(Note: Susan Partnow, founding director of GCJ, will be blogging here about her journey to India, January 19 to March 10, with observations and stories from her experiences as a global citizen encountering this fascinating and rich part of our world.)
January 19th is rapidly approaching! I am so excited and a bit anxious as my dear long time friend Kathy Herman and I prepare for this 6 week + journey. India seems to have an outrageous plethora of wonders and every time we pick up our various guide books we end up adding to the list instead of the winnowing we are needing… I am struggling with the desire to keep it simple – choose a few places to go deep… yet how to resist all of the allure of so many wonders. How do you deal with this??? You can check out our map for the possibilities we are considering: India map with possible visits
We will arrive in Bangelore early early Monday January 21 (like at 5:30 am) after leaving Seattle Saturday night the 19th… On Tuesday I’ll offer a 4 hour session on Compassionate Listening to the Indian Institute for Human Settlements. It will be fascinating to learn about what this innovative center is up to. Then we’ll head to Auroville (hopefully via Tiruvannamalai where we’ll visit the ashram of Ramana Maharishi) “Auroville …a site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual Human Unity… Auroville wants to be a universal town where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities.”
I am delighted to have the opportunity to offer a 1.5 day session in Compassionate Listening there. We look forward to meeting many of the inspiring pioneers, plus visit nearby Pondicherry, temples and bird preserves.
After that first week, we’ll head west to Kerala where we’ll visit Cochin, Amma’s ashram, an inspiring school (Mitraniketan) and the southern most tip where the seas and sands meet, before we head north to Pune, Aurungabad (Ellora Caves) and beyond to Haridwar, Benares, Jaipur, Agra, Delhi… So stay tuned for stories of our adventures and the learning and inspiration – hopefully photos too!
