Thursday, August 6, 2009

2009 08 06. Thursday.

2009 08 06. Thursday.

My neighbor Indrani likes to do some puja in the mornings between about 7 and 7:30. She's aware that there's no sound insulation so she pitches her voice very quietly when she sings her puja bhajans. Even so I can still hear her clearly. At first it was a little annoying because I do my main sadhana between 6:30 and 8:30 each morning. But now when I hear her sing it often puts me into a kind of physical bliss. I'll hear her start singing and then get this wonderful tingling sensation all over my skin that lasts for about 15 minutes to a half hour. Feels really good, but its very different than the mental bliss I'll sometimes get during meditation or bhajans. Years ago when I working for the Army one of my coworkers would whistle once in a while. This guy could whistle like an angel, he had genuine talent. Whenever I heard it I would get waves and waves of this tingling bliss and I'd stop whatever work I was doing to enjoy it. Very nice. I wonder how many other people experience this kind of tingling bliss?

I was heading back to my room after breakfast and I could hear the distinctive sound of a puja bell being rung at the Kalari temple. That bell means they're doing a puja. I had a little free time so I went there, bowed and sat down nearby. The puja takes place at a fire pit. One of Amma's devotees who's been trained to do puja rituals sits in front of the fire pit and does all kinds of elaborate complex rituals. Its wonderful to watch and amazing how the pujari (the person doing the puja) can remember all the intricate steps and motions that comprise the whole puja. A typical puja can take an hour or more to perform and the pujari must remain completely focused the whole time on doing the correct motions, mantras, etc. Watching a puja always puts me in a pleasant meditative frame of mind. I chanted my Amma mantra while watching the puja. I would love to spend a lot more time watching the pujas but the compost work keeps me too busy.

Had a nice long talk with Nityanan today after the compost work. He's an Amma devotee and photographer from Italy. Very nice man. He wants to do a photo shoot of the compost work for an Amma website in Europe. We talked for a long time about the compost project and how he could structure the web page to best inform and educate people about the compost.

Darn! Came back to my room after the compost work to discover that Indrani moved. She's the single western lady who lived in the room next to me. No more morning tingling bliss. And no more blessed quiet. And my worst nightmare came true; an Indian family moved in. Oh Jeez. Thankfully this evening they were quiet. Although I think it was because they only moved their furniture and they didn't actually stay in the room this evening.

No comments: