Week 3 in Sivananda Ashram in India

Three weeks in an Indian Ashram, a mild vegetarian diet of two meals, 4 hours of yoga a day, six hours of sitting on the floor cross-legged trying to meditate and absorb what yoga is about, and keeping up with 20- and 30-somethings feels good. One more week, and I might be certified to teach, on paper anyway. It takes years of training, and there's still more to learn. It's kind of like sailing in that respect. There is so much more to yoga than most people realize. It's a deep spiritual practice, and here in southwestern India we're learning about Hinduism and the Bhagavad Gita. I don't know what's real or unreal anymore. I do know that I've got a lot to learn, and study to be a better person and figure out my purpose in this world. There are about 300 people in the ashram, and 250 are taking the teacher training program. I bet we have about 15 languages here. It's worldwide. Just in my small section of the dorm we have people from Mexico, Scotland, Sri Lanka, India, Japan and England. There are more than 70 from Japan. Many translators.

We all are told to relax, but the schedule is grueling. 6am morning meditation, 8am yoga class, 10am brunch, noon Bhagavad Gita class, 2pm main lecture, 4pm yoga class, 6pm dinner, 8pm mediation. Somewhere along the line we have to do homework, laundry, and sleep. I'm into the routine now, so as long as my brain still works, I'll do fine. We're to rid ourselves of our physical desires, but I sure wish I had my yoga attire. We were told not to wear any tight fitting clothes, and we must cover our shoulders, so were given "uniforms" to wear. A yellow tee shirt and white pants. They are loose pants, but they do get in the way when doing 40 sun salutations. Did I mention it's hot here? We're supposed to blank out our mind when we meditate, but thinking about a cool underwater environment, i.e. the Maldives, is probably going to interfere with my meditation for the last few days here. Until then, it's study, study, study so I pass my written exam.

Week One at Sivananda Ashram

I've done it this time. I might have taken on a bit too much, but time will tell. As usual, I will carry on, even though may body is not used to sitting cross-legged for 8 hours a day. Maybe because I'd been eating too much in the States, I decided to come to India to pray. (Think of the book "Eat, Pray, Love".) I hope love follows, because practicing yoga at an ashram is hard work mentally, physically and spiritually, that is when you're taking a 200-hour yoga teacher training that is offered in the States over a 9 month or year long program. I decided if I wanted to learn more about yoga, the best place to do it was in India where it originated. I'm not sure if Indians practice yoga in Ashrams, but they are certainly known elsewhere as there are 300 students here from all over the world. Hindi, Russian, Spanish, Ukranian, Japanese, German, Dutch, Canadian, and a few from the US.

Our day starts at 6:00am with 1.5 hours of meditation, a short break for tea, 2 hours of learning how to teach yoga physically, brunch which we eat with our hands (and don't think finger food as in the States, think stew), and then an hour of karma yoga (I.e. chores). At noon we have an hour of lecture, our first week was of chanting, another short tea break, then 2 hours of our main/spiritual lecture, followed by 2 hours of physical yoga. We then rush to dinner (did i mention we eat in silence?), and end our day with another meditation practice. Somewhere along the way we have to write up a summary of our main lecture, and lights are to be out by 10:30pm. My brain is a mix of Sanskrit, Hindi, chants and other unfamiliar things. It's more than learning another language. If you know me, this part of my brain is rather slow. I can already tell things are penetrating it when I chant in the meditation periods and the readings aren't so overwhelming. When I take time to look up, I see a beautiful setting of lush green trees and flowers, as I look out at the Sahyadri Hills and the lake formed by the Neyyar Dam in the southwest of Kerala India.