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Ananda College of Living Wisdom Study Abroad 2010: India Part I

“Kerala--God’s Own Country”

(signage on taxis throughout Thrissur)

We are in Thrissur in the state of Kerala, South India. Thrissur is north of Cochin near the Arabian Sea. We traveled from our Ananda College campus to San Francisco on Monday, January 18, 2010. We flew from San Francisco to Cochin via Dubai, about a 24-hour trip with a brief layover. There are nine of us here now and we will be joined by two more in Northern India.

It is hot and humid in Kerala, even though it is officially spring and a cooler time of year. Many of us are still making the adjustment from the snowy, rainy winter of Northern California to this tropical climate. In Kerala, the official language is Malayalam, though some people also speak English, Hindi and Tamil. Malayalam is a beautiful language that sounds very round and lyrical. Even the Malayalam alphabet is rounded and circular, and the people here seem soft and accommodating.

We are staying in a home in the center of Thrissur. Each morning we wake up to the sounds of an unusual tropical bird whistling a loud melodic tune. With the coconut palms all around it feels a bit as though we're living amidst a rainforest jungle. Just a short walk away are city streets crammed with auto rickshaws, markets and people. We've been told this is the coconut capital of the world, and the area is teeming with banana and mango trees as well.

Our group starts each day with morning sadhana, chanting and meditation. It is the main time of day for us to connect with God in a deeply devotional way.

The Indian people make it easy to remember God. They smile with their hearts and the little children all wave at us cheerfully as if they've met their best friend and don't want to say goodbye. There are no beggars here in Thrissur, possibly because it's not a traditional tourist destination. We are the only group of Westerners we've seen since we've been here the past 10 days.

Since our study abroad group is mainly girls 18 and up, we spent the first day finding some appropriate Indian clothes, which makes it much easier to navigate the culture and the heat. Our group now looks very colorful and elegant, transformed from our quiet forest ashram in the mountains to this busy and fascinating world.

Sharing Nature, Sharing Consciousness

"When a person becomes harmoniously attuned with the world, his feelings of harmony with other people are intensified, too. Through watching nature in silence, we discover within ourselves feelings of relatedness with whatever we see--plants, animals, stones, earth and sky. The American Indians knew that, in silence, men can feel that all things are expressions of a single Life, and that we humans, too, are children of that Life."
--Joseph Cornell, "Sharing Nature with Children"

We are doing service projects in many Indian schools, studying the religions of India, learning Indian art and culture, business practices and education systems. Our first service project was with the Sal Sabeel school in Thrissur. The school is mostly Muslim children from kindergarten to 12th grade. The school has won a regional environmental award for their projects to eliminate littering and plastic bags.

India has been in desperate need of environmental education programs. The over-population is only one obstacle the country struggles with. We spent most of our time at Sal Sabeel School with the children--playing nature games and getting to know new friends. The nature games were created by Joseph Bharat Cornell, author of "Sharing Nature with Children," and a leading environmental educator since 1978. Bharat lives at Ananda Village and is a guest lecturer for our college.

Sharing Nature Games teaches about "flow learning" which is also a component of the Education for Life (EFL) learning system founded by Nayaswami Kriyananda and used in the Ananda College of Living Wisdom teacher training programs.

The Diverse Culture of Kerala

Many South Indian temples are not open to Westerners, reserved for Hindus only. In mosques, the men do their prayers separate from the women. In nearby Cochin, we visited the Jain temple. We were thankful that one of our college students, Chitra Sudhakaran, hails from Kerala and was able to translate and guide us on this day.

We spent time asking the Jain pujari all about Jainism, which began in India about 12,500 years ago. Jainism teaches reverence for all life forms, strict forms of ahimsa and non-violence and strict vegetarianism. The Jain pujari informed us that Jains do not even eat root vegetables (like potatoes) because they are grown underground.

Kerala is the folklore capital of India and a focus of one of our studies has been the ancient art forms like Kathakali theatre and dance, which is being reincarnated here in an attempt to preserve this magnificent art.

