Leaving for India in 7 days!

Namaste!

Here’s the Plan (and you know how that goes!)

Purnima, the woman I am traveling around India with wrote,”…this trip is indeed a rare and unique opportunity. Rare because during all the 13 years that I am doing this work a chance like this, to be able to join both tours, never occurred since usually there is much gap between a North and a South tour. Unique in the sense that mostly all major holy places will be covered so you will get a good introduction.”

And that, my friends, is how it all begins!

I fly into Mumbai on the 18th of February. I have a few days and will have some punjab’s made for traveling, and then it is off to Ramesh S. Balsekar for satsang. He is now a very old sage, a former President of a national bank; upon retirement he began his ‘second life’, the search for God. He gives talks at his home every day of the year!

Next stop Tiruvannamalai, in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, for a 3 and half hours walk around the holy mountain! Done to erase karma. (I’ll keep you posted if I don’t drop dead from heat exhaustion!) Purnima wrote, “You need to protect your head from the

sun because it is already hot during the daytime...”

“On 28 early morning we will leave to Bangalore and in the evening an airconditioned train is booked to bring us to a places near Chidambaram where we will visit the famous Nataraj temple. From there, we drive to Pondicherry where we will spend 1 night to be able to visit the samadhi shrine of Sri Aurobindo and the town of Ponicherry. Next day, 2 March we will go to Auroville. You will spend 2 nights in the middle of this interesting international Community. The last 2 nights you can relax and reflect over your wonderful journey, on the beach. On the 6 of March, we will leave and since we will have a full day left before departure I think we can visit Mahabalipuram on our way back to Chennai.”

That’s just my first 3 weeks! After that Purnima and I are off to Varanasi, one of the oldest and most mysterious cities in the world, for a week of exploration.

Moving farther North we go to the famous yogic cities of Hardawar and Rishikesh after a short shopping break in New Delhi! From there we head to Uttarkashi and Gayatri (the source of the famous Ganges). And finally we explore the royalty of Rajastan before heading back to Mumbai and then Charleston.

I have an open-ended ticket but expect to be back around mid-April. Thank you for your warm wishes. I so look forward to greeting your faces again. Because there’s no place like home…

Love, Maureen

PS - HUGE thank you to my technology guru, Lauren. Charleston will miss you!