There is a group of women from Australia at my hotel who are on a yoga retreat. They are so sweet and kind and have been very friendly with me. Yesterday they invited me to come with them to an ashram to do a yoga class with the locally famous Guru Sri and then attend a ceremony. I was honored and delighted to join them. I had had a very quiet day of rest, still not feeling totally great as far as my stomach is concerned. Getting used to the intense heat has been a challenge too. My energy seems to be zapped by mid day. Especially after waking up around 5 am each day, as my body clock tells me to do.
I felt a little nervous, having never been to an ashram before and no knowing what kind of yoga we would do and what the rules would be. They told me to bring all white clothing for the ceremony, wear my hair up and someone let me borrow a sash to tie around my waist. They also said to be sure and never point your feet at the guru, or offer your left hand as this is considered disrespectful.
We were driven to the ashram which is about 20 minutes from the hotel. We drove through gorgeous rice fields and lovely villages and temples all around. Each family home has a temple compound which is situated according to the direction of the sea and the mountains. Everything is placed for a specific reason. More on that later.
The temple grounds where amazing and green and peaceful. We were taken to an open area where the Guru was talking with a family. He is a small, slight man with a long grey beard to the middle of his chest. He was going to do a blessing or a session with them while we started our warm up with his counterpart, a young man who was in great yoga shape. As we were doing our cat/cow and downward dog stretches, we heard a loud wailing coming from the woman on the porch of the Guru’s home. I’m not sure what was happening. I imagined he maybe was talking to the family’s dead relatives or helping them through some pain. It was sort of eerie but there was a certain power and healing energy there too. Everything in Bali is about the energy….
After we warmed up for 15 minutes, the Guru Shri came over and started giving instructions in broken English. “Spread fingers!” “Strong in your legs!” “Breathe through your mouth and make big sound!” He took off his long sarong and revealed a very fit, very tight little body in spandex biking shorts. I had to smile at this. He pushed us pretty hard but did so with great humor. It is said that Guru Shri is inhabited by the monkey god, Hanoman who is full of fun and mischief.
The Guru is also a chiropractor and he came to each of us during the yoga session and cracked our backs and our necks. It was scary and wonderful. He didn’t ask, he just did it. After cracking my neck he looked down at my frightened face, his smiling, mischievous eyes lighting up: “See, you not dead. It’s ok. You still alive”. It was a great class and we worked ourselves hard for an hour and a half until the mosquitoes started eating us alive.
After yoga we showered and changed into our white temple garb. We were met by our guide Made (Ma-day) who showed us where to leave our shoes and our bags and took us on a tour of the grounds. It was dark by this time and there were candles everywhere which made it feel even more magical and special. Made took us first to a little fountain where we kneeled down and he poured water into our right hand three times which we poured over our heads as a blessing. Next we went into a small cave where there was a huge and amazing statue of Ganesh, my favorite Hindu god. He was lit with sparkling candles and there were pads to kneel down in front of him to say a prayer, which we all did. Ganesh is a great guy whos main job is to move obstacles out of your way with his huge trunk. You can pray to Ganesh to help you with just about anything. You just have to bring him some sweet treats in return.
We walked out into the courtyard where there were more sacred spots and alters and a huge bonfire in the middle. We were led into the main pavilion where The Guru was sitting on an slightly elevated platform. We sat on bamboo mats as people filed in. There were quite a few foreigners but mostly local Indonesians.
The rest of the evening was filled with chanting, dancing and blessings until late into the night. It was really amazing and wonderful and I was honored to be there and learn just a little bit about this world. I am barely, slightly, ever-so-lightly scratching the surface....
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