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Laura

Laura in India – part 2

Posted on April 12, 2011 by Lydia

Travel account of Laura’s trip to India, February-March 2011
(written by Lydia, Laura’s Mum)

For this travel account, we showed our pictures to Laura. What Laura said during the trip or afterwards as comment to the photos is marked in blue.

27th Feb 2011, 10.50 am

I slept well

We’re back in the airport, for a domestic flight this time. We adjusted our outfit a bit. That little effort is always greatly appreciated in India (no bare shoulders, legs or cleavage etc)

(to adjust or not to adjust, that’s a story which doesn’t belong in the context of this travel account)

Marie is taking care of the check-in. She gets compliments for her sari. People are asking whether she’s perhaps attending a wedding. Well, yes and no, but that story is too long and complicated to share with them.

3 sisters

flying again but this time I will take care to liven things up a bit

What would Laura mean by that?

I didn’t want to keep still but I had to and I listened and I was a very good girl

Laura has a seat next to Marie and by the window. She’s very agitated and the seat is being tested for its swinging qualities. Luckily, no-one is sitting behind her.

my window looked just the same but I didn’t dare to look for long

Here a view on ‘Marina Beach’. It is indeed not Laura’s window on this photo, but mine – Lydia, Laura’s Mom and photographer – that’s why Laura says here window ‘looked just the same’. She doesn’t cease to amaze me, this here is a small example.

Landed safely in Trichy, the propeller has stopped.

in the airport bus it’s already very hot

Some years ago the conveyer belt for luggage in Tiruchirappali Airport was just a wooden board on two trestles and a rack on wheels under a corrugated roof. Now the whole building is brand new and enormous.

now the ashram is coming closer
everyone is helping to organize the taxi and so on but they are doing very well without my help

in the taxi I remember my last journey when I was small
traveling in a hot and windy taxi is a real India-experience you don’t forget easily

The road to Fatimanagar is unrecognizable. There’s a new highway and newly put up concrete walls, a success story of Indian infrastructure.

I have to see where I am because everything looks different

This Ashram gate is new for Laura

To come in the Ashram has something unreal. To never see Swami walking here again with our daily eyes, is very strange.

27th Feb 2011

Swami’s body lies in a glass bier in the pooja hall/temple

After a few hours settling in and freshening up Marie and I went to the temple
I thought there was a special atmosphere there even though the people were sad a lot most of the time but still a joy was present coming from swami and trying to make the people happy

28th Feb 2011 Mahasamadhi ceremony

I gave a flower to his body and I saw him walking around
I saw he was watching together with the people to his samadhi to see whether everything was in order and sometimes he went to wisper something in someone’s ear

sometimes he’s not there for a moment but then he’s there again

The last two pictures are not mine. I didn’t make pictures of the Samadhi ceremony (we were asked not to – because then hundreds of people stick up their little cameras or perhaps start to push or crowd) but a report was made afterwards. Very special. You can read Swamiji’s life story on the official Sri Premananda website.

1st March 2011

just a quiet day
our room was really small and with my contribution rather messy because I’m not good at tidying up even though I like order

I had nice food from home

I think India is not my flavour. but I’m still happy that I came. I prefer to be at home.
but I’m on a journey now and I also like that a bit
I don’t have to walk around the whole time and see a lot of people I’m doing enough already

I mean that I don’t have to walk around too much because it is far too hard
I also mean that a lot of people are sad and I don’t have to see them to be able to help them

Is there anything else you want to say?

I want to take frequent showers, at least 3 times a day spread out over the day but not necessarily before going to bed but rather when it’s hotI also want to follow my own rhythm – sleeping and being awake – because I dream a lot
I also want to eat nice food if possible
only when I’m home again I will be the usual me again

Your dreams, can you say something about that?

I dream a lot but I only remember them for as long as I need to and then I let them go again

Can you tell us what your dreams are?

I do not tell them because that is not possible

our bathroom was fun

Why???

because I like taking showers

the ashram is a very special place
my mom came here very often and marie and sarah as well and that is very good

everyone should come here at least once to feel that with their soul

because even if you come here and you don’t immediately feel anything special, your soul can feel it and then your life receives a very big new power

it’s like a charger for your inner dynamo

every day you spend here is of significance for the rest of your endless life

I mean also after your death and in your next lives

our house was very cosy and my neighbours could hear everything
I like making sounds because then I can make myself heard and I can speak myself without words but I know that some people effectively sighed of relief when we moved next door to a different room

still, it was good; annoying things in the ashram never cross your path by accident

my neighbours were not my neighbours by accident and that’s why I don’t feel guilty

Our first room was a ‘cubicle’, a room inside a larger building, separated from the other rooms by walls but sharing the same common roof.