Life on the Ashram (Megan)

Slipped out of the habit of writing posts as you can see. Since Jordan has given all of you such wonderful information about our time in Pai (and because I have a very limited internet time and I still have that little task of planning my next step to take care of) I will just stick to describing a little bit about the yoga teacher training course that I have been attending for the past month. I have essentially been doing yoga, talking about yoga, writing about yoga, and thinking about yoga most hours of every day of the past month. We wake around 5:00 am every morning for tea, chanting, mantras and two hours of yoga practice. Next, we have breakfast (the food is more healthy than you could even imagine) and then receive two lectures from our Guru, Ayuverdic doctors, experienced yogis, etc. Learning about the history of Hatha yoga and the extent to which it is integrated into this society has been truly amazing. Afternoons are spent doing karma yoga, which involves some type of service to the community. We are located in the middle of amazing green hills and rice fields, so when we have time off I am either hiking or visiting the small village nearby to investigate life outside of the ashram and heed to the insistent pleas of the local children to take their picture and show it to them on the digital camera. Late afternoon we have two more hours of yoga practice (that means more sun salutations than you would ever think possible in one day) and dinner…curry, rice, chipattis, vegetables, pomegranate salad…followed by discussions about the day/dancing/signing/storytelling/or in some cases fighting over what has happened between the crew that day. We have one day off per week, which usually involves catching a taxi to the local temples, caves, hikes, or the city (to sneak some chocolate and local fruits). This is a much needed day with all of the information we take in everyday. The environment has worked to create a HUGE spectrum of emotional experiences and has been quite a social experiment in many ways. Each person in the group has had some sort of medical issue or another and we are all in such extreme and close living space that we inevitably know each and every bodily mishap that has occurred among the other people. For me it has been a sinus infection and a kidney stone….yikes. This has surely been one of the most spiritual and self-realized parts of my journey and I can really appreciate Hatha Yoga in an entirely new way. It has changed my perception, my habits, and my mentality immensely. I have had the pleasure of relating to people from all over the world who share common interests and who have taught me so much in this time. I am nearly finished with the course and will be heading to another ashram nearby Nasik with another girl from my yoga course, where we will be attending a 10-day silent meditation course….That’s right, 10 days of absolutely no talking, eye-contact, reading, listening to music, or even gesturing to another person. You can expect quite an interesting report on that one when I am finished. Eventually hoping to meet back up with Jordan in Costa Rica for a yoga position down there, but things in my life are resisting any planning ahead at the moment, so I am just going to try and follow the path and see where it takes me…