Welcome to Omkareshwar!

I couldn't write anymore, it felt like my mind stopped in time and the last week feels like 100 years. I had to re-oganise my thoughts and emotions about everything that has been happening since I got here.

I had been told Omkareshwar was a mind-blowing place but I didn't realise THIS mind-blowing.You can feel the amazing energy from the Narmada river tha surrounds the island, you see ashrams pretty much anywhere you look and people bathing peacefully on every bank there is.
Cows, monkeys, goats, sadhus and people walking all together on the bridge that connects the island to the mainland.
The ashram I am staying in is on the actual island and there is a pathway that goes around it which has the shape of the OM symbol (see picture above). The walk itself is incredibly interesting as you can see small villages on its way as well as some really interesting temples. I haven't taken any pictures yet but this is deiberate. I am not in the mood as I find it a distraction at the moment and I really feel it would not be able to render what the place really looks like.
You can also see water all around, which I realised is what I was missing in Indore. The sense of calmness you get from lakes and rivers is always uncomparable to anything else I find, at least for me.

The trip from Indore to here was good too. Omanand said 'remember this day'. He was right! I can't forget the day we travelled to Omkar as it feels like it's the day my new life started. Sometimes I can't even remember the life I was leading prior to this. It's really strange how we can go on for years and years, knowing something is not right but still going on and then at one point when we do change something in our life we look back and we just wonder 'how did I do that for so long?'. Easy, we just can't see sometimes and although we try different ways to have a new perspective and see things from a distance we simply cannot, unless we really leave everything behind and start assessing bit by bit what was good for us and what wasn't.
I am finding this whole process painful at times, but very necessary. What we thought we loved might actually turn out to be the one thing that was really not good for us or the one thing that was causing the most unhappiness. This is what I find a little painful I guess. Realising what is really not for us and let it go. If you think about it, it's not very easy to let go old habits, places, people and even thoughts. They have somehow become part of us, but as we try to reconnect and dig further and further inside of us, we discover that it is essential to let them go otherwise we can't go forward.

Anyways, we took a local bus from Indore, which cost 50Rs, which I think is £0.70 (that wouldn't even take you from King's Cross to Angel on London buses but that's a whole different story). The bus journey lasted about 3 hours and we were lucky to get a seat. The bus got more packed as it stopped along the way and in the end there people literally everywhere. We even had this little girl on our lap for a while, she was so cute!
The bus driver apparently lied to Omanand and he said the bus would leave us in town but instead it dumped us some 20K from Omkar. So we took an auto rickshaw to town and the drive was SO beautiful. Green everywhere.
Once we got to the main bus station of Omkar, we put all our bags on a little carriage and two guys took everything through the town up to where the ashram boat was waiting for us.
We crossed the Narmada river with our little boat and finally arrived. The ashram here is just spectacular. It's built on the rocks and it's all uphill. It actually reminds me of old Italian towns, especially in the south, all white and lots of steps to go anywhere. I will take pictures of the Ashram in the next few days and show it. It does need to be photographed.
I spent the first few nights sharing a room on the last level/floor with Lily, a German girl that arrived a week ago. The room wasn't anything much but the view you get from the terrace in front of the room is OH MY GOD. You see the river flowing and then forest everywhere. You wake up and the river is there, you go to sleep and it's there and you hear it while you sleep. I love this river.
I then changed room though as I wake up at 5am to do my practice and really needed a room on my own where I could this. The new room is right in Ma's temple and it turns out it used to be Baba's room and it's a room they usually give to important saints (that's what Swamiji Gurusharan said smiling---he has a beautiful and most honest smile by the way). I was so honoured. The room is very special and it's got very good energy, plus there's a beautiful big picture of Ma in it, so I am happy. The room is also next to where all the kirtan takes place, so imagine how even happier I am.

Anyway, just wanted to give a little update of where I am now and how things are going. Once again, I am quite limited with my words to express this all but this is the best I can do for now as I am feeling very overwhelmed myself and am finding it hard to even think. The meditation is definitely working. I am now able to meditate for much longer periods and by the river, which is unique. I started craving for meditation, like I started craving for asanas when I started my yoga years back. So I now meditate any time I feel the need and it feels amazing.

A vey big hug to all of you.