Trika Part 2

Warm weather seems to be here to stay... no more socks in my flip-flops :)
So, a bit more about Trika... One of my favorite daily moments is doing the 4pm surya namaskar (sun salutations) while chanting the 12 vedic names of the sun. When we have a big group, especially with lots of deep male voices, the chants are incredibly powerful and vibrate the entire hall. However, it is sometimes a little difficult to maintain a strong voice while in downward dog or back-bend! Another enjoyable - and more comedic - moment is when random cows decide to come through the curtain, which serves as our main door, to check out what yoga moves we're doing :) Followed by our semi-frantic teacher rushing over to push them back outside! Also amusing, evening lectures are sometimes interrupted by unpredictable noises, that make it impossible for the speaker to be heard. The loudest and longest yet was a wedding procession just outside our window (read: hole in the concrete wall covered by a curtain). The fanfare blared for at least 20 minutes, without seeming to move on. Another time, there was drum concert again just outside; and during this morning's class, I think the sadhus who sit just below the window were blowing up squashes... yeah. There was a loud boom, followed by laughing and an exquisitely aromatic smell of pumpkin. Repeated 4 or 5 times. Then there's the unpredictable electricity, which goes on and off as it pleases. Once, our evening lecturer sat down, crossed his legs, took a few deep breaths and said: "Let's begin". Immediately, the lights went out, and we were sitting in the dark. 
Almost a month of yoga, 4 hours a day, has worked wonders for my body and flexibility. I used to do yoga only once a week back home, and sometimes wondered why the physical results weren't more noticeable. But of course, for significant change, yoga needs to be a daily practice. Which I'm sure it will now be for me, even after finishing Trika. (Cindy - remember how much I dreaded paschimottanasana and always had to use a bolster under my knees? Well, it is now one of my favorite and most relaxing postures, with my legs fully outstretched on the ground!) And the final asana we learned, the king of the asanas, was sirsasana (pronounced shirshasana), the famous yogic headstand. Yup, I am now calm and content as I stand on my head for several minutes.
Turns out there are no student of the week or month certificates, but I did get chosen as the student who would have access to the lock combination to open the front door gate and set up if I arrive before the teachers. Lighting the candles, the incense, and doing a short consecration before lighting the ghee surrounded wick. Good enough.
Last week, I ran into the Australian girl I met on my first day in Rishikesh (remember, who was here visiting her uncle for a few months who has been living here for 11 years), and she said, "Wow, you seem so much more peaceful than you did when we first met!" She also said that she could always spot the "Trika people" in Rishikesh from the twinkle in their eyes ;)
As promised, here are the two passages I read from Adbusters magazine during the final ceremony. As I flipped through the pages, I couldn't believe how closely the words connected to what I had experienced at Trika.
From the first page:
"A revolutionary movement does not expand by contamination. But by resonance. Something emerging here resonates with the shock wave emitted by something emerging out there." This resonance, let's name it "event." The event is the sudden creation, not of a new reality, but of a myriad of new possibilities.
And from the last page:
The divine is the experience of being part of one's natural environment, vibrating with its energy, connected to all, without having to erect imaginary boundaries between the self and the other.