After unpacking, and taking a hot bath and a shower, I settled into bed and listened to Dr. Nazari’s Yoga Nidra meditation on my ipod.  After meditation, my eyes were wide open, and I was wide awake.  Typically, Yoga Nidra helps me to eventually fall asleep, but I was so excited!  Or, simply over exhausted.  Or, both. Yoga nidra (Sanskrit: योग निद्रा) means Yogic Sleep. Yoga nidra is one of the deepest forms of meditations, leading awareness through many levels of mental processes to a state of profound stillness and insight. In Yoga nidra, one leaves the Waking state, goes beyond the Dreaming state, and enters into Dreamless Sleep while remaining awake. While Yoga Nidra is a state that is very relaxing, Yoga nidra is not the same as deep relaxation. Yoga nidra is used by Yogis to purify the Samskaras, the deep impressions that are the driving force behind Karma. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga_nidra Whatever the reason, sleep did

At about 3:00am, safely in the van to the hotel, as we drove away from the stridency of Indira Gandhi International Airport, a calm and quietness surrounded us.  The bright lights faded into darkness as we sped through the unlit streets of Delhi.  I stared out the window to the left side of the street, which was an unending line of makeshift outbuildings.  Shadows were busily moving about selling tires, mechanical parts, food, and tea. A motorcycle sped past us, with four grown men on it!  The guy on the back looking at his cell phone as confidently as if he were seated stationary.  Coming from Northern California, this was simultaneously amusing and shocking to me.  As my journey unfolded, seeing four people on a motorcycle became commonplace. I noticed the streets were painted with lane lines, at least that is what we call them on our streets, however, my driver was driving down the center

“The people”.  Without hesitation is always my response to this question, many of you have asked.  Followed by a tilt of the head and “Reeeally?” As I mentioned in earlier posts, my heart was wide open to this Spiritual journey, like a portal to the infinite possibilities of compassion, light, love, and gratitude.  I longed to have a deep a spiritual connection with as many people with whom I could possibly come into contact.  Some of those connections were conversations ranging from a blissful brief few moments, to heart throbbing hours of exploring the depths of the heart, as layer after layer truths were irreversibly revealed. However, some of the most potently magnificent connections came from across a busy streets, a crowded room, the ghats (banks) of the Gangaji River (Ganges), train tracks, and an enchanted softly lit garden courtyard.  These moments in time, for me, captured refined energetic attention and were completely devoid of dialogue. In silence, making eye

Arriving in Delhi, India at precisely 1:30am (the Germans are always punctual), what was 2 floors of slumbering, snoring passengers instantaneously roused.  As the doors to the plane opened, everyone rushed out into the terminal, and many were running!  Travelers from everywhere running with their rolling bags like dragon tails, businessmen rushing with firm grip tethered to their briefcases, women in adorned saris hurrying their children in tow, and me in a zombie like daze, watching all of this hustle with childlike wonder. An insight into the level of my maturity - It was like that scene from the Bugs Bunny cartoon, where Bugs finds himself in Tasmania, as he pops out of his hole there is a stampede of animals running from the Tasmanian devil. I kept expecting to hear the whirl and the “argibal gargibalar rrrraaaaahhhh” of the Tasmanian devil.  When he did not appear, I sat down on the nearest bench and composed