Just back from a little over a month at the Bangalore Ashram…I had an amazing time and can’t wait to hopefully go back this Fall. I received Darshan from Gurudev three times. Simply amazing.
I arrived on January 29th and started doing my Netra eye treatments at the Panchakarma Spa and Resort (http://www.srisripanchakarma.org) right next to the Bangalore Ashram. After just 12 days, my eye sight prescription improved by 1 point. I went from a -3.5 to a -2.5 power. The eye doctor there thought I was too old to see any improvement and was so happy when I improved by a point. The eye treatments and exercises coupled with the Ayurveda café are a treat. The 12 day treatment was like a vacation. Seeing Gurudev many evenings at Satsang was a gift.
After one week at Panchakarma, I shifted to the Ashram housing and stayed with 3 roommates including a senior teacher from Argentina. I feel lucky to have met Ishmael from Argentina. During this time, I finished up the balance of my 12 day treatments and did Seva in the kitchen. I loved serving dinner in the kitchen and had the chance to serve some of our North America senior teachers including Pierre, Rajshree Didi, Michael Fischman, and the Frasers.
In early February, I was able to attend the evening events during the International Womens Conference (http://iwc.artofliving.org/). The events were over the top and I felt like I was at Navratri again. The conference hosts went all out and had really impressive performances, dinners, speakers, singers, flyers, and décor. The Womens Conference was so well organized and so well decorated that I felt so proud to be a part of the Art of Living. I hope many of the women I know will attend next year!
After Panchakarma, I checked into the Sri Sri Ayurveda Hospital (http://www.sscasrh.org/sri-sri-ayurveda-college/ - great video with Gurudev) for 5 days. I had 4 full days of Ayurvedic treatments to alleviate my back pain. The physiotherapist there, for the first time in months after many different doctors, accurately diagnosed me with postural scoliosis. He laid out a plan with exercises to alleviate the postural scoliosis within 6 months. I was so impressed with the Ayurvedic doctors and staff at the hospital that I setup a meeting with the hospital HOD (Head Of Department). I am hoping to sponsor some updates to the meditation hall at the hospital. For the first time in almost a year, my back spasm is completely gone. The full body in-patient Abhyanga massage, other hot oil Ayurveda back treatments, and daily exercises healed my aching spine.
I had a day to spare and signed up for the Eternity process. The process is too sacred to share / comment on, but I hope everyone gets the chance to do this lifetimes opening process. We get to the Eternity process only three times in one lifetime.
I then convinced my cousin-nephew to join me on an Art of Living Yes+ residential course at the Ashram. Here’s where is gets GREAT. The Yes+ teacher let me partly co-teach the course and I led the first Long Kriya process, wrap-up, some knowledge points, and the paper plate process. I had such a blast and felt like a dream came true that weekend. I made some great young friends and will hopefully get my other nephew to do Yes+ in the US later this year. Our Yes+ students had Darshan with Gurudev and I got the chance to give Gurudev my new wooden business card and ask Gurudev to bless my nephew for his university studies in the US.
Next up, I checked in for the Shivatri AMC (Advanced Meditation Course) – Silence Course with Gurudev. The silence was ok, but seeing Gurudev and doing one to two daily guided meditations with Gurudev everyday was GREAT. On Shivatri day, after evening Puja (my first Shivatri Sankalpa), Gurudev gave everyone that was at the Ashram Darshan from midnight until 2:30am..I remember reading about how Mikey stayed up all night for Shivatri in Stumbling into Infinity and Gurudev even mentioned the tradition during Satsang. So I stayed up all night doing seva, meditations and Kriya. At 5am, we had a Puja and I took my 2nd Sankalpa during the Puja. By 8am or so, I was exhausted and hit the sack! J
The last two days of the Shivatri AMC, we did Shakti Kriya and the experience was once again very powerful. I could barely sleep the 2nd night and had to rest and skip the afternoon sessions of the silence course.
We finally ended the last evening of March 3rd with the remaining 2/3 or so of our Silence course getting Darshan with Gurudev in the Vishalakshi Mantap (VM) building (http://www.artofliving.org/bangalore-ashram/vishalakshi-mantap).
I feel so lucky to have met some of our TTC classmates at the Bangalore Ashram during the stay there. I hope we can all meet in Bangalore for Navratri or Shivatri.
Feeling grateful and blessed beyond words…
Love & Jai Guru Dev,
An Aspiring Yogi
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