From the borders of the country –
beyond the borders of the mind – IAM

Aum Amriteswaryai Namah
We are in Amritsar now. The city that is most holy to the Sikhs for it has the Golden temple – the Harmandir Sahib, in which the original copy of the Guru Granth Sahib is housed.
The response in all the classes has been phenomenal. There have been wonderful reports from our groups. Stories of how scepticism has changed to belief, how an aloofness has changed to warmth and friendship. I shall try to gather some titbits for all of you and post it some time in the future. (If the future exists!! ha ha)

An officer asked us whether we could hold classes for teh families of the troops. Of course we consented and told them that we were there to serve them in any way we could.

So a class was arranged – it was mostly housewives, all with some health problem or the other. Now we just could not back out of this! We started off in a very simple way and they came out with the reason why they wanted to attend the class and what they wanted to gain from it. We were surprised to learn that many had high blood pressure and a few had insomnia. Of the rest most had tension related ailments. I almost developed high blood pressure – a few had brought their children along – Cacofonix in the Asterix and Obelix comics would hide in shame! These were the real thing – very loud and very active. Then one of the troops started baby sitting and we had silence for some time. Just joking about the blood pressure – it was hilarious. Enjoyed the little villians pranks thouroughly!

We just had them do the exercises and then Shavasana – they were really feeling light and peaceful by that time. AND 80% of the people went off to sleep in shavasana – all those who had insomnia were snoring away! They had a good laugh. Then we had them do some simple meditation. The yoga for some minor ailments also went so well that they started saying that they wished that we would be there longer so that thy could really learn! They all saw Amma’s short video and were very moved and all wanted a photograph of Amma.

After the final session the Commandant was warm and very communicative. He said that he would definitely try to come to the ashram.

We went to the Wagah border – India and Pakistan have a gate there. Each evening there is ceremony there in which both sides parade and show off, etc. The best troops are there. After the display some came to us when they found out that we had been taking classes at their base camp and asked us for some advise on some common ailments – so we had a small yoga class at the Indo-Pak border too!

And this was not all. We were to leave the next morning for the next place. A drive of about 5 hours or more. We had planned to leave early morning, but in the night there was a call from the DIG who had come back from Jallandhar – he wanted to attend the meditation and wanted all the officers to attend alongwith him. He asked us if we could hold a special class for them. Of course we said Yes!

The photo above shows the commandant sitting in front of his troops.

nijamrita
21 June 2007