Andaman Ananda

Most of our time at the Andamans so far has been spent relaxing and resting, we both took a pretty decent India crash with our health in the early September weather. Nice and cool hotel room, food from the hotel restaurant downstairs, cable TV and you're all set...

Last three nights have finally given both of us the kind of deep, almost comatose healing deep sleep you need to regain your health. Before that, most nights were half-slept and half lightly-slept, and not exactly our tickling each other all night long.

The environment and weather here are heavenly. Beautiful and totally perfect for what I need right now, and have in fact been needing for a long time now. It's "India Light" in a very scenic and functional setting, a very gentle climate and very pleasantly quiet.

We'll be spending a few more days at Port Blair, and then move onwards to cruising across the little islands around, and probably spending a bit more time at Little Andaman. I am under the assumption that there is no internet on the other islands.

Photos to follow if and when I get a chance to copy them over to a PC and sort them out. Guests interested in commenting can comment again.

Travel Summary

Long time, no writing at the blog... Short segments on each bit of the journey up to date, as follows.

Kathmandu to Varanasi

Booking bus tickets all the way, I assumed I'd be in for a smooth ride. Hell, it was anything but smooth! Bumpy for one, but the so-called change at the border was but a plain bad joke. The travel agent on the Nepal side handed me a ticket, a ticket I brought to the agent on the Indian side — to receive 172 rupees in cash for the bus ticket! A few hundred rupees were lost in pointless commissions, you could have just as well done everything yourself.

And the road from Gorakhpur to Varanasi is very, very, very bumpy. And coming down from the mountains, it was also pretty damned hot — I was sweating much more than my fair share during the 24 hours total that it took me to finally get to Varanasi.

Bom Bholenath

The ghats at Varanasi were totally flooded after the rainy season. There was no more walking 'round the ghats, up and down, and even the burnings at Manikarnika took place primarily on the roofs of buildings! I staid at the Shanti Guesthouse, a charming place right atop the ghat with a beautiful view of the Ganga, spending much of my time hanging around at the rooftop restaurant, chatting away my time with heaps of beautiful people, to be mentioned some other time with a bit more time and attention at my hands.

Delhi Seasons

Delhi, with the heat and the pollution, totally finished me off. I developed a mighty series of large boils atop my central belly and right collar bone, got a terrible dry cough, and spent 4-5 days in near 40 degree fever. In the magical Delhi, you get three seasons at once — the cold season of AC cooled subways and shops, the windy season of the cheap guesthouse fans with speed regulators defunct, and the humid and hot season in place otherwise. Does "floating pollutions" count for a season?

I spent the better part of a day at the Home Affairs Ministry extending my visa and entertaining the bureaucratic system with diverse curious forms and procedures, to be given a sealed letter at the end of the day, addressed to the Mathura F.R.O. office. Fortunately it contained a positive one-year extension decision, and made the visit to Mathura a very smooth and brief one.

Radhakund

My visit to Radhakund was pretty much a sneaking in and out, I really wasn't interested in any level of extended exchange with the folks there. Sakhicharan and Bisakha were kind enough to host me for a few nights, enough for me to get my practicalities done. And we enjoyed many a conversation, and we ate many platefuls of delicious kichari! To eat something plain and bland for change — what a tremendous pleasure and indulgence!

Curiously enough, on my way out I was greeted by Ishan who was on the way to the airport to pick up Babaji Maharaja, coming in from Kolkata, and got a ride to Delhi. (Obviously I left a generous donation for the gas.) How odd that our paths crossed so near without meeting — I had heard the other day that he'd be coming, but my schedule was just way too tight. I started writing a short letter in Bangla, but realized my written skills were just way too rusty to put anything intelligible together. For later, then.

Kolkata

The train from Delhi to Kolkata took a grand total of 38 hours!! Finally reaching Howrah at ten at night, I just floated to the first reasonable hotel listed at my Lonely Planet. Hotel Howrah — this old, grandiose building had evidently been at least a four star lounge back in its hay days, perhaps sometime in the fifties... Still offering rooms for decent prices — and excellent room service, meals to bed! — it's a pretty charming place, in fact. Charming enough to have kept me from hovering over to look for a place in the Park St. area where most folks seem to be staying.

Uma joined me on the 4th — without her luggage. One of those plane swaps had been just a little bit too tight, tight enough to leave the luggage stranded somewhere on the way. A few days of her goofing around with clothes I had in stock was worth the 4000 Rs. compensation, I suppose. It was fun all the same! We've been going around, visiting Kalighat and some of the other classic Kolkata sights, and much of the time just relaxing and enjoying each others' company — assuming it's mutual, that is!


Towards the Andamans

Tomorrow afternoon, a ship starts its 60 hour journey towards Port Blair. I am not expecting to have internet connections on the way, nor during most of the three weeks or thereabouts we'll be spending there, floating from island to island. Catch up with you a bit later — have good times!

And I am so going to be snorkling around the beaches!!

Three days at countryside

I'm heading over to Amrit's village for three days for a bit of relax and to have a look at the area where he plans to eventually move the orphanage, to his land. See you in a bit.

South India Plans

I'm planning an upcoming journey across southern India, spanning over a month and a half from Mumbai to Kanyakumari. However, feedback from travelers more experienced with the south, spots of particular interest, is much needed. Please leave your comments!

View South India at Google Maps.


Maharashtra

-> Mumbai. The third largest state of India by size and the second largest by population.

-> Nasik. A pilgrimage center on the way towards Aurangabad.

-> Ajanta and Ellora. Buddhist caves - a complex of rock-cut caves representing some of the best of early Buddhist art.

-> Pune. Cultural capital of Maharashtra, Osho headquarters.


