My first visit to India for Meditation:

I began my journey in 1994 and really was hooked immediately...I felt like I had come home and waited eagerly to do my own practice and also to share time with the meditation group on sundays and wednesday nights. 

In January 1995 I decided to go to India to the headquarters of the organisation and to meet and travel with the President, Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari. I flew alone to Chennai, rather a daunting experience although I had  been prepared for it when a couple  years earlier a friend and I had travelled to a therapy conference in Kerala, South India and had travelled via Chennai on that occasion. I caught a pre-paid taxi from the airport and after travelling for sometime the driver stopped in what appeared to be a paddock in the middle of nowhere...the driver spoke no English and my hand signals combined with a few English words were not getting me anywhere..by now it was two o'clock in the morning ...suddenly out of the dark appeared a figure and said in perfect English 'can I help?' I was blown away. All I could say was "what are you doing here at this time of night? " to which the reply "waiting for sand to be delivered"  hmmm,  two o'clock in the morning, this is India! Dear Jonathon took care of the taxi, booked it for our journey the next day to the airport  and then showed me the bathrooms and dormitories... there was a bed with mosquito net all set up, "just sleep there" said he as "no one seems to be using it"...  and away he went. I now realize how blessed I was on that occasion and how beautifully I was looked after. In the morning when I and the other occupants awoke, there were no questions except to check who was going to Hyderabad that morning... I was totally accepted as part of the group even though I had not met anyone of these folk before...I belonged!