Muddenahalli. This town is around 50km outside of Bangalore, halfway to Puttaparthi. Why did I go to Muddenahalli? Well, Dr. Ramanathan, a friend of mine who is a visiting Fulbright lecturer invited me to go along with his old college friend, Jagdish; Jagdish's nephew, Aditya; and a co-worker of Jagdish's whom I shamefully forgot his name. What is in Muddenahalli? Well, a man named 'Sai Baba' was a Guru who is known to have told the place of his reincarnation - and then went on to create teaching centers, ashrams, and specialty hospitals around the world. His 2nd passing occurred this last April, and he has said he will reincarnate once again in a village outside of Mysore. Muddenahalli is one of the teaching centers he opened, and Puttaparthi is the village he grew up in. I was up for the journey.
Once we arrived we were greeted by the caretaker of the center, Babu. He joked his name is easy to remember, like Baba, Babu! Babu has been a follower of Baba since he was a youngster. A very nice man, who emanated a sense of peacefulness. In fact, the entire place gave off a similar vibe. He kindly showed us around the grounds, offered us a meal, and then proceeded to take us up to the temple area by car. Our time consisted mostly of talking with the group, sharing stories and enjoying the sunny day.
The temple. We went inside, and had a few moments of silence and a look around. Babu offered us some holy ash, which if I am not mistaken, is created through the burning of a picture of Sai Baba (though, I may be mistaken). It was an all around peaceful day, filled with some good stories and great company.
This was taken out of the car window on the way home, it certainly does not do the scene justice. The sun formed brilliant 'silver linings' around the edges of the clouds. Ah...
The adventure for the day wasn't over yet, upon arriving back, the Lunar eclipse was taking form! I had to stay outside for the whole thing. Truly an amazing phenomena that happens only ever so often! If this doesn't show you that the Earth isn't flat, I just don't know...
Though, my eye captured the sight much easier than my camera did. Especially since I lack a tripod... holding perfectly steady for 15 seconds is a Herculian task that I apparently was not up to! Alas, here are two snaps.
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