Chapter Eleven: Phool Chatti Ashram

Phool chatti.... what a wonderful experience.  I did not take very many photos there.  In fact, I did not even pull my camera out until the last few days there, and even then, I just took pictures of the grounds and such.  It was just such a special and Shanti place that I did not want to disturb it's beauty and power by trying to capture it on 'film'. 
Every morning we woke up at 5am to the sound of five chimes by the gong in the courtyard.  The first night we were there I volunteered to wake up early the next morning and be the one who rings the gong.  We were requested to spend all morning until after lunch in silence, so the gong was a way to let people know when it was meal times and such.  At 5:30 we meditated for a half an hour.  We then went into the massive garden and used the netty pots to cleanse our sinuses.  Naturally after nasal cleansing we would do 20 minutes of pranayama (breath work).  Following Pranayama we did and hour and a half of asana (yoga postures).  By 9am we would have breakfast on the roof consisting of milk Porridge, fresh fruit (papaya, mango, pomegranate, and banana), and chai.   By 10am we were doing karma yoga, which was everyone choosing a job and cleanigng the ashram.  There was no one supervising the cleaning, everyone just did what they felt was necessary to keep the Ashram at its best.  After this we would go on a group guided meditation walk through nature.  We would walk up a creek, or to waterfalls, or along the ganges.  These were silent walks and lasted a few hours.  We would eventually make our way back to the Ashram by 12:30 for lunch.  After lunch we usually bathed in the Ganges.  At 3pm we gathered with our yoga advisers and had discussion on yoga philosophy.  By 4pm we were doing more asana for another hour and a half, usually followed by more bathing in the Ganga.  At sundown (around 7pm) we gathered at the temple in the middle of the Ashram for Pooja, a Hindu evening ceremony.  Everyone would gather and listen to the chanting as the sun went down.  After the ceremony we would gather in the meditation hall for Kirtan (musical expression of sacred chants).  There were drums and shakers and we sang two or three chants for about an hour.  After Kirtan we would gather for dinner at about 7:30, followed by chai on the roof.  We met for guided menitation at 8:30-9 and then would eventually make our way to bed by 10 or 11.  We did this routine for seven days in a row, most of it in silence.  Every meal was in silence.  We would gather at a little hall (sitting on the floor in rows) and bring the plate, spoon and cup we were given in the beginning.  Workers would walk around with buckets of food and scoop up each plate and then a blessing would be said by Lolita Ji and we would all begin to eat in silence.  The Food was the best I had in India and I grew to really appreciate every bite. 
The Ashram it's self was beautiful.  There were hundreds of birds flying all around it, trees and simple, humble buildings.  There were three dogs that just roamed around and followed us everywhere we went, even to bath in the Ganga.  Wilde mango trees, lillypod ponds, and flowered vines growing up the sides of buildings.  It was a truely wonderfull place and holds a very special place in our hearts.

The taxi we took to the ashram.

Our room at the Ashram.  It was SO hot, but it had an amazing view of the Ganga, esspecially at sunset.

Walking on the gorgeous rocks down by Mother Ganga.

Enterence to the Ashram

Sitting in the Ganga reading, and cooling off.  I was so hot and the Ganga was our only air conditioning.  I read a couple of books while there, and I did most of my reading in the river.

The view from our balcony of the Ganga.

The roof where we had breakfast every morning.

The temple in the courtyard at the Ashram.

Lillypad pond

Even the bugs in India are colorful

The Garden at the Ashram went on for like a mile.  It included aquducts, mango trees, flowers and a little farm where they raised a few cows for all the dairy products at the Ashram

Wild mango trees all over

We spent every sunset at the Ganga

Ashram fom the garden

Gate out to the Ganga

Meditation Hall

Our room

Our last meal.

Corriander

The temple at the top of the mountain.  We drove up the mountain in taxis, and then walked up 378 white stairs to the temple on the mountain.  We sat around the fire and chanted a mantra 108 times and then released our bad habbits into the fire.

Our wonderful meditation teacher who was visiting from Australia, ChrisJi.

All the mountains have these rivits in them for farming.

The walk up to the temple.

Post ashram dinner in Rishikesh with some of our friends.  At the Ashram there were two Sweeds, one South African, three Brits, Three Australians, two canadians, two Dutch, three Indians, and four other Americans.