Sugar story

Nine buses were parked on the side of the road for a bathroom stop on the way from Nagapattanam to Madurai.  We were about 300 people scattered along the roadside in the middle of nowhere.  Open pastures, farmland and trees were around us.   I was talking with a fellow devotee, recalling on how during the North Indian Tour last year, I had discovered the bliss of raw sugarcane.   At that moment, I turned around and saw a few Brahmacharies scampering off the road up ahead.  There was a field of sugarcane right there!  I spotted one holding a three foot long stick of sugarcane in his hand.  That's all it took – I ran off after him, and into the maze of cane stalks standing about 10 feet high.  Still being a novice, I asked one of them to break off a stick for me.   He obliged.   At once, I put the stick in my mouth – using my teeth to tear off the hard outside.  It was primal but in a blissful way.    The texture of the soft center is a lot like celery.   You chew on it only to get at the juice – and spit out the rest.   All I can say is that my whole body was rejoicing at the nourishment that came from that stick – It's a rare treat – I felt like a young Indian boy at play in a timeless way – as if I had done this in many lifetimes before.

Sri Pati, USA
1 Feb 2007