Thursday 28 June 2012

Yesterday I finally got into see Vice Chancellor Maharaj.  I saw him the day after I got here briefly, and then he went to New Delhi, so only now was I able to actually talk about what's going to happen with my life for the next three years.  Up until now I've only heard murmurs about what VC MJ's was planning on doing with me.  So I got into his office and sat there for like a half an hour while he talked on the phone.  Then we dealt with some business and he started talking about my program.  First off since I'm a good candidate for Sanskrit I'll keep studying that, with more of an emphasis on reading than on writing.  And starting on July 3rd (Guru Purnima an auspicious day) my studies in Indian philosophy will begin.  At present I have to be tutored privately, because in spite of everyone in America thinking that the entire world speaks English, the average people in Bengal do not speak English, in fact only 40% of them can even read Bengali with any proficiency.  Fortunately the monks at this school do speak pretty good English, some very good English.  But it's even a little hard to understand the best English speakers here sometimes, they speak their own brand of English and communicating more complicated things to them is virtually impossible in many cases. The faster I learn Bengali the better in this country.

Anyhow so everything is still fine here.  I'm set to move into the hostels Sunday still, Arupeshananda leaves tomorrow, but my training wheels are pretty much off anyway so I don't think I need him.  Ayon Maharaj and Shivum Maharaj, two westerners who work at VU are coming back tomorrow so it will be good to have them here.  Shivum Maharaj is from Argentina, he lived in the US for some time though I hear, and Ayon Maharaj is an American Indian with a PHD in English.  Prahlad Maharaj (Swami Atmarupananda) will be coming at the end of August too, so my world will not be totally devoid of American English speakers.

Thanks for reading!
Kamal

Wednesday 27 June 2012

Today I spent all day in Nischal Maharaj's office studying and I'm happy to say everything is going along well.  Maharaj told me that they were waiting to see how I did with Sanskrit to decide whether they would make me a program with more Sanskrit, or try to mix something with less of it.  But he says that based on my performance I'm a good candidate for the study.

At arati tonight I was surprised by Rolo, our Trabuco lay brother and a long time friend of my Grandfathers, who has come to stay a week at Belur Math.  He found me by my new super awesome arati seat.  I sit outside the hall in my Bengali style Dhoti, close to Thakur up against a pillar on top of a cushion with knees up against my chest and my feet on the ground.  This is a better system because the other day my legs fell so thoroughly asleep that I had to hold myself up with a pillar and pretend that I was waiting to make a pranam (bow) after everyone had left.  I probably look like an idiot sitting this way, but you kind of get desensitized to it, because virtually every single person in Bengal stares at you shamelessly gawking.  As Lalchan Maharaj says "you could sit full lotus and levitate and they would still think you were an idiot."

Anyhow the Sanskrit students got here today.  They are 16 mostly born 94-95 years,(I'm 96) mostly village Bengalis, only two of them know any English at all.  They filtered into Nischal Maharaj's office and one of them pranamed (salute where you touch the feet of a holy man or an elder out of respect and reverence) me since he thought I was a monk.  After that I was on my guard and I stopped one other and his dad from going for pranams.  So basically I have a lot in common with these kids and I think were going to get along really fine with virtually no cultural difficulties.

Thanks everyone for reading this, I've gotten more traffic than I could have originally imagined.

Good Night and Good Morning,
Kamal
 Swami Gangananda


Tuesday 26 June 2012

Yesterday I went to Dakishineswar with Arupeshananda.  We went by boat and got there a little late so the place was a total zoo.  A Hindu temple is not a place for peaceful meditation at all and if you don't understand a great deal about the Hindu religion and culture (which I don't) I would not suggest visiting one.  Nevertheless it was a good experience, we saw just about everything in spite of the ridiculous crowds and we got to sit in the Master's room.

Everything's going fine here, just really busy, the Sanskrit kids are arriving today and I move into the dorm's Sunday.  The Swamis are taking good care of me.

