We stayed at the Sparsa resort, a gorgeous eco resort about a mile from Ramana's ashram that we learned about from our friend who had just been to Mukti from Boston.
We watched the traditional pottery making technique, and got a parrot and rat astrology reading (the rat turned out to be a guinea pig.) These two creatures lived next to each other in a tiny divided wooden cage. When the door to their cage slid open, they were trained to run to a spread of cards and each chose one. The cards were pictures of various Indian gods. The ones the guinea pig and parrot chose apparently indicated that I'd have a strong body until I was 90 and that March 22nd of this year is a start of a long period of good luck (it's also our 6th wedding anniversary.) Marty isn't that into parrot, rat, or any type of astrological readings.
In Tiru, we met up with our friend Corrine's husband, Sathya, a Brahmin who's lived in Tiru for 14 years. We ate lunch a delicious lunch of spicy rice and yogurt and dahl at his home that his brother Krishanmurti made. After that he took us to the guest house he was building adjacent a rice field, and toured us through Tiru with his own private tuk tuk and his brakeless car.
Along the way, we saw many, many ashrams either newly built or just being built for followers of the 'living gurus' springing up around the area. This seems to be primarily because of popularity of Ramana's teachings and the people coming from the west to see where he lived who bring a readiness to seek enlightenment and willingness to spend money. In 1993 Marty stayed in Ramana Maharshi's ashram, it was much less crowded than today.
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