Chanting from the rooftops
Never could I have imagined sitting face to face with Swami Vidyanand chanting on the rooftop of the Transformational yoga and meditation school.
Today has been an awesome full day and a great improvement on yesterday, and that feels so long ago. It was my first day, I won't forget it and I'll write about the day in Pondicherry soon I'm sure. Last night I was woken at midnight with very loud fireworks , which apparently could of been a celebration of the birth or death of someone. Next came the arrival of my room mate at two in the morning. She is Swiss and she is five months pregnant and she does have a story, an interesting one. She's pretty young and she's been living in Madagascar, Mozambique and Mauritius for one year. She should probably write a blog, maybe I'll get her to write a guest blog when I get to know her better. She's just done an Ayurveda course in an ashram in Mysore. Really interested to hear more about that and have considered studying it myself. What was next, oh, cocka-doodle-doo at 5 am! Lucky I was in bed for eight pm isn't it.
We started our course today and learned about the science of yoga, the energy centers and layers of ourselves, our physical, mental, psychic and prana. It's so good to be taught this in depth. We learned about different types of meditation and how yoga and meditation are linked. Some of this I knew already but would never really be able to explain or actually practice meditation very well. This has really helped and it's only been one day. Our second class was a practical class, Hatha yoga. My mind definitely still chattered but practicing Hatha yoga was definitely a more successful way to meditate. There was very few asanas but lots of focus and as Swami calls it "Cooling Fire* which means burning away the thoughts about past and future and just being present. We finished the class with half an hour on the rooftop, chanting mantras. Firstly we did it all together and then he asked us to come one by one to face him directly so he could speak to us. It was quite a surreal experience, he told me I was very sharp and something to do with wisdom and white light, sorry I know, bit of a blur but he also said that I will probably get through more of the information and push forward with the course faster if I want to. I have a gut feeling Swami ji has got a plan for me. The Swiss girl is called Estelle, he calls her Michelle, unless I heard her wrong, I better check, we're good room mates, and she asks shit loads of questions in class which is awesome, as I am as confused as her! It's pretty hard learning from an Indian guy because of the accent and also who's ever heard of the Muladhara? It was always the Root Chakra until now.
Mrs Swami has cooked three meals a day for us and it's so nice to be looked after and have food ready after classes, perfect really isn't it. Myself, Estelle/Michelle and Bishnoi the India guy grabbed an auto rickshaw and spent the afternoon in Auroville. I've been checking it out before I came and it's truly amazing. If you look on google images at the sky view you will see what I mean. We went to the visitors center and saw the Matrimandir but we had to book to go inside.
Sorry to leave it there but Auroville and the Matrimandir deserves it's own post and on Wednesday I'm going inside the Matrimandir so I'll tell you about it then. It's time for my six thirty am yoga class. P.s Shes called Estelle