 Belur Math Ferry Ghat
 Boat
 Boat

 River

 Garbage and bathers on the river bank


Monday 25 June 2012

My program started today, Vice Chancellor Maharaj called one Swami here and he gave me a lesson and told me to learn the Sanskrit alphabet asap.  This language is really insane, each letter represents a specific sound created by the specific action of your tongue against specific different parts of your mouth, as well as actions of the windpipe and lips.  Some of the sounds virtually don't exist at all in American English so needless to say it will be hard.  The letters are drawn in a very specific way and are many are more complicated than Roman script (http://sk.tititudorancea.org/z/devanagari_sanskrit_alphabet_consonants.htm?exitframe=y).   

So needless to say I just got a lot busier, I was just kind of floating around spending time here or there doing nothing, but now I'm really busy.  This school is in a Sanskrit medium, the kids need to learn some things before so the first semester of half the classes is in a Bengali medium, but after that it goes to Sanskrit like the rest.  This is fine for Bengali kids, because Bengali has a lot in common with Sanskrit, so they can pick it up easily if they just have to sink or swim in it I guess.  But my case is different, I know virtually nothing and until I do I can't join the regular classes.

I'm now racing against time, I have less than a week before school starts and the faster I can get my shit together the better chance I have of starting regular classes sooner rather than later. 

But I'll still have a little bit of time, tomorrow I'm going to Dakshineswar in the morning and I hope to get some good pictures to post.  The blog may suffer because I am now busy, but I think I will still be able to keep putting stuff up.

Thanks for all the support, I'm glad to be back under the gun with school, it's been too long.

Good Night,
Kamal

Sunday 24 June 2012

June 24, 2012

Last night I slept about 7 or 8 hours, which is really good news, I'm starting to get on the Indian schedule.  This Indian schedule is pretty weird, they get up between 4 and 5 (the Muslims start wailing over loudspeakers at like 4 AM so it's pretty much impossible to have deep sleep after that point--plus the ridiculous birds) and have breakfast at 7.  Tea around 10 AM and lunch is at 1 then nap time until 3 or 4, then tea again at 5 PM.  Dinner isn't until 9 PM, which is kinda strange, but whatever.

Today I had a very relaxed day, Arupeshananda advised me not to go to Belur Math because it was Sunday, so the crowds would be immense, and some important politician was going to the Math to be blessed by President Maharaj, so the chaos would be worsened.

So Arupeshananda worked on my computer while I watched, and then we went and played some pingpong (the Indian kids are supposed to be really good so I wanted to practice, turns out I suck really bad and will most likely be getting destroyed at the table for the rest of my stay here).

In the evening I wanted to go to Arati (Vespers) at Belur Math, and Arupeshananda advised that I go with Swami Gangananda.  Gangananda is an interesting case in Ramakrishna Vedanta (of which there are many), he is an Iraqi, who went to Germany and became a doctor, then somehow or another took initiation from Ritajananda in France and joined the monastery at Belur Math.  The strange thing about him is that he is both a great devotee of Thakur and a devout Muslim.  Don't ask me how the two mix, but he has harmonized them beautifully and is a very sweet Swami.  He took me with him to Belur Math and made me sit with the monks at arati.  He told me from then on I was to wear a white dhoti and bring a chaddar and sit at the back of where the monks sit, this is a big deal because otherwise I would have to sit in the public area, which as you can imagine, is a zoo.

Belur Math arati is really an experience, all devotees of Thakur should defiantly be climbing walls to get over here and hear all those people packed in the temple singing the songs.  There have to be at least 100 monks in the monks section which is a sight in and of itself.


I finally have some pictures to show everyone, sorry for the delay.  They are sparsely populated at this point, which I'm trying to change.  I'll try and get pics of me and the monks up, along with a few other pics, up by tomorrow.

 This is Vivekananda University's entrance, the building is about five years old.
 This is the somewhat gross pond right in front of VU where I frequently see fish and water snakes.  The reason they don't chlorinate it to clean it up is because they farm fish to eat in it and then the servants go catch the fish with nets. 
 Sanskrit learning posters.
 Cowshed Swami trying to convince a cow to pay attention to him.  I watch the cow drama between the Swami, his workers, and the insolent cows in the morning from the balcony just outside my room.
 More Sanskrit learning posters.
VU classroom
 Where we get our milk
 The view from the balcony outside my room
 View of the cowshed and pen from my room's balcony
 Halls of the VU building
 My room looking in from my door towards the balcony
 Another view including my bed, notice the mosquito net.
My desk set up to distribute gifts to the Swamis.

