Friday, June 24 Gandhi's ashram in Sevagram

The trip to Sevagram ashram was quite exhausting...since I took a sleeper bus and the journey was 13 hours long and I hardly got any sleep on the bus. I had a little more luck though on the journey back; I think I probably slept a few hours. Going to Sevagram, I unfortunately had to share a double bed, but on the way back I was able to book beforehand and got a single compartment. But the trip to Gandhi’s ashram was nonetheless memorable. I met a lot of good ppl and staying in the ashram will probably be the closest experience I will have to living in a village.

There are roughly about 12 ppl who practice in the ashram and they maintain a very strict schedule. I think they wake up at 4 am and they do it 7 days a week. Not sure how they manage it. Some have lived there for twelve plus years. However, the ashram has about 10-12 families and also workers to maintain it...it’s a big ashram. I hope that the ppl in the ashram didn’t expect that I was going to follow the schedule...I was so sleep deprived the entire trip and the mosquitoes gave me hell during the night. The people were very welcoming...and I didn’t have much trouble fitting right in.

 Lalita is from Assam and she has lived in the ashram for over 6 years. Her father passed away three days ago and she is taking a 3 day train back to Assam on Monday...very nice person and kindly gave me some toothpaste because I forgot to bring some...before that I used a bar-soap as toothpaste to test the saying of "washing out mouth with soap." It is an experience that I would rather not describe nor repeat. I followed her around the town center of Sevagram (a 1km walk from the ashram). She had to go to a tailor for him to make her two new kurta-pajama.








 Lunch is a quiet event...and only is for the ppl who live in the ashram and are part of the schedule. In many ways, I feel kinda lucky that I was able to have lunch with them...even though I hardly took part in the schedule. After anyone finishes eating, he/she cleans and washes their plate, not with soap but ash. 

I also felt really happy that there were a number of really cute children in the ashram...it certainly took away some of the somber atmosphere. The kids were really playful and excited to see someone new...although I didn’t understand a word what the boy was saying, he really was a chum...and the little girl too, she was really cute, playful, and shy.

 At about 2 pm, about four ppl in the ashram would do the cotton spinning wheel to extract threads from cotton balls as visitors snap pictures and this happens everyday at the exact time.

 

 I saw this family when I was heading back to my room because I couldn’t stand the heat and needed to take a quick shower. I was told by one person from the ashram that I was lucky to have come this weekend instead of 10 days ago when the temperature shot up to 48C--that’s like 114 Fahrenheit! The girls in the group were all giggling when they saw me wearing a lungi and I thought I probably would want to take a family photo but decided that I need to take a shower desperately before I come too close to anyone..and if they happen to be there once I’m finished, I’ll take a few snaps. They turned out to be a really wonderful group of ppl...friendly, funny, and from the local town of Wardha (6 km from Sevagram). I tried to guess who was related to whom and it was quite challenging. It’s not one family but several families altogether--they’re relatives though.

5:30 is dinner and then at 6:30 is prayer at the prayer ground and by this time most of the visitors have already left. Here they chant some verses in the Gita and the Lord’s prayer (this stems from the belief of Gandhi that all religions are equal). After 30 minutes of chanting, residents were free to either go to bed or do some more devotional songs or readings from some of Gandhi’s writings. We sang the first night and after 30 minutes of singing the rain came and the ppl joked that after a hot spell during the last 10 days... god has finally answered our prayer with rain.

While they were singing, I sat in meditation.

This was right after prayer.