India, where you can take nothing for granted, where nothing runs on time, and to every query of "why?" to this or that, there is the universal response of "no problem!"
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Varanasi
Stunning medieval character, elegance, crumbling into the Ganges, becoming a memory for the tourist.
Hari Chandro said "foreigners come here for peace." Here to this place so loud, so active the foreigner comes to find peace far from his homeland, which may be so quiet, where no one talks with their neighbors or looks at each other's eyes, where everyone lives behind locked doors. Relatively peaceful yet internal hell. Here in India life is lived, in each moment - no time to wonder what life is all about - living it, raw, unashamed, staring, crowded in , everyone talking at once. Peaceful. Amazing!
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Personal Space
There is none. Could it be that Indians intrinsically know, bred in from Rama and Shankara, Krishnamurthi and Pantanjali, that the individual doesn't exist apart from Brahman? So out with the social niceties of personal space. Instead, right in your face, staring within the polite Western 6-inch boundary - not one but crowds! Stopping to stare. And no physical personal space either - sitting on each other in taxis, buses, trains. Elbows in your face, head on your shoulder, her baby on your lap. "No problem!"
Jyoti, this is beautiful about mother india, funny, never connected the lack of personal space to the lack of an individual "I". I also really appreciate your vocabulary, esp as in responding from one's collection of conditioned responses. This is so good. My meditation group has been so mental about figuring something out, this website is a breath of fresh air. I love looking at it as a collection. Feels more free that way. Adyashanti is coming to Denver this weekend. Will sit with him for about 8 hours. Be well. No word on house yet.
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