 Thanks everyone for your interest in my situation, I'm surprised to see this blog already has over 90 views.  I'll try to keep the information flowing freely, at least until I start school next Monday.

Good Night and Good Morning,
Kamal

Saturday 23 June 2012

June 23, 2012

Went with Arupeshananda Swami to Belur Math.  We saw General Secretary Maharaj, Girishananda Maharaj, Naren Maharaj, Nischeit Maharaj, Sunjeev Maharaj, and other Swamijis.  We also visited Uphen Maharaj, who is the last living diciple of Swami Shivananda.  He's 104 years old.  I'm going back this afternoon in the hopes of seeing him again, he's the very last of an entire generation whoe's still around.

I still can't believe I'm here, Arupeshji showed me the hostels which I'm going to be moving into next weekend, and we also went to the Ganga and too Belur's water treatment plant.  There's alot happening in this country and  it's hard for me to believe it's real.  Time passes incredibly slow here, something about the heat and the pace of living, and how new everything is for me, makes an hour seem like two or three.

Anyhow I'm happy, I successfully got the lunch servant to not feed me too much and also learned how to tie my dhoti in the way that the Bengali boys have to wear it.  Pictures coming soon.

Friday 22 June 2012

Hey Mom,

So I'm here at the University.  They put me in the nicest room in the
building (which is actually pretty nice I have a balcony and my own
bathroom) but told me not to get too comfortable because next week
I'll be moving into the dorms with the rest of the students.

The ride from the airport is pretty ridiculous.  This area, Howrah
District or Belur or wherever I am is very third-world.  It's kind
of like Mexico, but dirtier and way more chaos.   You get a picture of what the squalor in the area is like on the drive to Belur Math.   There's animals all over the place that look pretty cute, and the whole scene actually isn't that
shocking, there's just elements that are kinda weird.

Last night I slept for about three hours, the beds are just boards
with like a little pad on them and a sheet over the pad.  No blanket
and the beds are pretty hard as you can imagine.  I didn't mind the
beds so much if it wasn't for the muslims, birds, and mosquito bites I
might have actually gotten a good night's sleep.

I got up at 4:30 this morning and got ready and went for a walk around
the campus.  On the walk I saw two water snakes, a frog, chipmunks,
fish, and cows, and that was literally just like walking around the
medium sized school building I'm staying in.  This whole area is just
like swamp they put concrete over, and the swamp frequently bursts
through the cracks to let you know it's there.  The campus of the
University is probably nice for Indian standards, but it isn't very
nice by out standards.  It's cool though, just kinda swampy and dirty.
 The building is nice though and there planting some nice flowers and
stuff around it that make it better.  Your going to die when you see
the cowshed the cows are so damn cute, Arupeshananda says he's going
to take me over to feed them soon, he says he even has favorite cows
now.  The weather isn't too bad either, it's a little hot and sticky, but totally managable.

I had breakfast around 7:30, it wasn't as terrible as it could have
potentially been.  They gave me buttered toast that I enjoyed like I
never have before and some Indian stuff.  The Indian stuff wasn't that
bad.  The problem was they gave me too much of it, and I ate it all and I don't know how fast I can
digest it, so I'm a little worried now, this happened in Singapore.
The secret is to chew the food, otherwise if you just swallow it fast
then your stomach has no chance and your going to feel like crap and
you just have to take a nap.  But I think I'm ok, I enjoyed the tea, I
can't say I fell in love with it but it is really good tea, and I know
over time I'll start to really like it.

Today I'm planning to go to Belur Math with Arupeshananda as soon as
he's ready, to distribute my Swami gifts.  I've yet to see Vice
Chancellor Swami, I guess he doesn't come around until later in the
day.

We should Skype tomorrow so I don't have to keep writing these long
emails, today's going to be busy a little busy for me I think, what
time is good for you?

Please forward this email to the family and any friends you think
would be interested in what's going on with me, I might do some of it
but I don't have many email addresses.

Much Love,
Rip