Ninth Post From India

Monday, 25 January 2010

A Trip to Northern Maharashtra

It was a lot to pack into two days. Lots of car time, walking, and not so good food (Anjali has me spoiled). No wonder some people here suggested taking three or four days to do it.

We left Pune at 6 am. The driver was Indian and only spoke Marathi, there was an Italian woman, a Serbian woman, a Canadian guy and me. The common language was sort of English although the driver, the Italian, and the Serbian only knew a little bit. Lucky we made it. There were some funny conversations or better said exchanges.

We headed for Aurangabad. A city of a million or more.

Our first stop was Bibi-ka-Maqbara – the “poor man’s” Taj Mahal built in 1697. A tourist place for sure but very cool. Bibi-ka-Maqbara is a mausoleum dedicated to Aurangzeb’s wife Rabia-ud-Daurni. Slide show below.



Our next stop was Panchakki or Water Wheel. It was considered an engineering marvel at the time. It houses a working grain mill powered by water, some sweet ponds and gardens. Baba Shah Muzaffar, a Sufi Saint, is buried here. Slide show below.



Our next stop was the Ellora caves. This is a World Heritage - listed site. The caves are considered the pinnacle of Deccan rock-cut architecture. Over five centuries Buddhist (600-800 AD), Hindu (600-900 AD) and the Jains (800-1000 AD) carved monasteries, chapels and temples into the rock and they are beautifully decorated with sculptures. The highlight was the Kailasa Temple which is the largest monolith sculpture in the world. It took 7,000 workers 150 years to complete. Absolutely amazing. Slide show below.



There was a group of Buddhists touring the site and they stopped to chant a while in one of the caves. Here is brief video of the chanting.



Next on the Western tourists list was the Daulatabad hilltop fortress – moat and all. The fortress is surrounded by 5km of big stone walls. The moat was cool and so was the spiraling pitch black tunnel that was supposed to help trap invaders. At one point I heard my Canadian friend, Grant, yell “Paul, Paul, Paul…”. He and the Serbian woman got a little behind in the tunnel and I had to get the guide to bring the torch back. Cool for a fort. Slide show below.



By then we were totally worn out and we headed to Aurangabad to check into our hotel and have dinner. We made it to the hotel by around 7:45 pm. After we settled for a minute I took off in a Ric to find a storage device for my camera. The one I was using only holds about 50 pictures (old school). I found a guy who directed me to a camera store and hired a ric. We barreled through Aurangabad and found the store. To lots of Indians we Westerners are like gods. The ric driver was no exception. He was great. A card that holds a couple thousands photos (4G) cost me around $23.00. The one glitch to the plan was that we included dinner and breakfast with our stay at our hotel, the Fitz. Dinner was pseudo western food and some fake Chinese food and buffet style. I am usually not one to complain but it was close to being not edible. This is on top of the “Smile Stone” where we stopped for “food” on the way up. Another case of “close to being not edible.” The Smile Stone is India’s answer to fast food rest stop style. I slept well and after holding my nose and having a bit of breakfast, at 7:30, off we went to the Ajanta caves.

The caves at Ajanta are all Buddhist. One of the coolest things about Ajanta is the paintings on the ceilings and walls. These caves predate Ellora. They were built from around 200 BC – 650 AD. The paintings are done in what is considered tempera. The whole layout was awesome - a horse shoe shape and the caves were stunning. There was also a set of waterfalls that were outstanding. Slide show below.



We headed back to Pune at around 2 pm. The drive was supposed to be over 7 hours but we made it in a little bit under 6 and a half hours. The driver was weaving in and out of traffic jerking back and forth. I am not one to get car sick but I started to feel a bit queasy. We had asked the driver to stop somewhere nice for dinner. He acted like he knew what we were asking. When we pulled into the Smile Stone I knew he did not get it. I could not bring myself to eat. Made it back to Pune at 8:30 pm and had the vegetable platter at the Ambiance Hotel. Yummy. Stumbled home and fell asleep after rinsing the grime off of my body.

This week the classes at the Institute are all Pranayama. Prashant stuck to this plan in his own way.

Sukasana
Rope Sirsasana / Chair Viparita Dandasana / Chair Bharadvajasana
Chair Sarvangasana
Supta Baddha Konasana
Supported Savasana
Sukasana
Supported Savasana
Sukasana
Savasana

At least for me it was hard to tell what he wanted us to do as far as the breath was concerned.

Prashant Gems.

Explore your inner speech. Develop your own inner language of body – breath – mind. Talk to yourself – do not escape and find something to distract your mind (friends, TV, etc.).
Be aware of all of the Maya (illusion) inside and out.

I took this to mean that if you can control this inner speech you can then control the mind.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) is Republic day and the Institute is closed. I think I’ll plan to do nothing. Amazing.