Day 13: On to Govardhan

November 27th, first day of the Govardhan Retreat! Our buses were scheduled to leave at 10:00 in the morning from the Krsna Balarama temple to the retreat ashram at the foot of Govardhan. I got up all early, super excited, but a little sad to be leaving Yamuna and Dina. After Mangal artik, I packed up my all my clothes (2 saris, and 1 gopi skirt- if you are wondering why I am wearing all the same clothes in all the pictures), and after breakfast I brought my backpack to the bus. KC, Lila, and Yammy were there also, just came to Vrindavan from their ayurvedic retreat in Delhi. I was really relieved and happy to see them, because I didn't really want to be at the retreat all by myself. Me and KC got a seat on the bus and waited to go.. and waited and waited. Finally around 12:00, we started to go. I was so impatient, and feeling car sick even before we left. The buses were sooo dirty!! They had these "white" covers on the headrest that were completely gray with yellow spots on them. I didn't want to lean back, lean forward, touch the window or the seat in front or the my own seat, or anything for that matter. Of course the ride was soo bumpy, but its always so crazy to drive in India that I wasn't bored for one minute.

About an hour later, we were squeezing through the incredibly busy streets of Govardhan town, honking at everything that moved or didn't. Every time I saw a tiny street, and thought there was no way anyone could drive through there, sure enough our big bus would turn up it and squeeze through. I was so concerned with us not hitting buildings, people, other buses, that I didn't notice that we were right beside Govardhan hill the whole time! I could have just looked out the side of the window and there He was! I had no idea. Finally we arrived at our ashram, got our things and went through the big gates to our buildings. As soon as I went through the gates I could see Govardhan Hill! We were really at His feet, I could run over and touch Him if I wanted too! He was soo soo beautiful! I felt so happy, so content and peaceful just to see Him, that I was ready to move in and stay there for the rest of my life. We (retreat people) had a meeting, they told us lunch would be at 2:00 and then evening kirtan on the roof at 5:30, followed by the opening ceremony in the "temple" at 6:30, followed by light evening prasadam.

Me and KC were sharing a room, so we went to check it out. Definately differant then the MVT rooms, ummm.. a little dirtier, and more austere. Our toilet didn't really flush, water just sort of ran into it for a couple minutes. If we wanted hot water we had to get it from downstairs and carry it to our room, we were on the third floor, so I just took cold showers. Good thing it wasn't too cold there, because we had no heating either, just the 5o pound blanket. But it actually felt good to be austere. After putting our stuff away, we went to get a better look at Govardhan from the roof top. What an incredible view! We could see the beautiful temple of Gopalji, and other samadhis, as well as the dusty parikrama path, and thousands of monkeys all over the hill. I had never seen so many monkeys before! And quite bold too.

I chanted on the roof for a bit, then went for lunch. After lunch I went with KC to a small kunda/bathing pond, not too far away. Another very beautiful place, although a little marred by the pollution. The water was thick green, so we didn't bathe in it, but we watched all the ladies wash their laundry there( hence the green water). There were also these huge, ancient kadamba trees there, with green parrots flying in and out of the leaves. We loved that place.

Finally at 5:30, we all assembled on the roof top, and Sacinandana Swami led the sweetest kirtan ever! I was in complete bliss to be sitting there singing, and looking at Govardhan hill, I didn't want the kirtan to ever end. But after the kirtan we all went down into the temple room, where the facilitators went over the program schedule, and each of the speakers gave an overview of what their seminar was going to be about. After that we had another kirtan, then Sacinandana Swami, Bhurijana Prabhu, and Jaggatarini Mataji, gave out Jagannatha Puri maha, and we went to have the evening prasadam, of puffed rice and tea. Perfect prasadam...hehehhee. The temple room was super incredible too, because they had these small tables that were covered in Govardhan Silas, not yet worshiped. I almost took one home, it was a perfect Krsna Balarama one. When it was time to go to bed, I could hardly sleep, I was buzzing so much from being in the presence of Govardhan Hill, of knowing that He was right there! I couldn't wait for the next day to come, yet I wanted each moment to last forever.