Tale of the Tiger

We met the granddaughter of the renowned Lady of the Lakes two days ago while visiting the Ranthambhore National Park southeast of Jaipur:

Ranthambhore is home to about 50 tigers.

The grandmother was very famous and even has her own Facebook page; and now her granddaughter, the present Lady of the Lakes, rules a large section of the park. Her queendom is absolute, and no other female dare come into her domain. Sadly, however, the Bengal tiger is approaching extinction, and parks like this one make it possible for visitors' proceeds to add to the fund that is trying to protect the tigers.

Tigers have only one predator - humans.

Male tigers have to wait until they hear the female's powerful roar signaling that it's okay to enter their territory. A separate roar serves as a mating invitation, and vying for this privilege caused two male tigers to fight to the death in Ranthambhore just last year.

These giant cats are elusive by nature, and our guide told us that most groups only see them for brief glimpses. There have been several documentaries depicting her exploits, and needless to say we felt privileged to share time with her and take these pictures.

When we first came upon her, our driver/tracker had already shut down our canter (an open air truck that carries twenty people). He signaled everyone to be silent and then listened intently.

The surrounding area had suddenly become exceptionally quiet except for the shrill cries of some birds. Then came another sound, one I didn't recognize, which the driver told us was the warning sound of the local spotted deer. They knew that a tiger was on the prowl.

The cool early morning air seemed to make everything sharper, and we saw that she was coming our way. The whole group was frozen with surprise. Right in front of us was the Queen of the Lakes. These images show what happened next:

She walked to a high spot not far from our vehicle and sat down.

Then let out a huge yawn.

Before she settled into licking her paws and cleaning her face.

And took a look around.

Her gaze settled on us, and the animal stared eerily into our eyes.
We were only 30 feet away.

After about ten minutes the Lady of the Lake suddenly got up and began walking towards a grassy area in front of her. A herd of spotted dear starting making alarm sounds as they fled, and the tigress headed straight for the high grass. Our driver told us there was a baby deer hiding there – he had heard it crying for its mother.

The tiger found the deer in a matter of minutes, and after playing with it for an interminable ten minutes, she walked directly in front of our canter with a four-day-old fawn, still alive in her mouth.

Only twice per year does she allow guests to be present at her meals.

The Lady of the Lakes seemed almost proud of the kill as she walked towards the water, disappearing into the tall grass as a seven-year old girl in the canter behind us began crying. Through her sobs I heard the word ‘Bambi’.

I have counseled a number of people through the dying process, and sat with them as they drew their last breaths, but I have never experienced anything like this before. To be in the middle of such a primal event was breathtaking, and this was easily one of the most powerful experiences of my life. Most of us are far-removed from these truths, and as a whole our society has sanitized death by turning it into nothing more than a documentary on the Discovery Channel or a photograph in National Geographic. This, however, was stark reality:

We chanted prayers for the young deer and celebrated the awesome power of Mother Nature in the form of Kali Tiger. Life is ever entwined with death, and while I am still processing this experience, I know that it serves as a poignant, beautiful and terrifying reminder of the impermanence of life on the physical plane.

Love at the Taj Mahal

Imagine someone that you love, someone who has been the love of your life since you were both nineteen years old, is about to pass away. This person looks into your eyes, and with her dying breath asks you for three promises.

one of the Seven Wonders of the World

No, I am not writing a soap opera, or a movie script, I am telling the tale that created one of the seven wonders of the world: the Taj Mahal.

millions visit here each year

Our tour guide Luv told us this story as we reached Agra the other day. This city of 2 million people is just 250 km from Delhi and home to the most beautiful building I have ever seen.

Taj as seen through the north gate

Agra was home to Shah Jahan, the 17th century noble who ruled much of present-day India and Pakistan. He and his wife Muntaz could not bear to be apart, and so, when it came time to lead his troops into southern India, she accompanied him riding atop an elephant. Now, I’ve ridden an elephant for a short distance, and it makes riding an Indian bus seem like a Mercedes Benz. The results of this decision proved to be tragic.

riding a camel is only slightly better than an elephant

Muntaz died during childbirth, but the child - a baby girl - miraculously survived. It was the fourteenth time she had given birth, and the first promise the Shah made was to take care of the remaining children – three girls and four boys.

notice the symmetry from every angle?

