P H E W ! ! !

HOLA !

It's been a fun three days. I took a one day trip to Jaipur with my friend Advaita to see a kid he's sponsoring in one of the villages there. That was a very sweet experience seeing my friends extending themselves to others in their own way. Jaipur literally translates as the city of victory and is beautifully protected with forts all over the area. We took tons of pictures at the Amber fort and then in other places as well. More Pictures when I get back.

Back in Vrindavan we all went to our routine evening chanting and meditation with BB Govinda swami who leads beautiful chanting sessions for hours on end. He invited us to Varshana, a nearby holy town, for the festival of Holi. Holi is an ancient past time played by Krishna and his friends where natural color dye is thrown everywhere and on everyone and everything! It's a huge event and the roads were packed with people from all the surrounding villages. Over five thousand people gathered in Varshana and sang, danced, as well as playfully colored each other. Something also interesting one had to watch out for was the beating. YUP, the beating. On this day in Varshana, women carry sticks and beat anyone who throws dye on em. It's a pretty fun sight. All the guys carry around these armor looking things to protect themselves.

Yesterday We had lunch at the home of one of my God brothers Giridahari and then went for a swim in the Yamuna river. The Yamuna is a branch of the Ganges river that flows through Vrindavan and is considered even holier than the Ganges because Krishna played in there with his friends all the time. We had a nice swim in kind of a private area away from the normal pilgrim sites along the banks.

It was about 95 degrees here so walking in the sun exhausted me a bit and I slept in til 6 this morning. Today I plan to relax and do some serious meditation then leave for Bombay in the evening.

Caio!

if you can't see fotos on here, go to flickr and type in Keshinindia and it'll direct you to some fun pictures:)