Moving from the peaks of Kailash to Down Under in Australia and to some parts of Asia – Singapore and Malaysia for various programs. Much too much has happened. There are many things I cannot articulate, but one thing that has been amusing is articulation itself. The way the English language is spoken in Tibet, Nepal, Australia, Malaysia and Singapore – it is quite a bouquet of culture. We have been joking about how many ways the same language can be spoken. When we first landed in Tibet in 2006 for the trek to Kailash, we were travelling in one of those four-wheel drives and the ladies in the car asked, “Where are the toilets?” The guide said, “Tree behind.” So they went “tree behind.” After some time, when we reached the plateau, there were no trees at all, everything was bare, so the ladies asked, “Now what?” He said, “Rock behind.” Then we drove on and it was total plains, not even a single rock anywhere. So they said, “Now what?” The guide said, “Car behind.”

Particularly in Malaysia and Singapore, different words are used for different things. For example, in Singapore they use the word “session” instead of “section”, and “section” for “session”. And then there was a girl who went to the hospital reception and met the nurse who was there. The girl said, “I want a contamination.” The nurse held back her laughter and said, “Oh, you mean an examination.” The girl said, “No, I want a contamination and I want to go to the fraternity ward.” The nurse said, “Oh, you mean you want an examination and you want to go to the maternity ward.” The girl insisted, “I told you I want a contamination in the fraternity ward, I haven’t demonstrated in three months and I think I am stagnant.” Now, don’t get stagnant. You are supposed to be on the path; that means you must be moving.

The Australia, Malaysia and Singapore volunteers did a great job. We had a very large turnout for the various programs there; a phenomenal interest in people wanting to know something beyond where they are right now. In the last fortnight, there have been many very touching and tender moments with the volunteers from this region. They are a wonderful lot. Landed back in India Tuesday and spent the whole day trying to select a rock to bring to the ashram — because we want a rock at the new entrance of the Dhyanalinga Temple. I was first thinking of a stone which is approximately 200 tons, but we ended up selecting something which is nearly 500 tons. It is a fabulous, big stone; it is 40 feet long and about 23 feet in height. It is going to be a big feat to transport this stone in the coming month. The challenge is to load it onto the truck, make it over 400-kilometers and to unload it and position it the way we want. For Spanda Hall, we bought a 130-ton stone, but this is going to be a much bigger challenge. I don’t think anybody has transported a stone like this — just to place it as it is. We are not even going to carve it, we are not making a monument out of it, we just want a stone. And it is an odd-shaped one, it is not cut, we want it with the skin and everything, and it is really alive and throbbing.

To get the stone, we went somewhere near my maternal grandfather’s place which is surrounded by very stony hills. My grandfather was a very rich man; I never aspired for his property, but now we found this stone from that region. This is going to be a much bigger wealth in terms of people’s experience than anything that one can inherit. Ultimately, we went all over to pick out a stone and we identified two of them. If we fail to pick up the 500-ton stone, we identified another which is about 250 tons. Those of you who want to participate in transporting, well…it is going to be a feat. Fortunately, it is just 50 feet off the highway, but still, taking it from its natural habitat, where it has been sitting for a few thousand or million years, lifting it and loading it onto a truck deck, and getting it in the right position that we want is going to be something. So it is a big job, literally.

Rocks are really wise; they have never made a mistake. Did you know this? They are much wiser than you. If you find a human being who has never made a mistake, wouldn’t you think he was great? Then why don’t you give that credit to a rock? He has never made a mistake, and he has always been there. He has seen you, me and a million other people and he remembers a lot of it. So we will bring him to the ashram and do something else to him, and he will become a very important member of the Isha Yoga Center — probably the longest living member. He is going to be around for a long, long time after we are all gone.

Love & Grace

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