I have now spent a week in the hill’s of McLeodGanj and have spent time hovering around Dharamshala for a few days. I wanted to meet the Dalai Lama and submitted an application to see his holiness with his office secretary. In the meantime I have been soaking in the atmosphere of the monastery and the monastic life. I attended a sermon given by his holiness in the morning prayer meeting and later wished at the wishing wheel.
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Having consumed the prasadam of rice and milk I watched with awe all the ceremonies of this monastic order, the blessing of the buddha statue and off course the Dalai Lama sitting on his thrown couched and hunched preaching in Tibetan – not many words of which I understood but there was a serenity there. All his high priests were huddled around him as he gave his sermon. We were not allowed to carry our camera’s inside only the guy’s telecasting the prayer session where allowed to carry camera’s. The security was tough we had to go through the security checks and even inside the monastery their were guard’s carrying gun’s. Even amongst such peace and tranquility the fear of the uncertain?
I had a sparse breakfast of potato curry and roti and ventured back home. For two days I’d been trying to get an audience with him but I have failed miserably every time. Once i reached late by 20 minutes and the next day the taxi did not arrive on time to take me there. I moved into a hotel just minutes from the monastery, so that I don’t miss him and yet I did since that was the day he was not going to hold a prayer meeting and now the Dalai Lama be travelling and be out for another two weeks!!
Wandering about for solace of sorts I bumped into an old couple from Texas Mr & Mrs. Emerson over breakfast and got chatting .” you see Anuj all is everything and everything is all and that’s all .” they said to me as we spoke and learned more about each other. I remarked “ It’s like we are riding a chariot with two wheel’s one is called Desire the other is destiny . If we rely only on one wheel we will keep going round and round in circles. We have to use both wheels , desire to push us forward and meet our ambition and sense of achievement and destiny the one we cannot control that will take us through . Only after blanking the two can we move on our path.”
“You see Anuj we don’t get to talk to people at the same philosophical level back home. I mean i have been in india for over a week and my chakra’s are all roaring to go .” The man smiled as his wife poured us both some tea and the waiters served our breakfast. It was getting chilly and the peaceful atmosphere of the valley was enchanting . “ i would love to see your blog and make me your friend on Facebook “, he said. I took a picture of the two and thanked them for the breakfast.
This is life I thought and will buy some robes tomorrow and chat with Tenzing who has promised to become my guide through the amazing Tibetan monastic life. The monk’s in their maroon robes are all over the street’s of Mcleodganj as shopkeepers sell their artefacts, rugs, clothes and other ethnic nik naks.There is also a pizza hut also at the heart of the bazaar and shop’s selling clothes , electronic’s items book’s etc. Then i bumped into some fan’s who recognised me as a Bollywood actor , they took photo’s with me and chatted to me about my film’s , i aquatinted them with my travel journey and stories.
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