It's been over a month since I got here. Absolutely loving the place, the people, and this incredible yogic path that I'm on. There's so much to learn; humbleness, forgiveness and detachment -to name a few ego-reducing lessons... It's all super interesting to me and I have to say that yoga philosophy and stuff in Hinduism like Kali Yuga have never made this much sense to me...

I recently read a lovely book about Sri Pattabhi Jois as perceived by some of his students. To quote a part of the book; one of Guruji's first Western students, Chuck Miller, says:

"I think that the practice is a tremendous metaphor not just for an individual human but for all humanity in general. And that is personally what I see as one of the huge benefits of it. So much damage has been done from people trying to change other people but this gives you a chance to work on yourself and change yourself, come face-to-face with yourself, with your own aggression, to see how you treat yourself. And that is going to influence how you treat other people."
 

 

In addition to practicing yoga and reading books, I've been really enjoying this opportunity to get such a close look to a Brahmin family life (and in this case a pretty orthodox one...). Maybe particularly interesting to me since I myself have had a very dogmatic Protestant upbringing.

Everyday rituals -as well as the ones on special occations like Diwali- are beautiful.

Homa -a fire ritual