Having travelled for more than 3 decades in India and having lived here for 16 continuous years I am literally daily amazed about the wonderful people enriching my life. At Marari Beach Resort there I met Gopal. Believe it or not, he is a 70 year old Yoga teacher, practising Ashthanga Yoga for the last 54 years. A man with a permanent smile on his face, peace and patience emanating from every pore of his being. Just to sit with him and not even doing half of what he shows you to do is an enriching experience. Small gaps between movements, to let the energy sink in. Kind words rather than harsh corrections and before you know it a feeling of peace sets in. Gopal is a man of few words, many smiles and kind gestures. He encourages you to go just a wee bit further than you actually believe you can go, a few extra stretches and you feel the energy flow increase trough out your being. To me, he is that link to our spirit we starve in the west. Age old wisdom flows from his eyes, his postures and smiles. Meeting people like him reminds me again and again how far we have embedded ourselves in superficial activities, like doing something good, by buying a new gadget, a pair of shoes and so on. The shallowness of this meaningless pursuits that fill just the pockets of few giant enterprises becomes so clearly wrong, just by sitting at a Yoga lesson and turning the focus within.
When we travel to India these are the true encounters making life more precious and giving a tour just that little bit extra we need so much.
The xploriencer 