At the Kalamandlam University we experienced how the artists are preserving everything from sacred temple dances and music to costumes and face painting.

Only 550 students are allowed in this government sponsored college for Keralan students age 12 to 20. The college has similarities to our own college. It is run like a traditional Gurukulum, the faculty and students all live within the 30-acre campus and the small classes and teacher student ratio allows for plenty of individual attention. The difference is that we have more emphasis on meditation and yoga and a broader scope of study, and we’re much smaller.

Students performing in the dance and theatre at Kalamandlam re-enact stories from The Mahabharata, The Ramayana and the Gita. Dancers spend years learning ballet-like gestures, hand mudras, and distinct eye and facial movements designed to tell stories without words. The music, percussion, make-up and costuming is equally elaborate. Our interview with one of the principals of the school and footage we took of their performances will be available later this year.

Elephants, Festivals & Ayurveda

Driving through the streets of Thrissur we’ve come upon several festivals and parades, complete with Keralan elephants, all adorned with jewels, head dresses and umbrellas. Elephants abound here--there hasn’t been a day we haven’t seen one--whether they’re carrying bamboo with their trunks, being moved about in trucks, heralding a festival or simply giving a ride to their devoted keeper.

One elephant keeper told us that the bond between elephants and their care-giver is so strong that once you “keep” an elephant they are like a child--yours for life. Elephants can live to be as old as human beings.

Another centuries-old tradition here is the practice of Ayurveda. We study Ayurveda as part of our core-curriculum at Ananda College of Living Wisdom and it is also a focus area in our Health & Healing programs.

Kerala is where the ancient art of Ayurveda originated and you see it and taste it in the South Indian food, the Ayurvedic “water”, and the many Ayurvedic treatment centers and nursing homes throughout the area.

Sacred India

The religious diversity of Kerala is an inspiration. This is especially apparent in places like Cochin, where Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Christians seem to tolerate each other and live harmoniously.

The oneness of all religions is especially felt in India.

We were treated to a special adventure when we learned that one of our faculty members, Bruce Burger, had arranged for us to have a special meeting with his wife’s guru, an Indian Swami by the name of Sunildas.

Bruce Burger (Arvind) teaches in our Health & Healing programs and happened to be visiting Thrissur during our visit. He and his wife Chela took us to visit Sunildas, who lives near Thrissur in a small ashram with his parents.

Sunildas is a disciple of Satya Sai Baba and is very sweet and child-like. Sunildas does seva programs with lepers and has helped many AIDS-HIV sufferers in this area. His message is simple--”Heart of Love”….and when you ask him a question or voice a concern his frequent response is “love, love, love”.

Sunildas discovered some of us were Kriya Yogis and handed us all photos of Mahavatar Babaji, stating that Babaji had appeared at the site of his new ashram and urged us all to take a visit there to meditate at dusk.

His advice for us was “Kriya Yoga and love, love, love.”

There was a full moon on the night we visited Sunildas, an auspicious time to spend time with this saintly soul. We had an uplifting and devotional time together and ended the evening singing spiritual songs together.

There are many gurus with big ashrams in Southern India--Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Amritamayeananda (Amma), and Satya Sai Baba.

It was refreshing to see the small ashram being built by Sunildas at the foot of the mountains near Thrissur--it inspired us for the next part of our journey--our visit to assist the new Ananda Sangha Kriya Yoga community being developed by Nayaswami Kriyananda near Pune, India.

During our stay in Kerala there have been visits to homes, numerous South Indian feasts served on banana leaves, a day on a traditional Keralan houseboat on the backwaters near Allepy, and attendance at a South Indian wedding. We are thankful for the beautiful Keralan people who have welcomed us here, and especially to our host “mother” Shobana Menon, who helped plan our experience in Thrissur.

Nayaswami Kriyananda once offered a few words to one of our study abroad students who asked for his advice on how to study India. “The best way to see India,” he said, “is with your eyes closed and your heart open.”

We keep this in mind as we travel northward to Pune, Varanasi and Rishikesh.