It seems that India draws two types of tourists: the bus of retirees with knee socks and cameras around their necks or the crunchy granola types seeking a spiritual awakening and inner peace. As someone who lives here, I am mostly looking for yummy food and air conditioning. However, it goes without saying that you cannot leave India without dabbling in yoga in meditation.
Although I never sought it out, happenstance took me to a weekend retreat at an ashram in southern India just outside of Bengaluru (commonly called Bangalore). Have you ever called a customer service hot line only to be greeted by an outsourced department? You're probably chatting with someone in Bengaluru. I spent my weekend at the Art of Living in their Happiness Program. As someone who is quite happy and relatively easy-going, I was curious to see what they had to offer.
The Art of Living started in 1981 and has a presence in over 150 countries. It is headed by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (not to be confused with the sitar player) and promotes a stress-free and violence-free society. The organization as a whole is actively involved in global humanitarian activities. Although the principles of the organization have a heavy Hindu influence, it welcomes practitioners of all religions. The ashram in Bengaluru acts as the headquarters.
My 4 days at the ashram consisted of a regimented schedule of yoga, meditation, instruction, and evening satsangs. We started off every morning at 6:30 with an hour and a half of yoga. Despite not touching a yoga mat since college, I have surprisingly retained a bit of flexibility. I hate being awake before the sun comes up, so this schedule resulted in a mostly grumpy Lee over the entirety of the retreat. The rest of day was spent meditating (I am total crap at it and get very bored), learning the Sudarshan Kriya (a breathing technique meant to put the body, mind, and emotions into harmony), and learning the sutras of happiness (simple principles to apply to life). The evenings were spent at an outdoor terraced lawn arena for satsang (translates as "assembly of truth") attended by thousands of people. Basically, it consisted of thousands of people gatherings to chant in Sanskrit and have their questions answered by Sri Sri. I mostly sat there slapping mosquitoes and checking my watch for when the cafeteria opened for dinner.
The most fascinating part of the weekend was attending a sunset puja (prayer ritual). The program I was attending was exclusive invitation-only, so I was able to do things regular attendees were not privy to. The sunset puja was conducted on a quiet corner of the ashram property not normally open to visitors. It was performed by a group of student pujaris (training to become temple priests). They chanted and made burnt offerings to Ganesha while the sun dipped below the horizon.
Art of Living has a multitude of devotees, closely following the teachings of Sri Sri and the ashram. Perhaps I have a short attention span and proclivity towards skepticism, but I couldn't help but view it as a money making business parading around with guarantees of peace and happiness. I don't deny that there was definite wisdom behind the sutras, but I don't need to pay gobs of money for someone to instruct me on them. My favorite part of the entire weekend was the yoga, despite the early morning wake up call.
Although I never sought it out, happenstance took me to a weekend retreat at an ashram in southern India just outside of Bengaluru (commonly called Bangalore). Have you ever called a customer service hot line only to be greeted by an outsourced department? You're probably chatting with someone in Bengaluru. I spent my weekend at the Art of Living in their Happiness Program. As someone who is quite happy and relatively easy-going, I was curious to see what they had to offer.
The Art of Living started in 1981 and has a presence in over 150 countries. It is headed by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (not to be confused with the sitar player) and promotes a stress-free and violence-free society. The organization as a whole is actively involved in global humanitarian activities. Although the principles of the organization have a heavy Hindu influence, it welcomes practitioners of all religions. The ashram in Bengaluru acts as the headquarters.
My 4 days at the ashram consisted of a regimented schedule of yoga, meditation, instruction, and evening satsangs. We started off every morning at 6:30 with an hour and a half of yoga. Despite not touching a yoga mat since college, I have surprisingly retained a bit of flexibility. I hate being awake before the sun comes up, so this schedule resulted in a mostly grumpy Lee over the entirety of the retreat. The rest of day was spent meditating (I am total crap at it and get very bored), learning the Sudarshan Kriya (a breathing technique meant to put the body, mind, and emotions into harmony), and learning the sutras of happiness (simple principles to apply to life). The evenings were spent at an outdoor terraced lawn arena for satsang (translates as "assembly of truth") attended by thousands of people. Basically, it consisted of thousands of people gatherings to chant in Sanskrit and have their questions answered by Sri Sri. I mostly sat there slapping mosquitoes and checking my watch for when the cafeteria opened for dinner.
The most fascinating part of the weekend was attending a sunset puja (prayer ritual). The program I was attending was exclusive invitation-only, so I was able to do things regular attendees were not privy to. The sunset puja was conducted on a quiet corner of the ashram property not normally open to visitors. It was performed by a group of student pujaris (training to become temple priests). They chanted and made burnt offerings to Ganesha while the sun dipped below the horizon.
Art of Living has a multitude of devotees, closely following the teachings of Sri Sri and the ashram. Perhaps I have a short attention span and proclivity towards skepticism, but I couldn't help but view it as a money making business parading around with guarantees of peace and happiness. I don't deny that there was definite wisdom behind the sutras, but I don't need to pay gobs of money for someone to instruct me on them. My favorite part of the entire weekend was the yoga, despite the early morning wake up call.
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