I'm not in Kansas anymore...

Guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar With the project complete and my body healing from the latest round of illnesses, I was eager to move on. Auroville had been an incredible experience for me but the heat of south Indian summer was beginning to be unbearable. One of the most important lessons I had learned in Sadaha Forest was to understand and take care of my own needs. The other I learned at the Shiva temple: the importance of creating space, a gap for the universe to manifest. Up to this point I had committed to a plan to continue to travel north India with Liz. Post Sadhana, something was telling me to go it alone. So I took a deep breath, wrote her a long email setting out my intention to take a solo, unscheduled path up through India for the remaining time I had. I already knew that too much planning equated to too much ‘control’ over the situation - entirely in contrast to the ‘surrendering’ purpose of my trip. And it had already been proven to me that if I stepped back, released ...

Alex the Shiva devotee Other than to let the Universe decide my fate, I had no plan. And so I got a ride out of Sadhana Forest with two lovely volunteers  and went with them to the village of Kuilapalayam: a favourite hangout of forest-dwellers desperate for a sugar, chocolate or cold coffee fix to offset the vegan frugality. As we trundled along the dusty track through the Aurovillean villages we reminisced about Alex the Shiva devotee who had also decided to move on. I had met him one particularly despondent Sunday when, unsolicited, I plopped myself down next to him in the kitchen on the floor amongst the vegetable scraps and began a long soliloquy on loneliness and intimacy. Alex looked at me with his bright eyes and communed with me with such grace, tenderness and understanding. It was only after much later that I thought to ask him his name.  I remained very close to Alex for the rest of my time in Sadhana, feeling deeply connected to him and seeing him as a sort...