Shah Jahan was the grandson of the Mughal king who had conquered northern India two generations earlier, and his grandfather Akbar ordered the construction of dozens of spectacular buildings, many of which are standing to this day.

our assistant Kalyani

The second promise Shah Jahan made to Muntaz was never to marry again. While this might sound reasonable to us today, for the time and culture it was unheard of. The nobility practiced polygamy in Shah Jahan's day, and, in fact, Muntaz was his third wife. In spite of this, Shah Jahan kept his promise and never married again.

this screen is made from a single piece of translucent marble

The third promise made to his dying wife was to create a monument to their love.

Gary with his beloved Radha

This breathtaking mausoleum is the reason we braved six hours of traffic before reaching Jaypee Palace, our hotel located just ten minutes from the Taj Mahal. Furthermore, security around the Taj is tremendous, and unlike the nine other visits Radha and I have made to Agra, it took us over an hour to go through the screening process. It was worth every second of the process, though, and our group was able to see the Taj illuminated by the full moon sky.

views of the East Gate security checkpoint

We got back to our hotel by 1:30 AM, slept, and returned in the next morning to spend a few hours in at the Taj in the daylight.

Gary practicing his tree pose

Radha and I have visited certain places on the planet that seem to be portals to another dimension, and many people believe that places like Chartres Cathedral in France or Stonehenge in England are places where lines of energy intersect. Civilizations build on these same locations time and time again, drawn by the magnetism of something from beyond. The Taj Mahal is one of these places.

The Taj simply takes your breath away, and even though it's impossible to take it all in, it's equally impossible to pull your eyes away. The photos speak for themselves, and suffice to say that everyone in our group wished they had more time to spend at the Taj. Radha and I agreed, telling them that we felt unsatisfied after every visit. We have spent entire days just sitting on the lawn staring, meditating and absorbing in the beauty.

Our theory about the Taj Mahal is that the building's physical beauty is a mere teaser. The real experience is the feeling it inspires in everyone who sees it. Take a close look at the above photo, then close your eyes and follow the intense sensation deep within your mind. You will reach a place that is always with you - the emotion of love.

It has been said many times, and in many ways,
that Love is a reflection of the Divine.

Cooperation Is Alive and Well (In India)

Radha and I have been traveling in India for over two weeks now, and the rest of our group (nearly twenty altogether) arrived two days ago. In this short period we have already bonded into a cohesive unit that is not only having fun, but also looking out for one another.

our group recognizes the "one"ness of all things

It took two years of meticulous planning (thank you, Radha and Kalyani) to organize this trip; and our tour company, Indus Travel in Vancouver, decided our group should be given the name Sadhana because meditation, hatha, and spiritual teachings are an integral part of our journey. Sadhana is the Sanskrit word that means ‘to hold the vision-of-Oneness' and is also used to describe an individual’s spiritual practices.

the Durga puja from earlier in the week

To prepare for our journey through North India, we suggested that the Sadhana group read Jeffery Armstrong’s The Spiritual Teachings of the Avatar and watch the animated film Sita Sings The Blues. We wanted everyone to understand the deep spiritual heritage of this remarkable country, and both the book and the movie provide accessible, inspiring updates to classic tales found in the Ramayana.

Karen, Satyum and Radha (from left to right)
on the way to Piccadilly Book Shop in Old Delhi

On the first morning, even though almost everyone had arrived only a few hours before, I taught a hatha class that included chanting, pranayama, asanas, mudras, kriyas and meditation - everyone was alive with excitement!

after 18 hours on a plane, everyone needs to stretch

After touring Delhi, we boarded the bus for the four-hour ride to Agra, where we will experience a midnight full moon viewing of the Taj Mahal tonight at midnight. As the Indian landscape passed by the large windows, I taught a pranayama class, led more chanting (the Gayatri and Maha Mirtyajaya mantras), and offered another meditation. I even instructed a special 'bus hatha' class:

the spinal twist is easily confused with rubber-necking

All of this, of course, occurred while the bus bounced and weaved through the insane traffic surrounding Delhi. There's nothing like a traffic jam to open the nadis, awaken the kundalini, and oxygenate the blood!

traffic as far as the eye can see, but no road rage

India is the birthplace of the Vedas and Yoga, and for thousands of years the emphasis here has been on the attainment of perfect union between our material and divine existence. Take, for example, our tour guide Luv, who just won this year’s national award for ‘best tour guide’:

Luv is a wealth of knowledge

In Sanskrit Luv describes the emotional experience of being connected to the Divine realms, and I would be willing to bet that it is also the root of our English word love. There is this beautiful blending of the realms here in India, where it is commonplace to name people using the same words that are used to describe the most holy of experiences.

