I landed in India at 3am after a five and a half hour flight to Dubai, a three hour hold, and a further 3 hour flight to Ahmedabad.
The airport experience was surprisingly efficient; I guess times have changed. India is slowly but surely ridding herself of the stigma attached to her airports. Of course, the blank, expressionless look and the dismissive throw to return your passport at immigration is something that hasn't changed.
The drive from the airport was refreshingly peaceful, not a rickshaw or lorry in sight. As we approached our destination the driver decided to take the wrong side of the dual carriageway for 30 seconds to save himself having to drive an extra 10 seconds on the "legal" side of the road... Only in India!
I got to bed by 6am and had a much needed 6 hour rest, but I was feeling a little dazed and my subtle body was probably still somewhere over the Arab Emirates.
That afternoon, a car and driver had been arranged to drive me to my ancestral home; a rural village about 60 kilometres from the city. Hearing the honks and beeps of the trucks and rickshaws weaving in and out of traffic; it didn't take long to hit me that I'd arrived in India. The driver, to put it bluntly, drove like an absolute maniac, even by Indian standards! I had my Japa beads in my hand, softly uttering the Mahamantra, trying to keep my mind focused on my meditation and let the driver do his thing, but my eyes would instinctively look out anxiously onto the road. Suddenly, the driver slammed his brakes and pulled up his handbrake. When accidents happen, everything seems to happen in slow motion, this was no different... I had time to brace myself... Crunch! we slammed into the back of the small car in front of us, then crunch again, the car behind us slammed into us, crunch again, a fourth car joined the group hug; we'd been well and truly sandwiched and kept feeling the after effects of every car that followed in the pile up. We looked in front, and the first car had fled from the scene. Before we knew it, our car and the driver in particular was surrounded by about 20 men, most of whom had a golf ball sized pan masala stuffed into the side of their mouth.
The first man to get there threw what I can only describe as a slunch; a horrible combination of an open palmed attempt at a punch which ends up being a slap; something I’ve only ever seen in India. It didn't end there, the following 2 men threw slunches through the window at the driver, the shell-shocked driver got out of the vehicle and was greeted by another 4 slunches from 4 different men, most of whom weren't even involved in the crash; any excuse to vent their frustration. The situation got a bit out of hand, the unusual exhibition of violence was uncalled for and needed to be dealt with swiftly, so all 5ft 5inches of me leaped out of the sunroof and dealt with the group of 30 men; Bollywood style! Scissor kicks, triple somersaults ended with 30 guys on the floor, I felt like neo out of The Matrix. Ok... So I didn't really do that.
One thing I'm not joking about is the crowd, there were about 30 guys enthusiastically taking part in the aftermath; now every man and his dog were involved in this ridiculous situation. There were about 6 different groups of 5 people, all discussing compensation, insurance and an on the spot cash settlement. All this happened on a busy dual carriageway; you could say an Indian equivalent of the A406. Add a huge tailback of cars, rickshaws, motorcycles and trucks, the situation had turned into a complete mess. About 45 minutes had passed and the situation had calmed down a little and eventually all parties agreed to move their cars and discussions to a nearby hut. My hand was still patiently planted in my Japa bead bag, unfortunately not meditating attentively.
When we got to the hut, the group had been reduced to around 15; one of them ordered small cups of tea for everyone. They sat and negotiated settlements in a peaceful manner over a tiny cup of chai. Eventually, after 2 hours of experiencing this drama and some disgruntled car owners, a strange conclusion was reached, our driver gave one of the other drivers a spare wheel from his own car and he left satisfied. The others left empty handed and heavily damaged cars. I couldn't really make sense of any of the settlements, but this is India we are talking about, there are no rules. My father, who was staying at his village home, eventually arrived in a car; he had heard about the accident and had come to take me home.
I left after some time and drove to the village and on arrival was greeted by my relatives and friends. I offered my respects to my elders, in particular my elderly grandmother, who amazingly has circa 75 children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. It was quite a sombre mood, as the family was still mourning the loss of my father's younger brother from the previous week. I requested to visit the closest Krishna Temple in the village and we made the 2 minute walk over to the temple, passing about 7-8 smaller temples on the way, I was reminded of the devotion in India which is intertwined in each and every person's life, small shrines, temples and alters.
After visiting the temple and spending some time with the family, I made my way back to the city. On the journey back, I was reflecting on my first day back in India; the words of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada came to mind: "In this material world, there is danger at every step". We often come across so many experiences, so many trials and tribulations, occasionally seeing them as amusing moments and other times serious, but we often just jump straight back into the rat race without learning anything. We are so absorbed in the duties of life and our own spiritual practice that sometimes we can be doing these things in an extremely unconscious way.
Today, when our car slammed into the back of the other car, I had my fingers on my Japa beads, with the purpose of meditating on the mantra, but in all honesty my mind was elsewhere, in that split moment things could have ended quite differently. One of the great saints of India, Srila Rupa Goswami quotes an important verse from the scriptures that all the injunctions, rules and regulations of the scriptures, rituals and spiritual practices are serving a purpose, which is to help us to always remember Krishna (God) and never forget him. Unfortunately I didn't remember Krishna when we ploughed into the back of that car today and this is largely due to my inability to live in the moment. I have a long way to go. No doubt it’s quite instinctive to think of so many things if you crash into a car, but it prompted me to revaluate my day to day schedule and how I go about things. I was reflecting how we often spend so much of our time getting caught up in our own lives and busy schedules that we end up living and behaving unconsciously, but when we develop the habit of being attentive in everything we do, we naturally become more conscious of our motivations, intentions and ultimately develop the priceless quality of living in the moment. Recently a friend sent me an excerpt from The Srimad Bhagavatam, where an eye-opening analogy is given:
“When flying an airplane, one cannot take care of other planes. Everyone has to take care of his own plane, and if there is any danger, no other plane can help another in that condition. Similarly, at the end of life, when one has to go back home, back to Godhead, everyone has to take care of himself without help rendered by another. The help is, however, offered on the ground before flying in space. Similarly, the spiritual master, the father, the mother, the relatives, the husband and others can all render help during one’s lifetime, but while crossing the sea one has to take care of himself and utilize the instructions formerly received.”
From this we can understand that we all have a responsibility to make sure we live in a conscious way that we are able to fly our own planes and ensure we are cultivating relationships with substance to help others to fly their planes when the time comes.
India is a wonderful place, full of so much adventure, mystery and above all, full of opportunities to learn how to fly your plane. I had a few days before I left for the holy land of Mayapur. I was sure there were many more adventures in store for me; I'm praying that I can develop the habit of living in the moment and learn from the great souls how to become an expert pilot.
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