The Hidden Path (WINNER OF THE BEAUTY AWARD for Spiritual)

I Am Home

Your soul has a special mission. Your soul is supremely conscious of it. 

Maya, illusion or forgetfulness, makes you feel that you are finite, weak and helpless. This is not true. You are not the body. You are not the senses. You are not the mind. These are all limited. You are the soul, which is unlimited. Your soul is infinitely powerful. Your soul defies all time and space.

- Sri Chinmoy

In the evening, I met with Elisabeth, who had rounded up a few other girls.

We sat down in a corner of the court of PS 86, using our air cushions to protect us against the cold of the floor.

A guitar in her arms the brunette, confident girl distributed three sheets of copied music to each one of us. I had to admit, she was definitely organized. I would not have had the faintest idea where to find a copy machine around here, in the first place. Or musik.

We sang each song several times, until we felt that we would be able to practice them on our own. The melodies were not a problem. But I was struggling with the words, as the songs that she had chosen were all Bengali ones.

When I had joined the path, it had taken me three months to learn the four, short lines of 'Jiban Debata' (although I had admittedly not put too much effort into it) and now I was supposed to learn five songs within a few days!

But I was determined to succeed.

The evening proceeded much like the one before, except for the fact that everything was already much more familiar to me and I started to feel as if I belonged. I especially enjoyed meditating, perched on one of the tables in the back.

In spite of the fact that the jetlag seemed almost worse than it had been the night before, I managed to dive deep within, losing any sense of bodily discomfort as I managed to find this special balance that resulted in the feeling of being utterly weightless.

Unfortunately, my power of concentration only lasted for about one and a half hours, at the end of which I grew increasingly restless. Sitting at a desktop in the very back of the room gave me some liberty to shift and move without disturbing anybody else. But when the jetlag hit me with full force, I was struggling to remain awake. Not to speak of being soulful!

Besides, my inner vessel seemed to be full to the brim and I did not know how to deal with all the light and power that Guru was continuously sending our way. Was it possible to explode from receiving too much inner light?

Just as I was sincerely starting to contemplate the possibility, Guru called for Prasad.

A few days later after the court, Beni and I met to have lunch in Annam Brahma, the restaurant situated right across the street from the tennis court.

One could easily tell it apart from the other five premises on the block (except for the one other Divine Enterprise, a skin care establishment, called 'God's Beauty'), due to the light blue colour and white linings of its façade.

Above the entrance and the single, wide window, an Indian-style shaped sign proudly carried the name Annam Brahma (food is God), as well as the picture of an Indian Goddess.

Stepping through the heavy door, Beni and I immediately relished the gust of warm air greeting us along with the delicious, but unfamiliar scent of cooked, spiced Indian food.

Shivering with pleasure, I quickly scanned my surroundings in order to select a table. The blue-white colour scheme from outside continued on the inside: dark blue, mottled linoleum tiles covered the floor and a long mint coloured, wooden bench ran against the wall to the right.