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 Driving from Mother Pratyangira’s temple, our heads were reeling. We were all in awe of how the Mother created a Lila (Divine play or illusion) and brought us to Her abode. We continued our drive and passed many rice patty fields with busy workers, small roadside villages with smokey straw huts and dense green jungles. Raghudas, sat in the back of the SUV and absorbed the passing sights. We passed several road signs and suddenly he saw a village name that he recognized. Impossible, he thought, he had never been here before. Just then, Ashok commented to Swami and Amma and they had a short discussion in Tamil. After a moment the car slowed and Amma informed us that we were going to Parangippetai, and that many years ago it was called Porto Novo. Raghudas realized he had read about this village and immediately recalled it to be the birthplace of Sri Mahavatar Babaji.
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 We sped down the wet road, leaving the puddles and muddy moods behind. After about ten minutes time, we were back onto a paved road which Ashok, our driver, assured us would take us to our next destination in no-time. We were still drying off from begin caught in the downpour at Auroville and couldn’t figure out why exactly we were guided to visit there. A moment later Swami shouted, "Stop, stop stop!" We screeched to a halt about a hundred feet from where Swami alerted us to stop. He said that we had to back up because he saw a familiar image.
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 The seaside guest house that is managed by the ashram of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother provided a great night’s stay. Waves from the Indian Ocean awoke us all from our slumbers. We began the day with a visit to temple dedicated to Lord Ganesh. The road was closed to car traffic and we walked down the wide French Colonial streets. Trees lined the roadside and we dodged many cyclists, motorbikes, and auto rickshaws on our way. The Manakula Temple is sandwiched between handicraft stores and foodstalls. The most noticeable feature at the front of the temple is a massive Indian Elephant, who warmly greets temple visitors.
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 After an uneventful and painfully long 19 hour train ride from Shirdi, a rural Central Indian village, to Bangalore, there was quite a sense of surprise. Bangalore is one of India’s more modern cities. It is a busy and bustling town. Visitors are greeted on the main roads by miles of murals, freshly painted onto the roadside walling. This is part of a fairly recent initiative to clean, beautify and develop India’s cities to be more "green." This city is representative of the full spectrum of India’s people. Here you will find modern youth, dressed more western than are most westerners. Just down the street one can find shops with rows and rows of colorful cloth for traditional Sarees. There are shopping centers and high office buildings as well as rural outskirt villages, where it is not uncommon to find many farm animals roaming the streets. Our driver Ashok, was eager to point them out to Swami and Amma. They both happily caught up with Ashok, who had driven them in 2004 on a trip to South India. Raghudas sat in the back seat, mouth agape at the many interesting street scenes.
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 Amalananda parted company with the group on 23rd to head back to Hyderabad. Swamiji, Amma and the rest went to Nainital, and from there went to Delhi. Greg, Carla and Avinash continued separately on the rest of their India trip. On 26th, Swamiji, Amma and Raghudasa flew from Delhi to Hyderabad where Amalananda received them.
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 Today is another long travel day, from Joshimat to Dwarahat, a distance of 220 KM. As usual, we started off very early in the day, as we wanted to reach Dwarahat before sunset. It is not safe to travel through the Himalayan roads during night time because of the terrain. Dwarahat is the place where Sri Mahavatar Babaji, parama guru of Paramahamsa Yogananda, had meditated, and is still believed to be around. Yogoda Satsanga Society (YSS) has an ashram in Dwarahat. We had been in contact with them previously and they had kindly agreed for us to visit and spend time in Babaji's cave.
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 We started early from Rudraprayag to drive to Badrinath. Badrinath, at an elevation of 3,130 meters (10,250 feet), is the abode of Lord Vishnu. Situated in the Nar-Narayan (Man-God) mountain range, Badrinath is one of the most revered Hindu shrines of India. Sri Adi Sankaracharya had, 1200 years ago, consecrated the idol of Lord Vishnu in the temple. The drive is a long one, over 185 KM, over the Himalayan mountains. This drive is particularly difficult compared with the other stretches, because the roads are very steep and narrow, and several long stretches of the road are unpaved or in bad condition. Some of us felt motion sickness during the drive, but fortunately it was not too bad.
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Yatra
