We visited on Republic Day, so only a few girls in this K-12 school, run by the all-women Hindu ashram, were around. Were they orphans? boarders from too-far-away villages? I was never entirely sure. In any case, they seemed well looked after by the yoginis we met and talked with that morning.
We were invited into the temple for Puja, and encouraged to pull out video cameras, which was felt a bit invasive – I never could bring myself to do it at Shantivnamam – but in the end, I did take this video.
Near the end of the 30-minute temple ceremony, when the high-pitched chanting was reaching its climax, the bell began to clang, then several of the young girls came in for arati. at the end:
mebtravelling 