That Indian sun still shining its irrepressible heat down during the middle parts of the day, punishing the wild dogs and mad Englishmen and everyone in between. On the 18th the day was like T minus and counting to that midnight depature from Bombay. Went to a Gandhi exhibit at the local museum and you can see Janet inspecting the goods! I had a very nice cup of tea and Indian snacks in a beautiful apartment owned by a fellow Indian meditator on a road that has been said to have the entire population of Melbourne walk past the street in a single day-- a very buy thoroughfare (Churchgate) to say the least! Then, with Indian things always taking far longer than anything should, somehow not even really getting in our full afternoon/evening hour sit, loading the luggage on a poor taxi's rooftop and getting to Victoria station. We settled into our 30 hour trip, 2nd class no AC, about $10, with almost 10 bags of food containing everything from fruit and veggies to Indian dry snacks and even some PB. Lock our bags to the seat and settle in to a sleeping bag as the temperature pleasantly drops to a slight chill. Up the next morning and continue with the Bombay trend of some scattered-mind sits. Meal times the hub of activity... beforehand trying to maintain a small conversation above the constant noise of the train and beggars and child sweepers moving past as we give them fruit, now we are engaged in the different tasks of throwing refuse out the window, peeling dirty veggie skins, dipping various items in the PB or making some Indian trail mix. Then at times trying to negotiate the mass of humanity sleeping over the floors outside, feet and arms and limbs sticking out on the way to the unappealing toilet and back, the noise and activity and commotion overwhelming but a part of this country no matter where you go. The day somehow passes, another night of sleep and the windows open, the sleep goes well until the train stops somewhere, either at a station or in the m
iddle of the open land with blazing stars for no reason that any of us Westies can fathom, stops until the conducter has had a good betel chew or what not, allowing the hordes of mosqitoes to get close enough to you to not be blown out the window, and they let loose. And these mosquitoes, true to Kedaar's words, these northern guys are unlike any of their brethen in other parts of the world, their bites itch and hurt like nothing else! Sleep is impossible, I am woken up now, and looking at parts of my arm I see half a dozen bites in a small area. Stumbling awake and Kedaar putting some fennel seeds in my hand to eat and getting out a net to put over me, waking up in the a.m. in Varanasi.
O and Varanasi! (The cow at the station in the picture to the left) So many more delays, delays of the purely Indian type where hours and hours could have been literally less than a minute anywhere else. A toilet with 20 minute wait times, disgusting to boot, a ticket change with a large line, wrong line and change, power goes out, wait 30 mins, power comes on, inspects the ticket and exclaims this is the wrong line again (could have checked during the power failure but didn't), another wait, and so on... a taxi drive out the main ghat to see all the devout Hindus bathing in the water, the oldest and maybe poorest city of the Earth, naked children and lepers and sadhus (renunciants) and others milling around, back to train station and more Indian waits, then to Sarnath.
Ah, Sarnath, the waves of calm are back. Sarnath where Buddha gave his first teaching, where the wheel of Dhamma started to rotate. A great eat as we are all hungry, then a walk to accomodation. The bustling and unnerving Indian street in the hot sun, Burmese monastery's head monk is taking rest, so a meeting with the head monk at the Thai monastery asking humbly for accomodation. Showing proper understanding we pilgrims are granted our wish, but can't walk back the short way back because even if nothing can go wrong in India it still will, again such a fantastic country as long as you don't foolishly want anything to happen according to your wishes, this time it's Mrs. Jacques Chirac visiting a building in the area so the entire road is closed for security purposes, so back to the hot sun and the longer route until a pick-up with benches and blasting loud Hindi music picks us up, totally exhausted and sweaty we pick up our bags and walk back again, deposit our bags and shower (!!!!), then load up some sitting stuff and go to the temple where relics of the Buddha are held to have a sit. Just like the pagodas in Burma, loud noise and lots of pain, but such a strong atmosphere that the support is there and samadhi is strong. Too much noise so we grab some mosquito nets and head outside to sit with a tape recorder of U Ba Khin's chanting, then back to the monastery at sunset to have the Thai food which may be the best of the trip so far!
What a snippet, and what pilgrims ever had time to post a blog entry! Tomorrow a day sit and more pilgrims joining us the next day. Schedule has changed to accomodate a trip to Lumbini in Nepal where Buddha was born. Very difficult and perhaps no need to really explain all these experiences and sights and sounds... here are two more pics of Benares to include below...
Oh, and to see pics of the travel day to Sarnath click here!
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