Thursday, April 23, 2009

A Morning At An Aurobindo Retreat

For several weeks, my friend Namita*, has been saying she'd love to show me the Gnostic Centre, where she volunteers. Finally the day comes, and we meet at her charming home in Gurgaon. Sitting among her lovely plants, sipping cooling ginger lemon (made at the Aurobindo Gnostic Centre), her Golden Labrador nuzzling me, I wondered what could be better...

And then we went to the Centre. Set inside a stud farm somewhere in Gurgaon, we passed through various security gates. And then the car stopped. Birds, the fragrance of the flowers, it was as if we had left Delhi and its suburbs and reached paradise. She showed me around. A beautiful meditation hall where the ashes of Sri Aurobindo are kept—I silently bowed my head and made a simple prayer to keep my family, my loved ones, and everyone well and happy. A library so peaceful that it made you want to delve into the books. A gym looked strangely out of place, but there were people using it... A beautiful room which would have shamed my yoga teacher's pretty nice yoga studio... but no one using it.

A cafe called Alchemy where we sipped freshly brewed iced tea after a small meditation.

A perfect morning with a lovely friend!




*Name changed.

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