Elizabeth Gilbert - Eat, Pray, Love: One Womans Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia

Eat, Pray, Love

Eat, Pray, Love

Eat, Pray, Love

Eat, Pray, Love

ALSO BY ELIZABETH GILBERT

Pilgrims

Stern Men

The Last American Man

Eat, Pray, Love

Eat, Pray, Love

VIKING

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First published in 2006 by Viking Penguin,

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1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Copyright Elizabeth Gilbert, 2006

All rights reserved

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA

Gilbert, Elizabeth, date.

Eat, pray, love: one womans search for everything

across Italy, India and Indonesia / Elizabeth

Gilbert p. cm.

ISBN 0-670-03471-1

ISBN 1-101-01091-6

1. Gilbert, Elizabeth, dateTravel. 2. Travelers writings, American. I. Title.

G154.5.G55A3 2006

910.4dc22

[B] 2005042435

Printed in the United States of America

Set in Italian Garamond with Tagliente Display

Designed by Elke Sigal

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Eat, Pray, Love

For Susan Bowen

who provided refuge

even from 12,000 miles away

Eat, Pray, Love

Tell the truth, tell the truth, tell the truth.*

Sheryl Louise Moller

* Except when attempting to solve emergency Balinese real estate transactions, such as described in Book 3.

Eat, Pray, Love

CONTENTS

Eat, Pray, Love

Eat, Pray, Love

Eat, Pray, Love

How This Book Works

or

The 109th Bead

When youre traveling in Indiaespecially through holy sites and Ashramsyou see a lot of people wearing beads around their necks. You also see a lot of old photographs of naked, skinny and intimidating Yogis (or sometimes even plump, kindly and radiant Yogis) wearing beads, too. These strings of beads are called japa malas. They have been used in India for centuries to assist devout Hindus and Buddhists in staying focused during prayerful meditation. The necklace is held in one hand and fingered in a circleone bead touched for every repetition of mantra. When the medieval Crusaders drove East for the holy wars, they witnessed worshippers praying with these japa malas, admired the technique, and brought the idea home to Europe as rosary.

The traditional japa mala is strung with 108 beads. Amid the more esoteric circles of Eastern philosophers, the number 108 is held to be most auspicious, a perfect three-digit multiple of three, its components adding up to nine, which is three threes. And three, of course, is the number representing supreme balance, as anyone who has ever studied either the Holy Trinity or a simple barstool can plainly see. Being as this whole book is about my efforts to find balance, I have decided to structure it like a japa mala, dividing my story into 108 tales, or beads. This string of 108 tales is further divided into three sections about Italy, India and Indonesiathe three countries I visited during this year of self-inquiry. This division means that there are 36 tales in each section, which appeals to me on a personal level because I am writing all this during my thirty-sixth year.