Day 5 (Aug 25)

Happy Moon Day!

We started with the morning fire ceremony but on this special day, we spent half the day for 1,008 Gayatri Mantras by the fire. 108 aloud...

After my chores and a wonderful conversation with Amra, a Financial Controller also on the crossroads, I spent some quiet alone time just contemplating and deciding whether I should choose this view.

Or this.

But from where I was, I could see both and so I reflected on gratefulness.

Next stop. Sanskrit Kindergarten class. So now that we sort of know our vowels, dipthongs, consonants (guttarals, palettals, cerebrals, dentals, labials), semi-vowels and sibilants, we were going to read Sanskrit words (pop quiz??)

Here are the words I got: Elephant (ibhah). One (ekah). Pot (ghatah). Nine/New (nava). Monastery (er...). Loan (rnam, with dots under r and m). If I got this in a fortune cookie, it would read something like: You have an elephant in one pot and nine new monasteries on loan.

Very interesting but not very useful when I want to go looking for a toilet as I travel around India. I'll get there...

Here's what I was able to get right before Professor Rao decided to erase the board.

We had our usual dose of lectures and chanting that ended with a beautiful mix of Irish folksong and a well loved chant. Welcome, Jack Harrison. Om Namah Shivayah!

Finally, I capped my day with one more slice of (veggie) chocolate cake. Happy birthday, Simone! What a remarkable day!