As it had been years since I frequented the rickety frames of a Eastern tuktuk, I foolishly decided to ride one from Margao, the main train/ bus station in Goa, to Agonda beach, my home for the next month. The severe lack of suspension coupled with dubious, if not downright dangerous, driving style of my ballsy driver has potentially left me with several slipped discs. Perhaps not a great prelude to a month of intense physical exertion, buuuut you live, you learn.
Fernando Rodriguez, ostentacious tuktuk operartor, comes from a line of potentially 5 generations of Portuguese Goan settlers from what I can gather, I generally only understand one in every fifteen or so words, but he is very jolly, and a great host for my inaugral journey into the state. Although, I was somewhat preoccupied by the eight enormous webs cradling sizeable, dark masses I've spotted strewn sometimes maybe 8ft wide through the plumage of a muddle of tropical trees in great expanses of lush jungle, inevitably containing a million untold terrors.... My crazy colleague Charlie was perhaps right, an umbrella may not have gone amiss when passing through such terrain.
After about an hour and a quarter, or twenty crippling kilometers, I checked into my basic room at Fatima's and checked out the stuunning beach about 100m from my door. I swam blissfully, bobbing about by my myself in an unbelievably quiet and serene expanse of fine sandy goodness, fringed with palm and banana trees, then took a stab at hooping (which lasted no more than two-three hundred seconds in the scorching heat), before it was all too much and i took a well-deserved nap.
At 5pm, all the 200hr yoga teacher training students met in the guesthouse restaurant for an initial meeting with Deepak, the equivalent of our yogic guru for the month - who turns out to be pretty good fun. We ate a delicious vegetable curry whilst discussing the evils of mass food production in the West.
But now, time for bed. Here ends the smooth and painless gliding of my joints and the effortless contraction of my meagre muscles. We rise at dawn! (ish).
7am marked the beginning of our yoga journey, and Sampoorna marks the occasion with a 'Homah' or Fire Ceremony. This practice offers thoughts and emotions to the Divine oneness of the Universe. And so we sacrificed the impurities of our lower nature into the Fire of Awareness and look forward to accessing our higher beings with the ultimate goal being Samadhi - enlightenment. A tall order for the month, but I'll give it my best shot. Keshava the yogic monk chanted mantras from about 6:30 until we finish around 8am which was pretty mental.
Om Srim Hrim Klim Glaum Gam Ganapatye Vara Varada Sarva-janum Me Vasamanaya Svaha
Seek the Bessings of Supreme Consciousness manifested in the form of Ganapati, embodiment of auspiciousness, remover of all obstacles, dispeller of Sorrow, and who fulfills all desires.
The ceremony was beautiful and we tossed various items into the flames to mark the spirituality and materialsm of our goals, purifying ourselves and the enviornment of the shala where we will practice yoga (the fumes also being great for alleviating mozzy attacks, double win).
The rest of the day consisted of introductions to Anatomy, Asanas (yoga poses), Ashtanga, Alignment and Philosophy classes. The whole day was aweomse, inspiring, full of a great international broth of yoga disciples, beautiful weather, a glorious sunset, fantastic food, and only ever so slightly marred by the early discovery of my very own resident coackroach. Which fell within a millimeter past my face from the top of my bathroom door this morning., invoking a cartoon leap into the air of atleast 3ft. I can obviously no longer sleep with the light off in this place. Ever. First lesson in Philosophy: never harm another living being. Damn.
7am marked the beginning of our yoga journey, and Sampoorna marks the occasion with a 'Homah' or Fire Ceremony. This practice offers thoughts and emotions to the Divine oneness of the Universe. And so we sacrificed the impurities of our lower nature into the Fire of Awareness and look forward to accessing our higher beings with the ultimate goal being Samadhi - enlightenment. A tall order for the month, but I'll give it my best shot. Keshava the yogic monk chanted mantras from about 6:30 until we finish around 8am which was pretty mental.
Om Srim Hrim Klim Glaum Gam Ganapatye Vara Varada Sarva-janum Me Vasamanaya Svaha
Seek the Bessings of Supreme Consciousness manifested in the form of Ganapati, embodiment of auspiciousness, remover of all obstacles, dispeller of Sorrow, and who fulfills all desires.
The ceremony was beautiful and we tossed various items into the flames to mark the spirituality and materialsm of our goals, purifying ourselves and the enviornment of the shala where we will practice yoga (the fumes also being great for alleviating mozzy attacks, double win).
The rest of the day consisted of introductions to Anatomy, Asanas (yoga poses), Ashtanga, Alignment and Philosophy classes. The whole day was aweomse, inspiring, full of a great international broth of yoga disciples, beautiful weather, a glorious sunset, fantastic food, and only ever so slightly marred by the early discovery of my very own resident coackroach. Which fell within a millimeter past my face from the top of my bathroom door this morning., invoking a cartoon leap into the air of atleast 3ft. I can obviously no longer sleep with the light off in this place. Ever. First lesson in Philosophy: never harm another living being. Damn.
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