Meet me at the Dancing Shiva

Dearest friends and family,

I have not gone missing. I have not forgotten you. I am in India and it is great. I have been working more than I ever have. I am busy, but at least I have been busy in India. Things have slowed down for me here at the ashram since the International Yoga Festival ended a little over a week ago so now I am trying to catch up on chronicling my experiences in this transformative place.

I have titled this series of posts under “Where I stopped on my spiritual journey…” as I will go on to explain below. Keep checking back here for more updates on my journey as I will likely not be sending emails as much but using this forum for my writing. I think there may be a way to “subscribe” to this blog so that you get an email with the latest updates but I am not sophisticated enough to tell you how to do this! If someone knows, please comment.

Where I stopped on my spiritual journey . . . Introduction

I live in an ashram in India. I wear mala around my neck blessed by the swami here, Swamiji. I go to an evening ceremony daily on the banks of the Ganga river revered as the Divine Mother. I do not utter profanity. I do not eat onions or garlic in the ashram. I greet people with ‘Namaste’ and ‘Jai Shri Krishna,’ reminders of the divine in the daily and the beauty within each person. I do yoga everyday on the rooftop with monkeys. I learn how to chant mantras that I now know by heart from a self-healed wonder we call Mataji.

So I think you could say that no matter what I am doing day to day, my time in India is always a spiritual journey. I still sit at a computer for much of the day doing work but don’t let that fool you that I don’t also soak up the wisdom and energy of the great saints and sages that have filled this land with divinity.

But let’s not get too serious here. Let’s be honest, I am still Suze from VA who LOVES chocolate, dancing to good music, rock climbing, watching silly movies, hanging out with friends, cooking dinner with my boyfriend and generally indulging in western luxuries as much as the next chic. So I thought I should share with you a few places that I have stopped along this ’spiritual journey’ that is living in India in an ashram in Rishikesh…some may seem logical and some will most certainly not.

Hopefully over the next few days I can fill everyone in on the highlights of the last couple weeks.

Feel free to reply to me over email or you can add a comment below if you are so technologically inclined.