Karnataka

-> Hampi. The ruins of Vijayanagara Empire are a UNESCO World Heritage site.

-> Goa requires few introductions.

-> Gokarna. A small pilgrimage town on the coast, beautiful beaches.

-> Udupi. The ancient Madhva headquarters.

-> Mangalore. Headquarters of southern Karnataka.

-> Mysore. An ancient city with much to see.

-> Bandipur National Park A 890sq km wildlife sanctuary.

-> Bylakupee. The largest Tibetan settlement outside of Tibet. Namdroling monastery.


Kerala

Kerala I am very unfamiliar with… Kovalam beach? =) Help!

-> Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum) - The Kerala capital.


Tamil Nadu

Tentatively just the south-western part of Tamil Nadu, no plans for heading up the coast towards Chennai for now… Even if there'd be much to see there, too.

-> Kanniyakumari (Cape Comorin). The southernmost tip of the Indian mainland.

The Peak of Arunachala

Posted 1st of April, 2008 @ Vraja Journal.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Tiruvannamalai, a city in Tamil Nadu, has the sacred mountain Arunachala as its divine hub. Its latest master of fame being Ramana Maharshi, the giant of Advaita-vedanta from early 1900's, this awe-inspiring mountain has been a home to countless jnanis and siddhas over the millennia. It is one of the pancha-bhuta-sthalas, abodes of the five elements, representing fire-element.

In the origin story of Arunachala, the old Puranic narrative tells of Brahma and Vishnu having a disagreement over who of the two was the highest divinity. Amidst the quarrel, a vast beam of fiery light sprang forth, a pillar of splendor penetrating the cosmic extremes. Both humbled before the insurmountable challenge, they concluded this cosmic splendor, the presence of Siva, to be the highest reality. This halo materialized as the mountain Arunachala.

We spent one night in the well-maintained guesthouse, and one night at the holy mountain itself. I suppose it was inevitable that I was to be drawn, as if pulled by a magnet, to the highest peak of this 2200 feet manifestation of cosmic radiance. The climb barefoot was a challenge enough, but having come so far, I wanted to spend the whole of the twelve hours I had, from dusk until dawn, at the sahasrara or the thousand-petaled crown of the mountain, as attaining sahasrara alone the supreme non-duality and integration is realized.

Soon enough after the sunset a thunderstorm set in motion. Sitting alone in the solitude of the peak atop a three-meter boulder, the fierce winds were rocking me back and forth even in the steadiest of postures. Rainfall was very minimal, but the atmosphere was very humid. Dark rainclouds were flying past me all around, both beneath and above, at a fierce velocity. It was as if Arunachala, this living mountain pulsating with an otherworldly halo, wanted to give the best of its shows for me.

The weather soon became too extreme to bear while sitting, and I found myself curled up inside the thick shawl I carried. There was little chance for conventional meditation. I spent the better part of the night, aside the few hours of rest, observing the rise and fall of sensations and feelings, their interplay, their intrinsically empty nature. Let no more be said of the night, a night that brought a certain objective to fruition, for some things are to be hidden in the cavity of the heart.

It was in a book by Swami Rama, "Living with the Himalayan Masters" (highly recommended), that I read a wise note of reconciliation on Advaita-vedanta and Buddhism, the two non-dual traditions that have been a source of much insight to me as of late. Narrating the story of his visit to his grandmaster in Tibet, he writes of an encounter with a wise lama:

"While in Gangtok I lived in a monastery, which still exists on the northeast side of the city. There I visited a lama who was a remarkable man. He was a genuine Buddhist yogi and a learned Sanskrit scholar who had lived for many years in Bodhigaya in India. Usually the scholars of Buddhism criticize Shankara, just as the swamis from the order of Shankaracharya criticize Buddhism.

"But this wise man, citing references from many texts, taught me a synthesis of Buddhism and Shankara's advaita system. He said, 'There is no difference between these two systems of philosophy as far as the ultimate Reality is concerned. There are verbal differences, but no experiential differences. Cast off all sectarian influences and attain the highest state of consciousness or nirvana.'"

I heartily agree with the above message. It is in vein that scholars describe and criticize philosophies that are beyond their realm of direct experience obtained through application. Even the best expositions are only approximate estimations of experiential realities that transcend common levels of experience and rationality.

In the Buddhist theory, all of reality is characterized by three factors, anitya, duhkha and anatma — all objects are temporary, sources of discontent, and non-self. The root of existence is avidya or ignorance, and the continuance of conditioned existence arises from trishna, or craving. The concept of nirvana or final cessation transcends all non-self conglomerates and is indescribable. The liberating factor is prajna or wisdom, arising from vipascana or wisdom-perception.

In Advaita-vedanta, the problem is in adhyaropa or superimposition of illusory concepts on the nature of objects. Adhyaropa arises from avidya, or ignorance. Existence unfolds with the interplay of raga and dvesa, or attachment and repulsion. The agocara-tattva or ingraspable final reality is understood within the formation world only as neti-neti, "not this, not this". The liberating factor is jnana or wisdom, arising from nididhyasana or meditational wisdom-contemplation.

Contrasting Buddhism and Advaita-vedanta is a fascinating field, better explored on an experimental basis than in dry academic comparisons, or expositions by biased in-tradition scholastics. For the interested, I'd like to share a link to David Loy's Enlightenment in Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta: Are Nirvana and Moksha the Same?, an excellent essay comparing the enlightenment-concepts of Buddhism, Advaita and Sankhya, three classical traditions positing the basic three approaches to the matter-spirit dichotomy.

The visit to Ramanashrama and Arunachala left me with fond memories. I will, no doubt, be revisiting the place with more time at the opening of a suitable future opportunity. I can see why Ramana would have considered Arunachala the greatest of his teachers.