Life In the Ashram

Getting accustomed to life in the ashram has not been as easy as I initially expected. I live in a hut called the cob house that has been constructed from mud featuring a straw roof. I am to wake up at 430 am each day to feed and brush cows as well as carry out other small chores around the farm, this last for 2 hours then I return to my hut. Breakfast is served at 830, lunch at 12 and dinner at 830. I return to the cows each day for similar duties at 445 pm that last anywhere from 2-3 hours. Each morning as I leave my hut to tend to the cows I am mesmerized by the sights before me. A lush, lively tree line surrounds the area, trees that have not tasted the toxic and unnatural smog that travels like armies of bewildered souls searching for for heaven into our neighborhoods. Beyond the trees, enormous mountains which know no bounds stand in eternal patience and bliss for their equilibrium has yet to be shaken by the hands of men who fail to see their true nature. Beyond the mountains a vast landscape of the brightest stars imaginable overwhelms me as in New York, pollution often hides much of the proud, ominous and mysterious objects that ever so delicately compliment the night sky. At the ashram, stars are so incredibly bountiful and whole, so much so that they appear to me as another world, until I realize that they make up something much bigger, the entire universe and I remind my mind to not think in such limiting terms. 

The cow farm or Goshala is one of the most important aspects of the ashram. Cows are considered divine and close to God. I have yet to learn the complete theory behind this but the owner Nimailila assures that I will in time. Cows and bulls in person are much different than on TV. On TV we see them as slow, lethargic and almost in a sense comical, being with cows and bulls in person shows you that you must be a bit more humble. When you are in a pen with 20-30 animals that each way about 20x your weight and are about 50x stronger, you run the risk of being trampled. The thought of this made me tense and nervous around the cows which led to them getting super sketched out. Upon realizing the effect I was having on the animals I realized my fear was irrational because by being afraid of being trampled, I only increased the chances of it so happening, upon realizing this I reminded my mind to not think in such limiting terms. 

Being as my schedule thus far gives me a lot of free time, I am endowed with much time to think. On the first day as I sat in my cob house, the heat began to rise and along with it did my rate of thought. I began to worry and question if I had made the right decision, asking myself if I could really live like this for almost 2 months. I began to think of all the negatives; the bugs, the heat, the faulty shower, the list could have went on extensively. My anxiety grew and my thoughts raced until I made the conscious decision to take a step back and analyze how I was thinking. I came to realize that what I was experiencing was a HUGE change from what I was used to in Westchester, NY and I recalled the psychological fact that people are obliged to fear change or more generally, what they fail to totally understand. I began to site proof of this fact throughout history, ignorant people feared the change that Martin Luther King Jr. was bringing during the civil rights movement, fear turned to hatred as it naturally does which resulted in MLK's death. The same rings true from the fear and hatred of Jesus by those who crucified him to that of the parents of countless rebellious teenagers who were consumed with outrage when Elvis first showed the world Rock N Roll. I realized my fear of what's to come was no different than that of the millions of ignorant people who have lashed out against change in the past, upon realizing this I reminded my mind to not think in such limiting terms.