Ashram a University for LIFE studies...

A lot of people ask me " Oh... so you stay at Ashram "... and the very next question is... " So you are not going to get married... People staying at such places don't get married right ? "...  " Ohh... you must be getting up really early and meditating the whole day ! "... " Oh... how do you manage your finances and needs ? " ... " Ohh.. What do you do the whole day ? "... Its almost as if I'm an animal of a rare species in the zoo... 

Well... The ashram is nothing like that... I thought of writing this post to so that people can appreciate the ashram a little better... How I see the ashram is like a University... A university where the subject of study is 'LIFE'... Like 'Professors' in a university, Swamijis or experienced Teachers share their experience to teach new people at the ashram... Equivalent of classes are 'Art of living programs'...  Ashramites are like PhD students doing their own research with the assistance of mentors...  Sometimes 'Visiting profs' or Guru's or swami's of other 'maths'/ organizations come and share their experience as well... 

My own body and mind is my laboratory... The whole day I conduct experiments by doing normal 'seva' activities, which for me at the moment is working with the 'Events Team' of the ashram... Events team as the name suggests is responsible for all the programs and events that happen at the Ashram right from planning, scheduling, inviting people to executing the event/program and taking their feedback and suggestions and then incorporating them in the next event/program... And in this whole process acquiring all the material finances for me and the Ashram as a whole... Material amenities and finances are essential and are definitely required to sustain life and one surely has to do something to get them... However, usually many people just get caught up in just acquiring these amenities ! The 'work' done here is more than enough not just to sustain me, but also many more at the Ashram. All this is the 'work' part or the 'running the experiment' part... Like in any experiment we first conduct the experiment and then take observations that is the 'Satsang' part... Where we all sit together, sing together, listen to knowledge, meditate and see how the spoken knowledge was applied or not applied in the day's experiment... Meditation and reading knowledge is like the self study part or the 'swadhyaye'...

As I spend more and more time at the ashram I have started to feel more and more aware of things both inside and outside... By becoming more aware outside I mean... becoming more sensitive to people and situations outside... For example... These, days very often I start seeing how the person in front is feeling,  thinking or going to say... Just a few days ago a friend of mine (also an ashramite) came to me and said... You know what... Looking at his face I simply knew what he was going to talk about and told him... He was just taken by surprise ( actually he was going to talk about something very different )! I knew the broad topic but not the nitty-gritties... These kind of things have slowly started to increase... Or sometimes I just get to know what is going to happen or who is calling on the phone or  if someone is remembering me etc... 

By becoming more aware inside I mean... becoming more sensitive to my own body, thoughts, feelings, actions and reactions... As one spends more and more time observing this, one starts seeing how much more there is to it ! As a simple example... If we just observe which nostril do we breathe from predominantly at a particular time, a lot of things can be revealed... Or what is the breathing pattern when we are angry, greedy, jealous or in some other state of mind can help us get out of it... Or a keen observation of food intake can simply tell us what food is right and what food has what effect... For example, I simply fast for a day in a fortnight... That whole day I observe the hunger and what effect it has on the system... How, I tend to become angry more easily when hungry, how my thoughts start changing when I'm angry etc... also, there is such a big difference in the way I feel for the next whole week after that !  

The longer one spends here, the more aware and more knowledge ( both about inside and outside ) one starts to get... After some time, one starts going outside this 'university' ( Ashram ) and starts to give 'guest lectures/public talks' ( knowledge talks/ pada yatras/ Art of living courses/ Satsangs ) to share with the world one's experience of 'LIFE'...

 All this is just a small glimpse of all that happens and that is possible here... Actually come to think of it all this can be done anywhere in the world and all the time... The difference is that this place is more conducive and ideal for this type of 'research' for beginners... A place where the energy levels are so high because thousands of people have meditated here over so many years... Where all the people have the same goal ( consciously or subconsciously ) but completely different behavior, culture, family background, habits, language, age-group and sex... A perfect example of harmony in diversity... Where else can one find so many saintly people together in one place... The food and the climate ideally suited to go within with more ease... And most important of all... This is the place where Sri Sri Ravi Shankar ( whom we can call the most knowledgeable in the research of 'LIFE' ) spends his maximum time in a year !

