I went to the meditation/satsang hall the first night in the Ashram. I retract my statement about the inability to remain silent. The Ashramites (for lack of a better word) were meditating quietly. The atmosphere was palpable. Very nice.
After the meditation the chanting began. There was a "songbook" with the words in Sanskrit. I still can't get the hang of the chanting. While I love the sound of the drums and the harmonium, I've never cared for sing-alongs. Admittedly, the Ganesha melody was rather toe-tapping, but other than that, I couldn't get into it.
After chanting, the resident guru gives a lecture. However, this night was special. There was a movie on 2012! I have avoided the media hype around this apocalyptic year. I did the same here. After 15 minutes of psuedo-scientific drivel I discretely left and went back to my private room to sleep.
The room had two opposing windows and a fan so it was comfortably unstuffy. I read for a bit. It was requested that books were of an inspirational, spiritual matter. While I wasn't reading a trashy romance novel I was reading a non-fiction book on India. I figured that bent the rules just a little. I watched a gecko on the opposite site of the wall. He ran under the fluorescent light. I fell asleep.
Somewhere in the late hours of the night or the early hours of the morning (it really didn't matter) I felt a distinct plop on my bare bicep. I woke immediately, grabbed the thing (it felt like a rubbery piece of clothesline) and flung it across the room. I turned on the lights to find a dull red centipede on the floor curled up in a tight coil after his midnight flight. I used the Ashram brochure with all the rules and regulations on it to sweep his ass out the door.
1 comment:
Ugh. That would have totally freaked me out.
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