My feelings on this place have been a bit up and down – one day I love it and think it is the coolest place ever, the next day I feel like it is a strange community, and everyone is in their own world. I went into it thinking that everyone would be extremely nice, super helpful, walking around all “blissed out”, but instead it kind of feels like you have to fend for yourself and figure it all out on your own. I guess this makes sense though after all. To the residents, this is their home and it is just any other day, I guess.

Anyways, yesterday I was feeling frustrated …. I was riding my bike to the financial office to get an Auroville card (a debit card that you can use throughout the town) and I was just feeling annoyed with the whole place. I was so busy in my head being frustrated and annoyed, that when I got to the financial office I didn’t even realize it but I sat down in line right next to my man, Guy, the Canadian that I met the other day and had a 3 hour long conversation with over lunch  (if you missed my previous blog post, read up!). I must have looked right at him as I was sitting down, and I didn’t even recognize him because I was so in my own head, until he said “Well, hi there!” I was so not being present. I apologized to him for being zoned out, and then I immediately started complaining about how annoyed I was that it takes forever to get anything done here and people are not helpful and you have to go to a million different places just to get what you need (blah blah blah). He was calmly and gently smiling and said, “Oh yes, I know”…. Then proceeded to tell me that he had spent the past 2 ½ days since he got here trying to get money out. When he arrived, his bank card wasn’t working at any of the ATMs in Auroville, nor was his phone working, nor his laptop, and he only had a limited amount of cash. Essssentailllly, his situation was FAR WORSE than mine, mine didn’t even come close, and here I was, bitching about nothing. I apologized again, this time for complaining to someone who (I felt like) was basically in a crisis, and then I asked him how the hell was planning on figuring this all out and what he was going to do? I was begging him to let me give him some money until he could get it figured it out. He was so relaxed and smiling as he said…

“Ashley, this is all part of the process. This is just another opportunity for us to practice patience. To practice staying calm. To practice living in the moment and being present.” What he was saying basically piggy backed off of the exact 3 hour conversation that he and I had the previous day over lunch/coffee….“What is the very worst thing that could possibly happen to me?” he said. “The VERY worst thing is I die – and then, none of this matters. The second worst thing is I can find absolutely no way to get my money out here, I ask some generous person to help me get to the airport where I can use a credit card to pay for a flight home. These are the absolute worst case scenarios. And most likely, it won’t come to that. Everything will work out just fine. Everything is happening just as it is supposed to happen.” He went on….

“You see, the further down this spiritual path that we go and the stronger we grow in our faith, the more opportunities life throws at us to practice living our truth, to practice what we preach. These are all just reminders to help us stay the course. This is all part of the master plan.”

Just like that, it was his turn in line and he was called on by one of the office workers. We said our goodbyes as I begged him once more to let me give him some money (just in case), to which he firmly declined and said, “No, I don’t need it. All will work out in my favor. I will see you later!” We planned to meet again on this Thursday evening for meditation at the globe. Maybe it will be Thursday the next time I see him. Maybe he will appear again before then, right when I need him the most.. right when I am not being present. “Maybe he is God,” said Brandon on the phone last night after I told him the story.

Later that evening, I took a sound bath class and it was indescribable. You lie on your mat, close your eyes, and drift off into a meditative state as the class facilitators play gongs, sound bowls, African drums, Indian flutes and other instruments. They walk around the room with the instruments and play them over your body. The sounds seem to completely engulf you and you are literally transported to a different universe. It is an out of body experience. You can no longer feel your physical body, you can sense nothing except the vibrations from the sounds pulsating throughout your energy field. You become one with the sound. I might sound like a wack-job, but this is TRUELY the only way I know how to describe the experience.

When I got back from class that night, the most hilarious scenario happened. I had put two bananas and a bag of unopened oats in the kitchenette upstairs in the house I am staying at. The kitchen is still undergoing some construction and is not completely finished yet so there is no door to it (it is currently an open-air kitchen off of the second floor balcony). While I was at class, 2 monkeys came and stole the bananas and oats out of the kitchen and were running around spilling the oats ALL OVER the 2^nd and 3^rd floor balcony and stair case and all over the ground outside the house, while the house owner (Vijaya) and her husband were screaming, chasing them around with sticks to get them out. When I came home after class that evening, Vijaya was frantic! She was like, “Ashley! What did you put in the kitchen upstairs?! It is all over the house!!!!” As she is dragging me up the stairs and all around the outside of the house to show me the spilled oats. I couldn’t help it but this visual of them chasing the monkeys around with sticks was SO FUNNY to me, that as she is showing me I am cracking up laughing. I couldn’t stop!! Eventually she was laughing too and the whole night after that (even now as I write this), whenever I would think about this scenario, I would burst out loud laughing.