I must've wanted to go there for a long time. I've Gandhi movie many times. Showed it to ahaan too. He too enjoyed it.
So it seemed very familiar when I went there. I didn't plan to go. I was going by auto from the airport to Khadia where I was staying (at Heritage House - a 200 year old house run by a gujarati family). Anyway, on the way I saw a sign that said 'Gandhi Ashram'. It had to be Sabarmati Ashram.
I went in the evening. Before sunset. Felt very happy at the red entrance. Gandhi places and ashrams (I feel this way about Aurobindo Ashram too) are so vague and nice. Vague because everything is there and in its own pace. But everything seems to work. The work is never perfect and that's the point. Like that Japanese work Wabi Sabi aesthetics - a world view that everything is perfect as imperfection. When the leaves fall from the tree, they just fall here and there all around...not in perfect symmetry. but just as they should. That's the way I feel about Sabarmati Ashram. For some reason, I can't call it Gandhi Ashram but Sabarmati ashram.
I went to the museum first - aware that I can spend lot of time and not have enough time to go to the huts/homes or the main area. The thing that I figured is that they too struggled for funds...Gandhi struggled too...despite being Gandhi...he made practical choices of basing himself in Amdavad for the sake of getting funding from wealthy merchants. Seems almost like a startup to me.
I took most to Vinoba Bhave's hut. He lived there. Then Mira behn did. Her name was Madeleine Slade. I read somewhere Gandhi thought it not appropriate to be her guru but a fellow seeker. Somewhere I read what he shared re the 11 vows. He wrote to her...
o hear suggestive stories with the ears, to see suggestive sights with the eyes, to taste stimulating food with the tongue, to touch exciting things with the hands, and at the same time to expect to control the only remaining organ, is like putting one's hands in the fire and expecting to escape being hurt. Bapu's letters to Mira. P.257.
Gandhiji was obsessed about it. His views of ashram were strongly centered on celibacy. It's one of the 11 vows. For Vinoba Bhave, I read this...
In 1940 he was chosen by Gandhi to be the first Individual Satyagrahi (an Individual standing up for Truth instead of a collective action) against the British rule. It is said that Gandhi envied and respected Bhave's celibacy, a vow he made in his adolescence, in fitting with his belief in the Brahmacharya principle.
In his autobiography, I think steadily from age 35 he kept trying to follow. But struggled with it. Well into old age because he kept thinking about it. It occupied his mind, his writings...it wasn't that he was free from it.
And I guess that's the point of it all. He progressed, moved forward despite it all. Both move forward together. The yin and the yang. And that's life.
Where he stayed. Hridaya Kunj. There's his room. I could generally feel strong energy everywhere in this place. The ashram itself. There was his room and next to it was a smaller Kasturba's room. I stared from her window, wondering what she must've seen outside. Like her. He's very vocal about saying she gave her life to his views, his principles etc. I wonder how she might've been in the present times.
I saw his desk, 3 monkeys in white, and sitting thing. It was generally nice.
I saw a man outside when I wanted to take a photo for the photo dungeon that I never usually open. This man had a smaller left hand than the right. Under his chankas he kept newspapers. He had a ponytail - white, grey hair. A goatee. Wore jeans and a shirt and some sleeveless sweater kinda thing. Our eyes met. But I didn't smile, neither did he. We went our separate ways. He's there in that photo I had someone take of me.
There's a small garden. Hridaya kunj, the ashram, the Sabarmati seemed everything that I might simply be with. I kept seeing Vinoba Bhave's hut - it's very small. There's really not much one needs. One of the vows - of not stealing - is also interpreted as not having anything more than what one absolutely needs.
I saw one lady dressed in ghagra type dress. Pink something over head. Inside her cover, she was speaking with a headset on the phone. For a very, very long time - like my entire stroll.
Near the prayer area, I sat outside for sometime. There was a group sitting and meditating. A man with a big belly in a banian also sat meditating for sometime under a tree. Then he was checking his phone. I sent pics via Whatsapp from there. Why was that imp I don't know...I don't know...
I went back to the museum by the time it was time to leave. A policeman loudly said chalo, chalo...indicating that time's up.
That's where the Dandi march started from. Close by there's a bridge - and a sign that says so.
I walked for a long time on ashram road. First I thought I'll eat at Toran dining hall. Then I abruptly decided to go to House of MG by auto. Had a nice gujarati thali. Ate little bit but still I liked the idea of eating there. It's made in 1924. The house. Agashiye is the name of the restaurant. Across was a beautifully lit mosque. Lal Darwaja is the area. Apparently Gandhiji stayed there in 1917 when he returned from South Africa. The auto driver told me Japaan ka prime minister ate there 2 months back.
