked down the steps towards the
river and when I finally made it down there was a small group of men dispersed
along the walkway. When I emerged
from the forest I got the same looks but these ones were more curious looks
than stupid ones. I smiled at them
and climbed over the barrier and down to wash my feet in the cold water, my
body was so hot I desperately wanted to go swimming as well! As I rinsed my feet more men seemed to
gather from out of the forests and soon there was a big group of them… just
looking at me. It was the
strangest thing so when I got out of the water and back onto the sidewalk they
all started casually walking towards me and I to them. I finally said hi to them and smiled
and only the brave few said hi back and others smiled… it was the weirdest
experience I have yet to have with guys.
Mother cows
Baby cow!!!
The path I walked along
I watched Pokémon in my room until 3 and then left for a
tour of a temple… unfortunately it was raining and people here don’t do things
in the rain. So back to my room I
went to watch more Pokémon and do nothing for a while. At 5:45 I went for a lovely yoga class
(finally) and felt amazing afterwards!
I didn’t go to meditate with the group of people afterwards like last
time, instead I grabbed my phone and went back to the mediation hall to play
music, practice my cartwheels, and stretch while playing candy crush. I waited almost the full hour before I
decided to go back to my room before heading to dinner.
At dinner we discussed the strangest of things, one topic
bounced to the next but all seemed to flow smoothly. We talked about Swami Rama and all the different levels of
eating food (vegetarians, vegans, ect) and I learned that you can get to a
point where all you need is air to survive… nothing else. Somehow we managed to get to the topic
of bread and how it has changed so much, strangest topic ever. After all this
talk we managed to get ourselves kicked out of the dining hall because it was
so late and some how I was late for a movie a didn’t know about. I rushed to the TV room and sat amongst
many women from Thailand. The
entire film the lady with the remote would pause the movie after a minute or
less and translate what was just said and explain it. It was a pretty cool film about Swami Rama but I could have
done without all the pausing and talking.
I walked back to my room after the movie was finished and I
felt satisfied with my day. Even
with a cut on my foot I had a big smile on my face. Tomorrow I get to go to a special cave the Buddha and other
famous yogis went to to meditate… I am going to meditate there as well!
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