Ringa Ringa Roses :)

For the past two months I have been staying at the ashram! Every single day at the ashram has its own story and learning !
Here is one interesting incidence that happened recently.

Being in the "Events team" at the ashram, we are the ones who need to arrange all the requirements for various courses that happen at the ashram ( which includes right from fixing up a venue, providing sound system, water, a teacher etc ). Very often I end up conducting the morning Yoga sessions for different courses.

One morning I had a yoga session for the 'Blessing's Course'. But the more important and challenging thing was... The night before, at 11pm I got an sms from 'Alex' that 10 roses with stems are required for Blessings course at 6:30 am! My yoga session started at 6 am... I called up Ganesh ( another events team member )... And he and me obviously were upset about the 'timely' message... He told me to tell 'Bina' ( the lady who usually arranged for the flowers ). I messaged Bina, and got an instant 'sorry can't arrange' reply! I called back Alex and gave it to him and asked why he hadn't sent me the message earlier & why did he not send the message to anyone else from our team ? But then it was not his fault also... Actually my phone battery had conked off...


Basically, it was neither his fault nor mine... The situation could have been avoided, had he messaged to other team members... The situation could also have been avoided if I had got my phone charged earlier ! Infact the situation could have been avoided if so many things had happened or not have happened! Thats when I realized one thing... In times of crises, instead of looking for solutions, very often we start finding out 'whom to blame' ! So, I messaged back to Alex "Sorry, its not your fault... I'll manage somehow"... And thats when I learned another thing! If we take the ownership of a mistake that has happened, we start getting support... Prompt came his reply "Its ok... If there is any problem in the morning, let me know, I'll help you :)"...

So, now I went on to seeing how to solve the problem... I called up Ganesh, he said that there are some people who come and sell flowers near the ashram kitchen at 6 am, and then he assured me that we'll manage somehow... That line gave me so much assurance, that I went to sleep peacefully ( I took that "we'll manage something" as "he'll manage something")... Next morning at 5am or so, I get this message from Ganesh " The time at which they start selling flowers near the kitchen is not sure... The flowers are not arranged !" What a beginning to a day I thought ! Then I started having this feeling that Ganesh is playing a prank on me! While getting ready to take the yoga session I made few phone calls here and there ( just in case, it is not a prank! )... Finally I went to wake up a 'Rajiv' who stays below my block... He gave a contact of another guy, who actually gets flowers for the ashram everytime... That guy told me that people near kitchen start selling flowers at 6... Now my feeling that Ganesh is fooling me increased! Nevertheless I told Rajiv that he would be the backup guy... In case everything fails, he would go on his bike and get the flowers from nearby village or city if required... one more possibility came up... To get roses from Guruji's Kutir... Now there were several options... I passed on these options to Ganesh and happily started the yoga session... I was still thinking that Ganesh would manage it ( All this while I was thinking that he is playing a prank on me and he already has a way to arrange it !) ! It was 6:45am and the flowers didn't arrive ! I thought, now the prank is getting too much ! 6:53am Swami Sadhyojataji ( The teacher of the blessings course arrived )... As soon as he entered, he looked at me and asked " Flowers arranged ? "... I said, "Actually we got the message only at 11pm, but, I'll just get it!"... He said " ok... 25 mins " and smiled... I said " Ya sure" with a smile... Now... I had no idea what was happening... I called up Ganesh... He sounded quite intense and told me that he had checked in the neighboring village, and also near the kitchen ! There are no flowers! Thats when I realized that it was NOT a prank !!! Now, there were hardly 20 mins and.......

Any guesses what happened next ? Next post is coming on tuesday (16 feb )...

Ps: Guesses only for those whom I haven't told the story :)...