Well it was a fun, drifting evening...
So it seemed very familiar when I went there. I didn't plan to go. I was going by auto from the airport to Khadia where I was staying (at Heritage House - a 200 year old house run by a gujarati family). Anyway, on the way I saw a sign that said 'Gandhi Ashram'. It had to be Sabarmati Ashram.
I went in the evening. Before sunset. Felt very happy at the red entrance. Gandhi places and ashrams (I feel this way about Aurobindo Ashram too) are so vague and nice. Vague because everything is there and in its own pace. But everything seems to work. The work is never perfect and that's the point. Like that Japanese work Wabi Sabi aesthetics - a world view that everything is perfect as imperfection. When the leaves fall from the tree, they just fall here and there all around...not in perfect symmetry. but just as they should. That's the way I feel about Sabarmati Ashram. For some reason, I can't call it Gandhi Ashram but Sabarmati ashram.
I went to the museum first - aware that I can spend lot of time and not have enough time to go to the huts/homes or the main area. The thing that I figured is that they too struggled for funds...Gandhi struggled too...despite being Gandhi...he made practical choices of basing himself in Amdavad for the sake of getting funding from wealthy merchants. Seems almost like a startup to me.
I took most to Vinoba Bhave's hut. He lived there. Then Mira behn did. Her name was Madeleine Slade. I read somewhere Gandhi thought it not appropriate to be her guru but a fellow seeker. Somewhere I read what he shared re the 11 vows. He wrote to her...
o hear suggestive stories with the ears, to see suggestive sights with the eyes, to taste stimulating food with the tongue, to touch exciting things with the hands, and at the same time to expect to control the only remaining organ, is like putting one's hands in the fire and expecting to escape being hurt. Bapu's letters to Mira. P.257.
Gandhiji was obsessed about it. His views of ashram were strongly centered on celibacy. It's one of the 11 vows. For Vinoba Bhave, I read this...
In 1940 he was chosen by Gandhi to be the first Individual Satyagrahi (an Individual standing up for Truth instead of a collective action) against the British rule. It is said that Gandhi envied and respected Bhave's celibacy, a vow he made in his adolescence, in fitting with his belief in the Brahmacharya principle.
In his autobiography, I think steadily from age 35 he kept trying to follow. But struggled with it. Well into old age because he kept thinking about it. It occupied his mind, his writings...it wasn't that he was free from it.
And I guess that's the point of it all. He progressed, moved forward despite it all. Both move forward together. The yin and the yang. And that's life.
Where he stayed. Hridaya Kunj. There's his room. I could generally feel strong energy everywhere in this place. The ashram itself. There was his room and next to it was a smaller Kasturba's room. I stared from her window, wondering what she must've seen outside. Like her. He's very vocal about saying she gave her life to his views, his principles etc. I wonder how she might've been in the present times.
I saw his desk, 3 monkeys in white, and sitting thing. It was generally nice.
I saw a man outside when I wanted to take a photo for the photo dungeon that I never usually open. This man had a smaller left hand than the right. Under his chankas he kept newspapers. He had a ponytail - white, grey hair. A goatee. Wore jeans and a shirt and some sleeveless sweater kinda thing. Our eyes met. But I didn't smile, neither did he. We went our separate ways. He's there in that photo I had someone take of me.
There's a small garden. Hridaya kunj, the ashram, the Sabarmati seemed everything that I might simply be with. I kept seeing Vinoba Bhave's hut - it's very small. There's really not much one needs. One of the vows - of not stealing - is also interpreted as not having anything more than what one absolutely needs.
I saw one lady dressed in ghagra type dress. Pink something over head. Inside her cover, she was speaking with a headset on the phone. For a very, very long time - like my entire stroll.
Near the prayer area, I sat outside for sometime. There was a group sitting and meditating. A man with a big belly in a banian also sat meditating for sometime under a tree. Then he was checking his phone. I sent pics via Whatsapp from there. Why was that imp I don't know...I don't know...
I went back to the museum by the time it was time to leave. A policeman loudly said chalo, chalo...indicating that time's up.
That's where the Dandi march started from. Close by there's a bridge - and a sign that says so.
I walked for a long time on ashram road. First I thought I'll eat at Toran dining hall. Then I abruptly decided to go to House of MG by auto. Had a nice gujarati thali. Ate little bit but still I liked the idea of eating there. It's made in 1924. The house. Agashiye is the name of the restaurant. Across was a beautifully lit mosque. Lal Darwaja is the area. Apparently Gandhiji stayed there in 1917 when he returned from South Africa. The auto driver told me Japaan ka prime minister ate there 2 months back.
Well it was a fun, drifting evening...
