It took me almost 3 hrs from my home to get to the 'anonymous' ashram. The last mile being a gravel road I almost turned back thinking I might be on the wrong path!. A car appeared behind me (on the gravel road in the middle of nowhere) and the people inside were kind enough to let me follow them until the ashram while they went ahead to their home in the mountains!
A very serene place with blissful chimes were welcoming at the parking lot near the reception. I came in and was greeted by Shambu das. There was no mobile signal but they had wi-fi which allowed messaging and whatsapping :).
I was shown my room which frankly was way more than I expected!. It was a room with natural sunlight windows and separate bed and only one roommate!
The views were pretty relaxing and so peaceful! Definitely worth the gravel drive.
A yoga class at 4:30. The teacher turned out to be my roommate, Mai !. Though she could do the asanas very well I found the pace of the class a bit fast. She seemed a bit restless . I liked the structure of the class though. They started of with almost 20minutes of pranayama and savasana after every series!. Every asana seemed to be counter posed which helped a lot as I did not feel sore or over worked even after a 2 hr class.
They had dinner immediately after the yoga class which seemed a little odd. Arent we supposed to have atleast 30min break before or after yoga? There was a long line and it thankfully took me half an hr to get my servings. The food was good not amazing though. I still like the art of living food made by rati and vishwa. It was the most tastiest sattvic food I ever had!
There was a small boutique where I bought a couple of pleasant yellow t-shirts and white pants. They feel so vibrant and pleasant at the same time!
The satsang started at 8pm. It is amazing to see so many non indians so involved and reciting so many kirtans whole heartedly though their pronunciations may not be the best. I really liked some of the songs which had some catchy tunes to them! There were some slokas that I came across in their kirtan book which made me nostalgic as I had learnt them as a kid in my dance class. It made me think what we indians take so much for granted and were never made to realize the significance of, are the most revered and a way of life which whole world seems to be adopting! The mudras which we were forced to learn (and I still dont remember) have so much deeper spiritual significance and each of them creates a circle of prana flow and increases the capacity of prana when meditated with. I wish i learnt more of the slokas as a kid but it was still nice to see a few of them that I remembered in the kirtan book.
There was a small 10minute vedanta session at the end of the satsang. It was not as deep as I wanted it to be but it was good enough to ponder over like karma and its effects.
There was a small 'apashruti' aarti at the end :)
They called it a day and I got to bed which was warm and cozy but I just could not sleep for some reason! Everytime I am conscious of falling asleep I just cant. I had a horrible sleep and night didnt seem to end nor did my mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment