“Yoga is a light, which once lit will never dim. The better your practice, the brighter your flame.” B.K.S. Iyengar
Today I saw butterflies! Wonder if they were always around? 5.30am and yoga was on my mind, needless to say today was the day 3 (last day) of cleansing with ghee. At 6am I went to the yoga centre and did my basic stretches, headstand etc and what seemed to be the longest time before people joined for the class, made me wonder if there was a class at all. I saw the watch and it was 5 minutes to 6.30am (the scheduled time), by now a lady would have come and lit the incense, swept the floor, the instructor would have set his mat and the early risers would have started stretching. But nothing.. So I believe there was another notice I missed out on or the fact that the board didn’t mention anything about a yoga class today so there wasn’t one. Just like I missed the Ayurveda doshas class yesterday. As I didn’t go for breakfast and stayed in my room, I later learnt about it during tea time as I mentioned to one of the guests about my kind request for such a session from the doctor a day ago.
Anyways, I started my yoga practice for the next hour and was shortly joined by another lady who did her stretching. By the end of it, we heard the rain and just then I realized I forgot to carry my umbrella, just this one time. We both kept staring outside the window admiring the beauty of the place all the way to the mountains as well as discussing about the plastics in sight, just then the rain stopped. And the moment I thought of stepping back to the room, as if someone heard me, it poured even more heavily. I went down and crossed another lady, borrowed her umbrella and came back shortly with mine, to return hers back.
Once in room, soon after I got my shot of ghee with cardamom and tea to start the day. At the time of consultation, I walked down and after initial questions, daily check on BP, I was told that after one day I would shift to the other place. Great, atleast I get one day of normal food before I go I thought. Or maybe not, as next day was another detox day to clean the intestine and colon, whatever the ghee helped accumulate inside the body. But yes, am promised breakfast before I leave for Lakes and Mountains 🙂
All looked good, my treatments had changed. The full body massage became Shirodhara, pouring of a liquid on the forehead for some time along with the much spoken about nasal treatment. So all the others in the dining room had gone through this treatment except for me and today suddenly, it became a recommended one for my back and shoulder pain, later I would learn that it is also a part of Panchkarama. The procedure is simple, you are given a lovely face massage, some steam through the traditional cooker and then comes the nasal spray that only the doctor puts into one nostril at a time. It burns like hell is how they described, as if someone put chili for no reason at all, this finishes with some herbal smoke with turmeric that seems like a nice finish and worth the pain. An actual smoke like hukka is how it was all explained with a smirk on their face. Soon after the consultation, I got another pot of tea and shortly after a call for the treatment. In the past when I had experienced the Shirodhara treatment, it had been focused on pouring the liquid on the forehead solely however here, I got a full head massage with hair care oil, a special homemade oil that I added to my list to carry home and then a full body massage before a liquid was poured on the forehead. Last time I had this, it was also in Kerala during a course in Ayurveda Nutrition and they poured cold milk so I was skeptical what it would be here as it caused a brain freeze then which had its benefits and limitations for my body type (Pitta dosha). While I do not know if it was milk or water, it was something warm and relaxing. The doctor had prescribed me not to sleep during the process and chant a mantra instead to stay awake. Once done, I was looking forward to lunch as my stomach had started making noises from the start of this treatment. Being day 3, the Ayurvedic rice soup tasted amazing, although I felt it had more cumin powder today, one of my favourite herbs. And 2 roasted papads made out of rice, can be the best partner in crime. We chatted about luggage, space in suitcase and a lot more as a group, as some few were concerned about the amount of stuff they were going to carry back home especially since they have been shopping locally and so was I limited to my list of things to buy from the centre itself. The numbers were shrinking, I was upgraded to one left seat as three people in total had left since I came here and soon it would be me. I started getting withdrawal symptoms so I asked the doctor if I could stay for another few days and reduce my stay in the other centre. Something I had been thinking about since 2 days as I felt settled and knew my surroundings well. However it seemed, they had made arrangements there already so we left it to that. I also asked if I could buy the same herbs from there and the affirmative answer led me not to stuff my suitcase for now.
Post lunch, around 2.30pm came the call for the treatment I was most looking forward to NOT but then thought, what if I didn’t know about it beforehand? What if the experience wasn’t shared? Then I wouldn’t have any expectations, so clearing my mind in this way I accompanied the lady who was on the roll call. In the treatment room, after the daily prayers; they did a face massage and steam, all I kept thinking is ‘come on bring it on’! As one of my friends used to say, how hard could it be? Suddenly I felt more audience in my surrounding with whispers in their language, the nature of Ayurveda is also to maintain quiet and calmness in the surrounding hence they are never loud in their conversations, not even loud enough to be heard by anyone except for whom the conversation is meant. There were two ladies who touched my feet, first I thought it was to pin me down but they explained it was to rub my feet and asked me to rub my hands at the same time. And then after informing me and asking if I was ready, came the spray from the doctor. The lady closed one nostril and asked me to breathe in and then the other. This was to ensure it is inhaled properly and reaches where it is supposed to and OMG!! The thoughts? It’s for your own good! This too shall pass! And it did. Just like that, ok after few deep breaths and a lot of toleration. Then I got another lovely facial with steam and voila it was done. Looking forward to it tomorrow? Maybe, maybe not. Do I have a choice, no, as long as it fixes my system, all is good I thought, remember… Believe in the process. Finally today was the day I finished the project of sorting pictures on my phone by segregating all the images into various folders so they belong. Monica from Friends would have been proud as they are all now classified. Next step was to empty the memories onto my computer to create space for more images on the phone 🙂
During tea time we discussed heavily on gurus and one’s beliefs. This started with me sharing the read of the current book in hand, Adiyogi by Sadguru. I like how he talks about the darkness than light that we all tend to see. Having said that, it is still too early to say if I would continue reading since am here only for another day and the book is really intense, need to be read in bits to absorb the various messages. The fruit of the day during tea time was papaya, also homegrown… and specials for me was the steamed banana. The lady doctor came with a print of how my day will be tomorrow with the cleansing (exciting!) and then we all had a laugh! Now we don’t need reasons to laugh. We laugh at the thought of change for anyone around the table. Then suddenly some discussion about doshas happened and I asked the lady doctor what she was and she suggested to guess around the table. She is a small build, very calm so I thought Vatta and less Pitta then around the table we had another set of discussion. To conclude, she suggested raise your hand for Vatta and Pitta, first it was only me then two more agreed as we shared the facts and voila, we were right!
