A Portrait of India- part 7 Kerala

recycling center

From Udaipur we flew to the southern state of Kerala which is more educated and has a higher employment rate and very dense population.  this is all a result of being part of the silk and spice trade route and also the tropical conditions make it easy to grow crops.  we stayed in a hotel in the city of Cochin for 2 nights and watched a traditional kerala dance performance.  also, i took a yoga class here from a 24 year old young man (my son's age) which blew me away.  during my 3 week stay i was able to attend 5 different private yoga sessions with that many teachers and each one was different but what they all shared in common was an emphasis on pranayama (breath), mantra, inner smile,and feeling the vibration in the mind.  one of my teachers said that we americans may be acrobatically adept but we are missing the spiritual element.  after experiencing the level of spiritual resonance with these guys and in particular, my teacher in Cochin, i find i am no longer interested in attending classes here.  i have developed my own practice based on a bit from each of my 5 indian teachers and am enjoying yoga more than ever in my 33 years of practice. what a gift these classes were.

from Cochin we took a bumpy bus ride to Kumararakom Lake resort .  casey and i walked through the jungle village there and met some of the people.

i am going to post this and continue with Kumaraakon in next post since photos won't load.  see you soon.