Last pilgrimage to Naitauba-partial journal
This is a partial journal from my last pilgrimage to Naitauba (Adi Da Samrajashram) in November 2008, just prior to the passing (Mahasamadhi) of The Great Sage, Adi Da Samraj
(Airport Taveuni)
I love arriving in Taveuni, the small Fijian island where we wait for the boat ride to Naitauba Hermitage Sanctuary, Adidam has a little cottage there used by devotees and guests as a simple sleep over while waiting for the boat to arrive.
The cottage is in an idyllic setting and nobody bothers guests, other than a shrewd Fijian Indian fruit farmer who may knock on the door to sell bananas or papaya but other than that it’s a place to enjoy the company of Gurubai and prepare for the journey to Naitauba. It’s a complete chill down, tempered with the anticipation of the journey ahead
There is a simple yet powerful meditation room, set-apart in the cottage and that becomes a focal point of preparing oneself for the Spiritual Retreat that is Naitauba, a beautiful young Sri Lankan woman did the pujas in this tiny little room and the beauty and unexpected quality she brought to the occasions was spellbinding.
When I arrived there November 1, 2008 I had the company of Anthony, a long time devotee of Adi Da, Jacqueline a talented musician and vivacious personality, John another great musician and unstoppable comic, and his friend and guest Robert also with a musical background.
I particularly enjoyed the company of Anthony a man of natural humour and equanimity, we talked long and walked and swam in the little beach below the cottage. Anthony was happy to tell me great stories of his time with Adi Da Samraj, this form of oral communication is priceless and considered a personal gift from the teller of the Leela (spiritual story)
If I was asked to characterize devotees of Adi Da as certain type, I could not give an honest reply, if pressed I would have to say “varying from extremely quiet and inverted to courageously out there, vocal and extroverted! ” I could write all day about the marvelous, ordinary and extraordinary range of people who have turned up at the door of Adi Da Samraj (and that’s only the few I have met). On one level “everyone you have ever met, loved and unloved”, is there
There is a extremely good little restaurant on Taveuni, not far from the cottage, it is run by a friendly American woman who is very hospitable to devotees and caters for many unconventional food requests including green smoothies using some local greens.
The stop over in Taveuni gives people time to adjust to a slower pace, but also the difficulties inherent in living in a developing country in the Tropics, including heat, bugs and bodily discomforts, there is also a deeper level of preparation to accommodate, a necessary shedding of both bodily and psychic accumulations, there is always a degree of purification to go through which begins as soon as the pilgrimage is undertaken and continues and intensifies when Adi Da Samrajashram is reached.
It is fair to say that pilgrims to Naituaba who have been coming to this island since 1983 “tread lightly” and are hardly noticed by the local populace, there is no feeling of intrusion or cultural difference, many factors combine here, including a laid back and welcoming attitude by locals (it is normal to greet everyone you pass with the customary “Bulla”) cultural sensitivity by devotees and multi-faith tolerance due to Indian influences
On another level this is grand adventure, in the sense of stepping way outside of conventional living and entering into another world quite literally, all your normal ties and duties are vanished for a long or short period and even though Naitauba is always a very demanding situation, you feel liberated set free and entering into a vortex of force and Grace never encountered in the tedium of everyday, a new pattern, becomes very tangible to you the closer you get to The Guru
The boat was to be delayed for some reason and we were overjoyed to hear that we were to get there by motor launch a fast and exhilarating 2 to 2.5 hour dash across the often wild ocean, which can at times be a horrendous ordeal of up to 7 hours of fighting (or yielding to) seasickness, if the seas are rough.
(devotees waiting for boat , image compliments of www.adidaupclose.com)
December 18th, 2009 at 8:39 am
there is one sign of a true devotee and that is simply to be ’self-forgetting, ME remembering devotion of feeling contemplation. Nothing different about the picture above. Could be of any group of people sitting in a park for instance.
December 19th, 2009 at 6:22 am
Yes, nothing stamped on their foreheads, no particualr style of dress etc
However there is a lot required to get to that “place” for most people and that is not obvious, it requires real sacrifice on many levels. There is no status in it, yet there is rightly, “cultural” enjoyment, expressed sometimes by the term “Gurubai”, just as in any tradition there is that form of relationship and of course it is earned by action, rather than theory.
thanks for your comment, all the best to you.