Life at the Ashram

After the high of hiring a houseboat, things calmed down a little. We stayed in Fort Kochin, on the coast of Kerala, for a few days as the group slowly departed ways. It felt like the end of an era, even though it was only for ten days that we were together. I needed to decide on my next move, which came in the form of an asana (thats a name for a yoga pose), infact several asanas.On and off throughout my travels I have been going to yoga classes which are easy to find everywhere in India to help travellers with their 'spiritual journey', or for those held in the beach areas, to give you a good 'bikini body'! So I decided that as time was running out it would be good to do some sort of intensive yoga course to give myself a challenge and to get better at yoga so that I continue when I get home. For me, the ashram that I went to did this and more, it certainly made me appreciate everything that I have.

I went to the Sivinanda Ashram in Nayyer Dam Valley which is near the capital of Kerala, Trivandrum. The ashram run yoga 'vactions' that last for 2 weeks, but they also have an intensive teacher training course (TTC) that lasts for a month. Now I thought my 'vacation' was intensive so you can imagine how hard the TTC must be, they hardly get a chance to breathe, no wrong metaphor, they practise breathing ALOT. They hardly get any breaks. I knew that the ashram would be challenging, but I really should have looked at the programme more carefully before I went, it's not my fault that the PDF that they sent in their email wouldn't open in the internet cafe that I was in. Had I seen it, I may have thought twice.
In my head I had images of doing yoga for a couple of hours a day in a small group, overlooking a beautiful view and then relaxing, reading and chilling for the rest of the day. It wasn't quite like that. Yes, there were beautiful surroundings that did help, but small classes no. There were at least 60 people in my dorm and about 35 people in each yoga class. And wait till you hear the schedule, it is as follows:

5.30am: Wake up

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6.00am - 8.00am: Satsang - Every morning about 200 people gather in a large hall to sit cross legged facing the front. For half an hour we would concentrate and meditate with our eyes shut (trying to stay awake) as the sun rises. We are told to repeat a mantra in our heads, if you don't know one simple think 'aummmm' and breathe. Eventually we finish meditating and move onto the opening chant which, I joke not, lasts for 20 minutes. I have heard this song so many times that it will never leave my mind EVER. You would find yourself chanting it throughout the day. This was proceeded by further chanting of different songs which were listed in a chant book. Trying to follow the words was difficult, try saying shabavanavaba quickly when its the 1st time you have seen the word. I think most people that enjoyed the yoga found this a bit of a drag. It was interesting to see the 1st few times but quickly becomes a drag when you just want to do yoga but we respected the ashram rules and would attend.

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8.00am - 10.00am: Yoga - This was definetely the best bit. At 1st I attended the beginners classes but quickly grew bored of doing eye exercises so I stepped up my game and went to intermediate. By the time that I left these were pretty damn intensive and I impressed even myself. I can bend in new ways I never thought possible. Lessons were 2 hours and you literally felt great afterwards. The first half hour of the lessons was just breathing, building the muscles (leg raises etc) and doing the sun salutation (warm up exercise) several times. But this build up was necessary to do the asanas that followed. They did many different ones and then more variations of these. It's great fun, once you start to get good to see what you can achieve.

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10.00am - 10.30am - Breakfast - We ate two meals per day so you can imagine how hungry you would be by this time having awoken at 5.30am and done intensive yoga and chanting. The food was hit and miss. It was always very simple, rice, chapati or papadums with a few different veg sauces - sometimes this was great and sometimes you knew that you were just eating leftovers. What was great was that you got as many helpings as you like. I tried to eat so much, as I am still trying to put weight on after hospital to strengthen myself, but this is really hard when you can only eat 2 meals per day. I ended up being a peanut addicts as this was one of the few snacks you could buy. Oh and mealtimes were supposed to be in silence.

