|
A garden salad |
Raw food and living in India will always be closely linked for me. The year 2003 on a sunny Yorkshire July day in the town of Leeds, UK, my existing diet for the previous decade had already consisted of steamed veg, fruits nuts seeds seaweeds, I had not had eggs cheese or other animal products since being a teenager and I did not feel good with bread products they made me groggy, lethargic and numb emotionally.
So that sunny day in July walking back from a local festival called Unity Day on Hyde Park Leeds I saw the person id seen before at a Tai chi class id been attending for the past 3 years. Steve Wilkinson , the Raw Clown juggler and performing artiste was stood with his juggling equipment at a bus stop looking so animated something inside me urged me to go and say a Namaste!.. I asked if he still did Tai Chi and he had got into Yoga now, and then he started to tell me all about Raw. I became totally raw that day as the intuition was so strong to follow this path.
|
Synthesis |
I began to look deeply into this system and natural law, I came across a so called raw guru from America named David Wolfe and sent off for his brochure on info and products for the raw food lifestyle. A rather glossy brochure arrived with a hand written note…. I felt excited and I hadn’t even read it yet!. It was from a Tony Thorpe , living and working alongside Mr.Wolfe he told me he was also from Leeds and was coming with David who would talk with a UK raw food expert Shazzie . He was coming to a part of Leeds close to me so I was very intrigued and on attending the gathering realised it was a truly transformatitive life style choice with untold benefits and spiritual depths I knew were on the way! In that same month I had booked to learn Mhendi with a man named Ash Kumar in London it fell on the very same day Dr Gabriel Cousens was also doing a talk in the city .
|
Gabriel Cousens |
I had heard about this raw foodist and his amazing retreat centre. The Tree of Life and how he had lived in India and his approach to Meditation, Ayurveda with raw He is also Jewish like David Wolfe and my mum. The talk was inspiring and Gabriel humble. Where David Wolfe was a light bulb of energy or a Sun Gabriel was a steady stream of deep water.
Next 6 months after the decision to go completely raw came the 1st trip to Goa India. My dad treated me my sister and his partner to a 2 week stay Jan 2004, id never been to India and yet had always followed the meditations, Vedas and Yogic teachings so readily available now in the West.
I did not know how I would handle the raw food part on this trip. I water Fasted on the 9 hour flight keeping hydrated as possible; the cabin air really sucks the water out! I did not suffer jet lag and took some vitamin C in pure organic powder form.
|
Returning |
When the plane landed on the Goan runway my heart opened, I felt a sense of being ‘home’, and tears began to flow spontaneously. The one and a half hour taxi ride to the hotel I had tears streaming. The pure beauty of Goa was reaching into my being. No one in the taxi noticed the profuse waterfall but I had gotten used to the English way of denial of feelings being expressed or shown and I managed to push through the fear revelling in and surrendering to this flow of my whole experience. I was not going to stop my Raw emotional experience for any societal comfortableness show, and as it usually happens the tears soon turned into those waves of orgasmic heart bliss I started to feel more and more as I detoxed my emotional armour. My heart opened I was ‘coming’ home.
|
Goa is heaven on Earth |
No surprise either that my stay in Goa was so easy to be Raw Fruits id never tasted that gave me a new sense of clarity and alertness, like Papaya and juicy Jack fruit were available in abundance for a low cost and many locally grown.Not to leave out baby coconut the miracle food at 20-30 rupees each , heaven on earth for detoxing cleansing and enjoying.As I sat by the ocean such a strong feeling engulfed me . I knew I wanted to live there and I felt the possibility. To cut a long story short I manifested living in Goa 7 years later.
I am currently in North India, but have a strong desire to return south again this time more permanently.It has been a decade now for me living raw and the benefits I feel and have felt from the very start are immense.
|
Fruity HIGHdration |
|
Clean n Cosmic Seaweed Salad. |
The usual loose weight get a flat stomach look younger concern so typical of current societal trends fashion and focus are for me empty and rather vacuous. The profound effects are of real value such as clarity of mind and body .An intimate commune with nature and her bounty. A healing process that constantly surprises and astounds me. Sensitivity that enables me to know and experience how thin the veils of spirit and matter really are… however the most interesting aspect of living on clean food for me is, all social conditioning and its many layered illusions slowly slowly begin to fall away.
|
Raw living in Mother
India |
This for me has been the most creative part of my journey Realizing most of what we are taught and fed actually distracts and even turns us against our true real ‘raw’ nature. Feeling this reality for me has had to be unpacked slowly, like the natural ebbs, tides and flow of the cycles connected to the unveiling of Mother Nature and her true power. I have slowly come to notice that when I connect to the Earth I can heal any imbalance release stress and realign to center.So many secrets she has to share once we plug in and become earthed, she showers us with her deeply loving nurturing love. The Raw food vegan way of living is really growing now in India as many people are trying and experiencing this beneficial lifestyle that heals oneself and has no burden on the planet either. It is for me a truly magical tool to heal and to re connect with one’s deepest and highest existence. May the force be with you.
.