Gopal means 'protector of the cow' in Sanskrit

Beyond all the apparent chaos here is an underlying order. Thousands of people, cars, cows, three-wheelers, dogs, rickshaws, water buffalo, trucks, camels, taxis, bicyclists, buses, and carts of all kinds are everywhere; and yet, everyone is moving along effortlessly. Merging is an art in this country, and no one gets upset because everyone is cooperating with one other. We keep seeing examples of this everywhere we go:

bicycles and rickshaws share the road

brothers share a special moment

this angora rabbit shares its fur

this mother shares its milk

these yaks share their fur and milk (when they're not 'yak'ing it up)

families share scooters

Gary and Radha share water

We hear shop keepers and hotel staff telling us over and over again, “It is no problem’. True, part of it is just them doing their jobs, but there is also something deeper. Their calm, accepting looks indicate that they experience a state of peace rarely seen in the West. What we as yogis practice tapping into amidst the greed and speed of West is a given here.

the women donned burkas to enter the mosque in Delhi

Before India was the largest democracy in the world, before they had the biggest middle class in the world, before all these tremendous changes that have occurred in the sixty-three years since independence – India had already written the book on how to live in harmony together. Cooperation here is divinely inspired, even in the most mundane circumstances. Thank you, India, for reminding us that living together in perfect harmony is possible with by merely changing perspective.

Namaste!

Eight Days a Week

The next voice in our celebration of India comes from Kalyani who has been our assistant in Florida for the past three years. She is a remarkable young woman and entrepreneur who has not only owned her own yoga studio, but also worked counseling children with autism and their families. Without further ado...

Eight Days a Week

- by Carlee 'Kalyani' Cohen

I've been in India eight days so far, and - amazingly - my fiancé back in Florida has managed not to touch the block of cheese I left for him.

This bears explaining.

Jeremy works at a local theater, and he and his work friends have this theory: When your significant other is away, you're allowed to sit around in your underwear and eat a giant block of cheese. I've told him more than once that this reasoning is flawed, but before leaving I couldn't help but buy a small block of cheese (French no less!) and leave it in the bottom drawer of the refrigerator.

A couple of days ago, though, something happened that made me change my understanding of what constitutes a giant block of cheese:

how does one store a kilo's worth of cheese?

I'm an avid photographer so I've been taking lots of pictures on this trip, snapping pictures with my digital camera but also glad I brought along my film camera as well. (Remember when the word 'film' was implied by camera?) So much is different here. I mean, have you ever come across a mountainside chai stand in the Rockies?

Radha, Gary and Allanah talking with the owner

As you might guess from this picture, there are dogs everywhere in India. Dogs and mosquitoes and cows and goats and horses roaming the streets, which I think is really, really cool (except the mosquitoes, of course):

cars use this road, too!

I really liked this one because he's distinguished-looking, like a chocolate lab:

Sometimes I see things that remind me of home. Jeremy, for example, is obsessed with Converse One Stars and has about a ten pairs tucked into various nooks and crannies around our apartment. When I saw these hanging in a vendor's stall, I couldn't help but take a picture:

What I love about this photograph is that you can see other pairs of Converse in the background, and the shoes are basically strung up like these prayer flags across the Beas River:

how did they do that?

The Beas is the second holiest river in India (after the Ganges), and it runs through Kullu, where we spent a couple of days earlier in the week. This river is so powerful I could feel the energy washing over and through me as I sat to meditate. The sound was immense.

We also took some amazing hikes, which reminded me of this past summer in the mountains of North Carolina (see photos here). The mountains here are waaaaay bigger though, and Gary took this picture of me at one of the overlooks:

I don't remember if the view looked towards Kashmir or Tibet, but it was absolutely breathtaking. There also patches of beautiful marigolds growing in various meadows and yards:

One thing India doesn't have (or at least the areas around Kullu and Manali) is real coffee. Since a person can only drink so much chai in a single day, I've been drinking Nescafé instead:

This is just a snippet of my first eight days in India, and we're back in New Delhi now. The rest of our group arrived last night, and we spent this morning on a short tour that included Gandhi's memorial as well as a local mosque. We have the best tour guide in the world (named 'Luv' – how cool is that!) and leave tomorrow morning for Agra. I can't wait to see the Taj Mahal, especially since we're going to be there for the full moon!

Thank you for allowing me to share part of this adventure, and I hope to write more soon. Peace.

for more on Carlee 'Kalyani' Cohen and her company
Breathe, Release, Repeat: click here