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11.00am - 12.00pm - Karma Yoga - Said in as nice a way as possible this means doing chores around the ashram as this is good for your karma. We were divided into different groups and designated different areas to be in charge of such as general maintainance, serving dinner, collecting rubbish and dorm cleaning (my area of specialism). This basically meant getting to clean the toilets everyday and sometimes doing mopping and sweeping. It wasn't so bad, but it was harder work than the yoga sometimes and it was pretty gross. I'd rather have been doing leaf sweeping but I guess it's good for the soul or something! Once you clean toilets for an hour per day it makes you appreciate not cleaning toilets everyday when you don't have to any more. So I guess thats part of how the ashram works. I did like the feeling of being part of a community and everyone contributing, there was a nice feel of togetherness.

12.00pm - 12.30pm - Coaching Yoga Session - We did not have to attend this, so whenever I did not go I would venture down to the lake that is a 2min walk away and is gorgeous. Swimming in it was bliss and a much welcomed break from the rigid schedule. Howver I began to attend coaching as a teacher comes and gives you help with mastering any particular asana that takes your fancy. For the most people they come to master the highly admired headstand. I joined this brigade and became determined to learn how to do it before I left. I am happy to say that I can now do it and it really isn't as hard as it seems. Apparently this asana is all about overcoming fear, nothing more. I made sure I practised next to a wall to begin with and gradually I could move further and further away from it. Imagine what I will be able to do next!

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1.30pm - 2.00pm - Tea break - Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

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2.00pm - 3.00pm - Lecture- In these sessions each day a teacher would explain to us the philosphy behind yoga and what it is all about ( the ultimate goal is about becoming one with the divine). We had long discussions about what that meant and how it should be interpreted. There are many ways to reach this goal and she explained to us things like what each asana does for your bosy and mind and in what other ways yoga is important aside from the physical asanas. I found these so interesting as it was like being back in class, taking notes, even if I perhaps didn't agree with everything that was said. A lot of the ashram's teachings were religiously intertwined with Hinduism and their different gods. But even if you don't belive in this there is still alot you can take from the meaning behind each one and the way they choose to live their life.

3.00pm - 5.00pm - Yoga- In the second yoga session of the day you would be tired and you would really have to muster all your energy to get the motivation to go, however once you did it you felt great, physically as you notice your improvement and relaxation so much and mentally for being dedicated enough to commit your body to another painful lesson. But the great thing about this style of yoga is that you get your heart rate up by having to hold many different asanas, but in between each asana or every few asanas you have to rest in between by lying on the floor on your back like a corpse (in a position called shavasana). This means your body recovers before you put more strain on it and it works really well as you shouldn't push yourself too much as this can do harm. At the end relaxation you would occasionally get people falling asleep which almost happened to me a few times after such an exhausting day.

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6.00pm - 6.30pm - Dinner- I was so incredibly hungry by this time. The food was very healthy so it was a good detox, no meat, no spice - everything was very plain as this was needed to calm your mind. You can't have anything that stimulates the senses too much as this will distract you.

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8.00pm - 10.00pm - Satsang- At the end of the day, the last thing you wanted to do was go and chant for 2hrs. I love singing and like this as a way of bringing people together, however chanting words of which you don't really know what they mean and you don't believe in was strange. I quickly clocked onto the fact that in the hall there were always a few instruments sporadically laying about on the floor for people to play, like drums and tambourine. From then on I made sure that I had one of these every session as it made the time go faster! Then it was lights out and we did the same thing all over agan for 8 days ( 1 free day)

I think I have probably written a far too detailed description of this place, so I will give a brief sum up. The best thing about the place was definetely the yoga, but also the amazing people that I met there. Everyone came from completely different backgrounds and it was so interesting listening to how people came from these different walks of life. I even made a few good friends which made the stay far more tolerable. The timetable was a bit much for me, but a bit of austerity made me appreciate the rest of the trip a great deal more and was good to show to me that I can achieve anything I put my mind to, including living in this way. Although I didn't agree with the religious side of the ashram I respected it and enjoyed seeing a different way in which people interpret the world, I have learnt a great deal from it, it was great. But boy by the end was I relieved to leave!!!