Bindu's Repose

Pune

I'm in Pune, I've been here a little over 4 days. The first day, I arrived in the afternoon and got checked into my hotel. The first thing I did was to try and get in touch with my friend Gopesh who lives here. Unfortunately we missed eachother. We finally conntected yesterday evening and had a really nice time together. Ahh, but I'm getting ahead of myself. So I went to the Osho Meditation Resort and proceeded with the whole sign-in process, HIV test and all! Part of the process was getting signed up for a welcome day (day 2). This was good since I haven't been here in a long time, and things have changed significantly. I ended up paying admision for the day and strolling arround (un-welcomed :). Was really interesting seeing how the grounds have changed and expanded.

I am still having this experience of seeing double. Like I see how things used to be and how they are now. I keep trying to fit places together, old memories rush back when I see something I wasn't expecting... The really strange part is that today I started having a similar experience inside myself. So being aware of who I am now and who I was then and how things have changed... It feels a little clostrophobic having two of me in here ;)

So bright and early the next morning I was at the resort in my freshly purchased maroon robe (requirement for daily entrance) waiting to be welcomed. Turns out that the guy who meets us was the doctor at Medina where I lived when I was a kid. How cool is that! Asanga (the doctor) and an Indian woman gave us a bit of a tour of the grounds and then took us into a group room where we had a really good intro to the resort and Osho meditations (we did several short versions of meditations and got info about how they were created etc...)

My plan has been to move out of the hotel as soon as possible so as to reduce my burn rate :) and so that I can be closer to the commune.... Arg... so there it is, great pains are made to point out that this is no longer a commune/ashram but rather a meditation resort. But I still have my double vision :) It kinda interesting. I guess it doesn't help that the Ricksaw (taxi) drivers still call it the Ashram. In many ways this feels like a resort and not a commune/ashram, there is a whole recreational facility and guest house. The workshops, classes, trainings etc are really clearly offered in a central location. However, there is also the meditation part of the equation which still feels like an ashram to me. In the evening many folks come together for a meditation called "White Robe". I still feel a strong communal energy at this time... Everyone changes from there (requisite maroon) clothes to the similarly requisite white robes. Sounds kinda like an Illuminaty (sp?) event or something... Heh... Not knowing much about the Illuminaty I couldn't say how much resembelance there is, but my guess is not very much.. heh...

Ahem, back to my plans to get out of the hotel and into cheaper accomodations. I met up with an old sannyasin who had a room to rent and we aggreed to meet the following morning.

Day 2 1/2 (Jan 12th), we met outside the main gate and agreed (I thought) to go see the room at 4pm. I spent a lot of time being pretty mellow and a little time juggling with a really funny Itallian guy! At 4pm I was at the gate, but Santosh was not... We ended up meeting on the way to the White Robe meditation in the evening and got things sorted. I was to go by his office the next morning.

Jan 13th, Major cold (or is this allergies?) today. I spent the day in bed then went out for dinner with Gopesh in the evening. Also spoke with Santosh and postponed our appointment.

Which brings us today. This has been my first really productive day. Met with Santosh and checked out the apt. It is very basic, but is cheap and I only have to commit to 1 week (I'm still planning on going to Delhi for Gopesh's brothers wedding on the 22nd so will probably be away from Pune for a week or so.) The apt is walking distance to the resort and 90% less than my hotel!!! I checked out of the hotel and moved all my stuff to the apt. Then came to the Ashram and signed up for a massage tomorrow. Then I did Kundalini meditation (for those of you who don't know you can read all about it on the resort website above... it's basically a very mellow movement/dance based meditation.) The last 15 minutes were really lovely for me. Very mellow, very present. After the meditation I had some dinner, and then got ready for White Robe. Went to White Robe and then found the resorts Internet Cafe so I could send this update. :)

Oh did I mention that the food here is really good? It is... And because things are very hygenic, you can eat raw fruits and veg.... yay!!!

Posted by binduwavell at January 14, 2003 09:46 AM