I have returned from my 8 day trip to the Sivananda Ashram in Kerala. Spending time at the Ashram always has the ability to “bring things up”, the commitment, intense yoga, breath work and everything involved in the experience tends to do that, and being here in India while at the Ashram, there was even more to face, but it was an amazing, incredible time and I’m so glad that I went.
The typical day at the Ashram for a “Yoga Vacation” looks like this:
5:30 Wake up Bell
6:00 Satsang (Silent meditation and Kirtan)
8:00 Yoga Asana and Pranayama (breath work)
10:00 Meal
11:00 Karma Yoga (Selfless service)
12:30 Optional Asana Coaching Session
2:00 Lecture
3:30 Yoga Asana and Pranayama (another 2 + hour session)
6:00 Meal
8:00 Satsang
As you can see, there is little time for being idle. Adherence to the schedule is mandatory, but I enjoy every minute of it.
While I was there, there was a Yoga Teacher Training going on with about 150 trainees and about another 50 or so Yoga Vacationers rotating in and out. It was a very beautiful setting in the hills of Neyyar Dam, right in the jungle, complete with crocodile warnings for the lake, the ability to hear the Lions roaring from the Safari Park across the way, the other jungle sounds of birds and monkeys, and then, the competing sounds of the three Temples that were nearby. Something about “whichever temple is louder is better” seems to ring true and Hindu music was played very loudly throughout the hills all day (and sometimes part of the night). All meals were traditional Indian meals eaten on the floor, in silence, without the aid of utensils. The kirtans and meditations were on thin grass mats on the floor, no soft meditation cushions. The Karma Yoga was in the middle of the day at high heat and usually involved some kind of physical labor (the harder you sweat, the closer to enlightenment perhaps?). And the yoga asana classes were intense and wonderful. All five hours a day of them. In the 8 days I was there we had 2 silent meditation walks, one early in the morning to chant and watch an incredible sunrise, and one at night to sit and chant by the lake. A quartet of musicians came to play for us one evening, leading us into meditation with their beautiful sounds. And, I just happened to be there for one of the biggest festivals of the year – Shivaratri. This is the day to honor Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction. He may sound mean, but really, we sometimes need to destroy what is in front of us so we can move past and rebuild, yes? This day started with 12 straight hours of chanting (rotating people around) and then culminated in a puja (ceremony) with more chanting and dancing until 6:00 am (No. I did not stay up dancing until 6, I went to bed to the sounds of music and chanting and dancing so that I could get up early the next morning for asana class).
It was a really incredible, difficult, beautiful and intense week that has given me inspiration and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.