Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia

Liz compares her arrival at the ashram in India with the way her father would introduce a new hen into the chicken coop. He would slip the new hen into the coop in the middle of the night while the other chickens were asleep. When they awaken, the chickens assume she must have been there all along. The new hen doesn’t even remember she’s a newcomer.

Liz arrives at the ashram at 3:30am and hears her favorite Sanskrit hymn coming from inside, the morning arati, the first morning prayer. Since it is the one devotional song she has memorized, she slips in beside the devotees, sits cross-legged, and places her hands on her knees. The first time she has meditated in four months, she repeats the mantra in Sanskrit again and again, “I honor the divinity that resides within me.” When the sun comes up, she awakens from her spell. They all look around, and it is as if she has been in the flock forever. She writes that Italy feels a thousand miles away.

The American perception of yoga focuses on stretching and physical fitness. The ancient practitioners developed the stretches to prepare them for sitting hours and hours in meditation.