dharma bums

I've found myself with a more of a routine than I expected at Prem Dan. Turns out there are a lot of residents who won't let me leave without giving them back or leg massage. Most of them have such flabby or nonexistent muscles that they can't possibly be tight, but it's fun to be in demand.

Despite the daily stresses of living Calcutta, I'm glad we came. The work is rewarding, if simply because enthusiasm and optimism are welcomed and returned at Prem Dan. I hesitate to be another spiritual tourist ripping off a rich Indian religious term for my own use, but the word dharma keeps coming to mind. In the Baghavat Gita, Krishna introduces the doubt-ridden warrior Arjun to the idea of simple obedience to one's status/place/caste/season in life. While I don't know if fighting a war is ever one's God-given duty in life, I've been feeling that working with the residents here is the most obedient way I can end my time in India. It's an alignment of what I'm doing and what I feel called to do that doesn't come often, though I remember finding it during summers at Camp Roger.

Hannah and I leave Calcutta this Thursday. We will spend three days in Bodhgaya, meditating or collecting leaves under the tree where the Buddha was enlightened, admiring temples from all the Buddhist countries in the world, doing it all with monks and hippies and pilgrims from all over the place. Then an overnight train to Delhi and a March 8 flight to Chicago.