Our welcome to Maher Orphanage
Jenny got up early to observe Prashant’s class while I planned to have a lie in – my neighbours and their revving car antics had other ideas. Ah well, up for some Pranayama instead.At Midday went across to The Ambience to meet the driver who was to take us to the orphanage. Headed off into the fumes and traffic for what was to be an unexpectedly long and arduous journey. After an hour of careening along we passed back by where we had started from. At this point I thought Nicky was going to spontaneously combust. Another hour later we eventually arrived at the first of the Maher homes where we received a warm welcome and some much needed refreshment. We were met by Sister Lucy herself, the head of the whole organisation – a modern day Mother Theresa.
Sister Lucy
After food she sat down to tell us her story (in brief here). She grew up in a sheltered and relatively privileged environment in Kerala and was shocked upon reaching adulthood to find the suffering that was to be found in other areas of India. She became a nun because she wanted to help the poor and was working on the outskirts of a slum in Bombay when she was approached by a pregnant woman in need of shelter. Her husband was violent and also involved with another woman. She had no means of offering shelter and had to send the woman away. Later in the evening there was a commotion in the nearby slum. She hurried to assist – the husband had poured kerosene over the woman and set fire to her. She rushed her to hospital but both mother and unborn baby were dead.Never again was she going to turn anyone away. Maher means Mother’s home and there is ‘Always room for one more’.
I was very impressed with her frankness, her openess and her warmth. Her work is not just confined to battered women and orphans, she helps wherever there is need. Food is cooked daily in the kitchen of the home and taken to the nearby slums. She appoints teachers and social workers and goes into the slums to feed, clothe and educate. She will pick up anyone in need of help – women and children rescued from prostitution, the mentally ill, children who have no choice but to beg are given an education and daily food instead. Although her background is Catholic she has equal respect for all religions and she has no time for the caste system. The woman and children are given training in various trades and put through school – she even funds them through University and beams with pride as she recounts the success stories. She invited us to a wedding on Friday – the sixth this year of one of her girls.
We visited two of the many Maher homes and were greeted with songs from the children. Then we went to a slum and went inside the school she is funding there. So basic – a tin shack, with a few toys – one rusty old bike between maybe 25 kids, but they looked clean, happy and well fed thanks to Sister Lucy’s work. They’ll also have a proper education and a real hope of a good life.
Sister Lucy is not just the figure head of the organisation, she is available 24 hours a day and often gets very little sleep. She and Suprabha (her assistant) tell each other they may not get much sleep, but they know because their work is good, the sleep they do manage to get will be sweet.
To donate for people abroad:Maher S.B Account no. 0261101061493Swift Code – FD Pune CNRBINBBBIDIBAN NO: DE41500700100953458710Canara Bank, Deep Heights, Nagar Road, Ramwadi, Pune 411014, Maharashtra, India
Children singing for us in Slum School.
Prashant ‘s 0700 class 21 January 2013 Jenny’s Notes
A now familiar theme of the relationship between body-mind-breath-senses-consciousness in the performance of asanas. Phrase of the day was ‘composite dynamics’. Instructions were to exhale further and further in each asana and finally to perform Udiyana Bandha – a sucking in of the abdomen after exhalation – and see what happens! Not to be undertaken lightly and definitely not during menstruation. Most surprising thought: in esoteric philosophy the tongue is the root of all wisdom with all sense organs represented – sight buds, hearing buds, sensation buds, smell buds as well as taste buds. Needless to say in modern culture the tongue can only be described as ‘stupid’. We should beware of the senses pulling us away from ‘yog’, also the draw of physical action. No limb of yoga is dedicated to the body. You can’t perfect the body first and then work on the mind…
(Jenny thinks that this is a bit like economists wanting to fix the growth problem before addressing global warming… she also thinks that the senses are a bit like a dog on a lead, pulling the owner after it as it chases smells, rabbits, postmen, cats, other dogs….)
On the positive side – how to get a hold on all this? Set up the right ethos for your practice: clean and tidy your room, burn incense, create calm, quiet conditions, have an image to focus on (most of us use Patanjali) and exclude bright light.
Try this in your practice when calm and steady in tadasana: eyes open, find the centre of the eyeballs, now look from the edges of the eyes. How did each one make you feel? (You can let me know in your comments!)
Final quote from Prashant: “I may not be civilized, but I am cultured.” At least I think that’s what he said!
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