41 days

 41 days

I remember my first visit to sabarimala 🤣🤣🤣🤣

I was in amravati ( near Akola)...

An Andhra friend, officer in Andhra Bank, was from Chennai and he liked me to undertake the vritam/penance....

Usually, i don't think too much before nodding a yes to any kind of self imposed discipline ( i know from past experience, it always leaves me better evolved than earlier 😜

So i said 'okay👍....tell me how to go about it?"

He gave a list of do's and don'ts....being 10 years old on that path.

Few samples...

Twice bath...

Temple visit daily.

Camphor & lamp propitiation to any deity, but chants only about sabarimala deity.

and so on....

Since i was alone, a bachelor, cooking my food in a single room accommodation....i had a few constraints. 

I couldn't know, if any women i see on the road, or at my workplace, as a customer is going through her periods. One rule was, if you meet any such woman, take a bath, and only then you can have any intake ( even a glass of water 😀.... Strange rule....but the orthodoxy I had seen, already, helped me to 'digest' this rule.)

So, once i leave my room after a breakfast, not a drop of water till i return to my room, and have a bath😜

A good process, for cleansing my body, using my empty stomach as a tool...!

41 days was the minimum stipulated period of penance/austerity....

But , as it turned out....my tryst with this guide INVARIABLY allowed me to remain austere for 60 days, for the next ten years.🤣

My inner experience of undergoing such rigorous routine, was indescribable, in terms of mind's 'flow chart' of thoughts 😜

Awesome.

Clarity seemed effortless 😳😳😳

I was really STUPIFIED at the 'natural' equipoise that my mind got settled into very frequently, during my waking hours. 🙄🙄🙄

Another experience was a bit illogical, at first.....and then very soon the very same clarity allowed me to perceive the deeper logic, with its reasoning 😜

My body was going thin, due to drastic drop in food intake 🤣..... Only one meal in the morning. Almost nothing at night after bath & prayer....though a glass of milk was there at times in my room.

It didn't seem to matter. I was puzzled 😳........ I ought to feel weak due to drop in food intake 😳😳😳😳

Then why am I normal? 

The clarity, afforded due to reduction in thought process, it's volume, allowed my tiny intellect to "see" . The only possible explanation was, thought process used to consume lot of calories hitherto 😜........ When thought process became need-based ( like the thumb-rule of today's techies, " give only need-based info")...the energy got conserved, and preserved. The food requirement was enough with one meal...🙄🙄🙄

Anyway, this vritam/austerity taught me awesome things, which remained a part of me thereafter👍

Quietly yours 

PSN (11 July, 2023)