inpassionpublications: Choosing Love - Thank you Mother India/ Post 1

Maa Ganga's Bounty

Day 2 - 21st of May 2018

This is the story of a journey with our Souls, Pedro and I letting ourselves be offered life on a golden platter, experiencing our love in bountiful freedom and sharing it with the whole world.

This journey started a few months ago, from the very instant we envisioned the possibility of coming to India, both of us for the 2^nd time, though our first was at different times and to different locations.

And what spurred this possibility? Coming to the Women Economic Forum (www.wef.org.in) organized by Dr. Harbeen Arora and her beautiful soulful creation: All Ladies League, born in India to connect the whole world as One through the empowerment of feminine leadership, to walk hand in hand with the masculine, finally.

So here we are, looking at the map, exploring possibilities of where to go.

Six days for WEF New Delhi, 26^th April to 1^st of May, plus around 12 days for the Wonder-Bike ride (will tell you all about it later on).

Then I receive an invitation from Confluence Foundation to go to Varanasi to a three-day trade fair, five days before WEF, which I initially decline because I am not into textile and handicrafts trade. Nevertheless, Smita, the organizer insists that I should come anyway for India has a tradition of receiving all as family and that the Foundation will pay for the air fare from Delhi to Varanasi and back, plus hotel and meals. Since I am travelling with Pedro I ask whether he can come along also, which is, once again accepted. Thank you Smita Shrivastav for being the conveyor of this God-given opportunity.

This is how both Pedro and I got to visit the Indian Mecca city of Varanasi – tagged as the holiest city in India - with the added bonus of meeting some absolutely fantastic people who are now our friends for life. Thank you Amit Talwar, Anu Vittal, Sanjay Goyal, Nitin Nagrale, Mansi Mahajan and Byron, Carol Hanlon amongst others, for the excellent company, shared laughs, love and wisdom.

At the airport a van picks up around 15 of us and we realize many of the people on the flight were meant to come to the same Event as us.

On the way to the Hotel, Nitin tells us that anyone who gets to go to Varanasi will surely go to Heaven and has surely been doing a lot of good deeds to be bestowed with this honour. Humbled by this knowledge, our hearts sing with glee, ready to live up to the blessings that have been showered upon us.

Nitin asks the driver to stop at a street stall on the way, for us to try some good Chai and some fried pastries I cannot remember the name of. He advises us, however, to be careful with street food and to never eat raw vegetables. Sticking to either boiled or frozen drinks is also a strong recommendation we intend to follow.

We are then taken to the fabulous five star Gateway Hotel Ganges, where we are received with ceremonial grace, following the Indian tradition of offering a gift to guests in this case in the form of a handmade necklace as well as the Tilaka on our foreheads, made with a fragrant paste - possibly sandalwood, in the round form of a Bindi, representing the cosmos as the berth of all creative unity allowing us to see beyond the limitations of physical form and recognising each one’s divinity.

We are invited to the hotel’s restaurant for a hearty breakfast and refreshments as well as establishing the first long-lasting bonds with other guests.

Time to be at the opening ceremony is long overdue but we are eventually transported there, where there are also ambassadors from several countries, which the organization hopes to create good trade relations with in order to expand the local hand-loom weavers’ art.

Pedro and I smile at each other, not really knowing why we are here, other than the fact that being at Varanasi suffices itself.

After lunch we enjoy a relaxed afternoon at the hotel and before sundown we receive another magical present: a boat tour on the Ganges, to witness the rites and rituals performed on the Ghats and absorb the full power of centuries of devotion right to the core of our cells.

A few children come our way asking for coins and one is selling small cups called diya, made of leaves and orange flowers with a candle inside, which are used for the Ganga Aarti Ceremony, a fire ritual whereby one lights the candle and lets it float on the Ganges river, as an offering to the Goddess Ganga. I get mine, which I offer to Maa Ganga in the name of Isness.

As the large boat we are in moves away from the shore, the rituals begin, fire, incense, clanging bells, chanting… getting louder and louder as we approach the main Ghat - Dashashwamedh Ghat.

On the way we behold ceremonies of varying grandeur and are bemused by the eternally burning Ghat where funeral pyres are reduced to embers and ash, in a sacred ritual of death and rebirth. Here, hundreds of bodies are burnt day and night. Hindus believe that when the ashes of a deceased one are laid in the Ganges at Varanasi, the holiest of grounds (which is believed to be inhabited for 5000 thousand years and thus one of the oldest cities in the world), their soul will directly access Heaven and thus be relieved from the cycle of rebirth. This is called moksha and it is draped with the beauty of completeness.

Of course not all can afford this, for funeral pyres require much wood, which in turn is also taxing forests. But India is the land of all contrasts and on this journey we choose to feel, observe, accept and compassionately Be.

Witnessing the intense sacredness of all that is going on ashore, feeling the power of just Being totally here, in this extended moment of awe, my eyes fill with tears of wonder and I smile, my heart pounding strongly though fully at peace and it’s as if I am holding my hands clasped in thankful prayer for the entire length of this Ganges spectacular ritual. In complete surrender I melt into the whole scenario and become one with it.

If nothing else, this experience alone would have justified coming to Varanasi – nothing left to do or to say, such is the purposeful bliss of receiving, allowing, flowing with Life’s pure magnificence, both physical and non-physical.

Whilst on the boat we are served some delicious vegetable fries on leaf plates, which would have sufficed as dinner but much to our surprise, after the blissful boat ride we are still taken to a restaurant for a round of Indian vegetarian delicacies!

Some years ago when I was still doubting that life could be infinitely grand, and my Essence kept on telling me about Abundance’s true nature – an intrinsic reflection of All that I Am, All that We All Are – I could not have brought myself to even imagine what She meant. She (I will address my Essence as a She for the sake of being in a female body now, but Essence is genderless) would smile each time I asked my endless questions, my hows and my whys, tangled in my impossibles and She would answer “I have so much to give you, if only you will open up and accept the Love that Is All there Is, All You Are…”.

Now I am absolutely sure. There is no doubt in me whatsoever as to the profound Truth that it is our Divine nature that infuses Human experience with meaningful bliss, when allowed to, and each day is living proof of this to such an extent I have surrendered my Free Will to my Essence and know that nothing can be less than perfect, not even needing to know what perfect is.