04.30, Jan 2nd.  A sleepless night and as I lie in my bed tears fall down my face onto the pillow.

The Ganges at Bhyasghat

January 1st started pretty normally.  I planned to leave the mountain retreat at 7am.  By the time I wished A Happy New Year ("nayi sal mubarak ho!) to the family and assorted overnighting bodies, and by the time kitchen queen Aarti had tossed me up 2 paranthas to take on my travels, it was 7.45.  I was tripping off to Rishikesh for a Krishnadas concert.  Yes!! Krishnadas!! The great American chant master Yogi himself in concert in Rishikesh to raise funds for the Ganga Prem Rishikesh hospice. It's a 5 to 7 hour journey depending on how you combine walking, jeep and bus.

Did you hear the story of the starfish?

The woman didn't reply immediately but , as she lifted another starfish and threw it back into the sea she said-

                                  "...Made a difference to that one didn't it? "

Sooo....

 We arranged an appointment with Dr Nautiyal,an orthopaedic surgeon in Dehradun - a large town 5 hours drive away. Other villagers carried Deena down the hillside to the road where a car met her and took her to see Dr Nautiyal. She needs surgery to remove the nail and cleaning of the wounds, antibiotics (probably given intravenously) and several months of traction.  This will cost approximately £1500.  Deena and her family have no money and survive essentially as subsistence farmers.

 Myself and my friend Mahavir have paid for her initial hospitalisation but we do not have the funds to pay for the operation and additional treatment.  I hope you, my friends, will be able to make a donation -small or large - so that we can pay for the treatment required.

I am blessed to be in a space of deep calmness, inner peace and joy.  Maybe it's the result of the peaceful Himalayan environment where I spend most of my time;  or the aftermath of  the profound expansion of my heart felt at a 4 day retreat in Rishikesh; or the calmness of the week of yoga, meditation and ayurveda in sunny Kerala; or the clear truths revisited as I read Essence of the Bhagavad Gita again; or the inspiration and resonance of Sri Prem Baba's book From Suffering to Joy - the Path of the Heart.  Or maybe it's all of these plus the cumulative effect of a daily meditation practice and my December initiation into a higher Kriya meditation practice.  Or maybe it's simply divine grace. But something has changed within me.

I watched A River Runs Through It again yesterday.  Beautifully acted, beautifully scripted, beautifully filmed, and another Robert Redford directorial triumph. I love this 1992 film.  The evocative rendering of the rugged Montana landscape and the metaphor of the river as the flow of life are food for my soul.  In turn the river is a raging torrent and a deep calmness. But finally it inevitably reaches the expansive ocean of Spirit.