11 Dec 2009 Vrindavan, India
Category: Travelling
Food for a day
Today we were walking in the garden and when I saw the nice flowers I remembered how my friend Govind came into the Ashram one day and said how beautiful the garden was, like an oasis and you just feel home.
Many people feel when they come to India that it is like coming home. They feel like this is a place that they have roots at or where they can feel free to be themselves. They see how happy people are even though many are poor and they feel the happiness of the heart, the love which is there. But not everybody feels this way.
Some people seem to have strange expectations when they come here. Once a woman came to the Ashram and on the day she arrived she said that she was so surprised that there is so much dust here in Vrindavan. I don’t know what information she had about India but it is not only in Vrindavan that you find sand and dust.
India is a crowded, sandy and dusty country. You actually cannot say it that much in general because India is such a huge country with all kinds of different climates but I can guarantee you that the usual traveler coming here does not expect it to be as clean as Switzerland. If this is the expectation then you will have a real shock once you arrive at any airport.
We also had this case that someone arrived in India and after two hours took a flight back home. But still most of the people come and love it. Maybe it is one of the cases where you can either love it or hate it but nothing in between?
Click here to see more pictures of the children at lunch
Tags:: Ashram, Expectations, Happiness, Love, Travelling, Vrindavan, Heart, Poor, Govind
4 Comments

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India is so different! there are mountains and snow, all the way down to Jungle and monkeys.
Reply By Greg on January 22, 2011 01:06
No one who was truly "born again" turns away. False conversion.
Reply By Cee N Cee on July 21, 2010 03:32
John I like your goal, mine too. I also loved India. I was there for 4 months and it changed my life. So vibrant, rich in spirit showed how you don't need to be rich materially. I didn't have the feeling I had come home though. But when I first set foot in Egypt 9 years ago, I felt I had come home. Every time I touched the ground in Egypt I had ... See Morethis feeling. I went 'home' to Egypt in 2007 until recently. Returning to a place I don't think of as home out of necessity. But my heart is there and I will return when the time is right.
Reply By Davina Severgnini on July 21, 2010 03:30
When I joined a Hindu Temple to learn how to meditate, I immediately sense that something was "right" about this - not a right in the sense that it was opposite from wrong, a right that my soul knew everything really is in Perfect Order...and this is coming from a white guy who used to be a "Born Again" Christian...one day I will get to India...but I will not pre-occupy my mind with future goals, when my only goal now is to be at peace...
Reply By John P. Morgan on July 21, 2010 03:29
Today was the last day of the school year 11/12. The children got their report cards, the olde...
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Fighting your ego - a continuous struggle with yourself?
SourceWe don't need all these complicated philosophies. We just need to learn four letters: love. It is that simple. Live in love, believe in love and share love.
SourceAccept your feelings, accept yourself. Only if you accept yourself you can respect yourself. Be proud of who you are and what you have inside! Each of these steps is important because only if you respect yourself you can love yourself. And only with this love to yourself you can give love to others and receive love from others. Then you are open for this universal love. Accept yourself, respect yourself and love yourself!
SourceDon’t fight after breaking up! The other one is someone whom you once loved!
SourceWouldn’t it be beautiful if we did not lose the value of feelings in the translation into speech? If there was a way how we can express the whole value of the feeling?
SourceNow you are an adult and you can take your own responsibility in your hands, even if you feel your parents were overprotective. Leave this past behind. This world is not evil and not that dangerous at all. It is there to enjoy.
SourceIt is a problem that religion tells in scriptures and culture shows practically that girls should be treated differently than boys. Girls are not as wanted as boys, you get congratulations when you gave birth to a boy while you get looks and words of pity when it is a girl.
SourceTry to be attached to as little as possible, leave old things, throw them out and give them to someone who needs them more than you.
SourceGod is not a Hindu, Christian, Jew, Muslim or Buddhist. He does not have a certain form, shape or colour. The same God that lives in you also lives in me and will be there even if all religions vanish from this world.
SourceThe average Indian person will tell you that it is wrong to have sex before marriage. They think sex is something dirty, even if they are married. Before being married however it is thought to be a sin!
SourceIf you don’t receive what you wished for, accept that it is God’s wish for you not to have it. He does what is best for you.
SourceDon’t be shy to sing when you feel like it. It is a wonderful expression of your emotions and it opens the fifth chakra, the communication chakra.
SourceThere is a thin line in between healthy pride and too much ego. Everybody needs some ego and everybody should be proud of himself. Without ego or pride you cannot survive. You cannot exist without ego because you need your ego to identify yourself.
SourceWe are mostly happy when we take but true happiness is when you enjoy giving.
SourceI love the flexibility of religious belief! You can say any nonsense you like and you will definitely find religious arguments for it, proving your point.
SourceIf you are not happy, how can you make someone else happy? You need to have what you want to give. If you want to give love, you must have love.
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SourceLove should always be unconditional. If there is any condition, it is not really love. If someone leaves because of a condition you don't fulfil, you do not have to feel guilty or have an inferiority complex. Those who really love you, love you how you are, not because of something or a certain quality.
Source
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