My initial plan for my much anticipated 5 week holiday involved covering plenty of ground and returning to as many favourite places as possible…
Well! It turned out to be a lovely spoiling week in
I met Emily, another English girl… amongst the other wonderful varieties of people that made our time of doing generally absolutely bugger all, all the more enjoyable. We spent most of our time abusing each other and laughing about it and with the same intentions of going to Kerala, our planned departure tearing us away from the beach, was mutually put back and back. So finally we made it down on the sleeper train, no need to bother with the higher class, on standard sleeper you manage a perfectly great nights rest on the top bunk... apart from the ‘chai chai chai’ ‘coffee coffee coffee’ every 5 mins passing in the middle of the night.
Once arrived in Kerala, all reasons to head to the Amma ashram were all too straight forward. So we spent our day making our way on the local train where we sat in the doorways soaking up the beautiful Kerala backwaters. You can’t beat the fun on the Indian trains. 3 days we had planned! I stayed 10, until it was time to leave for the next chapter of my trip.
I want to tell you about Amma, as I had not heard of her until my uncle briefly mentioned her. She was born on the grounds where this ashram was built by her/for her. From a young age she had this incredible energy about her and actually Amma’s family threw her out of their home as her behaviour seemed inadequate for their culture.
She is the hugging mother, she hugs and consoles everyone and anyone and has this incredible wisdom about her. Unfortunately Amma was not there, but I learnt a lot of what she has done for people all over the world and how strongly her disciples love her. At times I was indifferent to their ways of seeing the world and other times I found it immensely powerful and then overwhelming. Living in this community I met some incredibly interesting people and had some fascinating conversations. My day consisted of waking up at 6am, where on the beach we would listen to her teachings, this usually consisted of a couple of discussions with Emily and our roommate Christine who was doing a weeks silence when we arrived...
This is all new to me, but I noticed how I seemed to stroll my way around the ashram everyday… rather than my usual hurried self. I took yoga classes every morning and I was required to do a ‘seva’ which is a service to your time at the ashram. I was assigned to deep clean the temple… Honestly, initially a little reluctant but actually I never thought to feel so much worth doing something I completely detest! Everyday I scrubbed the windows and the beautiful wooden carved doors where I have grown a little love for the lotus flower. It symbolizes in Hindu and Buddha religion wisdom, compassion, divinity purity and contemplation. Vanessa my neighbour would often come into the temple and she would comment on how much I glowed… probably because I was sweating so much from the midday heat, but she started to call me Lotus.
I followed my instructions from the Albanian nun, Heridya. Who was in charge of running the maintenance of the temple. She was quite aggressive, but you could tell she was trying not to be. She was so pissed off that I was going to be leaving without meeting Amma, and wouldn’t leave it alone and kept pestering me to stay. ‘Your life is over if you have not met her! You must stay here till she comes back!’ I tried to keep it on a humorous level, she was only wanting me to experience her so I can understand why she has so much love for Amma. One day I will meet her, someone who has such a profound effect on people and does so many wonderful things in the world are not put on this planet for any old reason. I battled with the idea of how all these people relied on her so much to help them through their life. Amma once described this ashram as her ‘mental hospital’ and I suppose it doesn’t have to be such a lonesome battle with your life. You don’t have to do it on your own. And I guess there is a reason why Amma made Heridya in charge of the temple, because she needs her that much more.
