MGM HOTEL

I am staying at a nice beach resort near Mahabalipuram that thinks it's straight out of California - they have an amusement park in the front of the property that they have named "Dizzy World"!  Indian people are so funny - its the only place in the world where as a westerner you can feel what it's like to be a "movie star" everyone wants to have their picture taken with you and practice the little english they might know - "Hi", "what's your good name?", "where from?" and "bye" and where everything you say is the funniest thing in the world to them! And no, Dizzy World was not on our agenda - Thank goodness, the rides looked pretty scary and not in a good way +)

We had yoga this morning and then a talk by a "living yogi" from a school in Chennai and he explained that yoga is just a show if it is only about your physical body and becoming more flexible et al. Yoga should be used to bring steadiness and clarity to our minds - which as the Bhagavad Gita says can be either our best friend or our worst enemy. Yoga is necessary as health, longevity and peace are the most important things to living a happy life and it is really the first step on the path of Bhakti yoga, or devotional service to the Supreme Lord - the other nine devotional practices are hearing about God, chanting His Names, remembering Him, serving the Lord, deity worship, praying, thinking of God as your best friend, following His instructions, and surrendering everything to Him. Even if only one of these processes is properly followed one will receive the benefit of all the others and will sooner rather than later make it back home to the spiritual world!

Later in the day we went to a cultural heritage center where they were selling all kinds of crafts from many different states in India and I got some nice gifts for many of you reading this! Tomorrow after breakfast we leave for Tirupati - which is 4 hours away by car and we will be staying at the ISKCON guest house there. I updated the last post and was able to upload the movie so check it out and see Mahabalipuram in less than 5 mins.