Travel Day 974 – Sivananda Ashram, Kerala, INDIA
A new experience was what I had wished for and a new experience was exactly what I was getting when the bell rang as early as 5.20 in the morning…
Sivananda Ashram Sign in Kerala
Actually it wasn’t only the bell that rang but someone switched on all the lights of our dorm room and started yelling that it was time to get up for everyone. What a nice and gentle way to start the day I thought while I crawled out of my mosquito net and got in line for the bathroom. There really were only 4 toilets and 4 sinks for about 100 people and since everyone was up at the same time, things got quite busy at this early hour…
At 6am the Satsang started with a time slot for meditation, followed by communal singing and then a very brief teaching. For me personally the singing was the best part, especially because instruments were put out in the audience and everyone was encouraged to play along and make this a rather engaged and active experience. The teaching on the other hand was just the reading of a few sentences from one of the Sivananda books and for me it was lacking any sense of sincerity…
Entrance of Sivananda Ashram, Kerala
At 7.30am there was some chai served in the open courtyard and by 8am we had our first yoga class. It was obviously some time ago since I last did some yoga in Rishikesh, but I was happy and excited to be doing something physical again, even if I felt extremely hungry by this time. Two sweaty hours later and the Asana yoga class was over, which meant that by 10am it was finally time for the much-needed breakfast or rather lunch…
The thali brunch on the floor of one of the yoga rooms was perfect, although by this time I probably would have eaten anything I could have gotten my hands on. At 11am it was time Kama Yoga, or Seva as it was called in Amma’s ashram, but instead of doing any selfless service, we unfortunately had to finish all the check-in formalities. We needed to make a down payment and we needed to get a yellow card in order to be able to rent a yoga mat and buy some yoga pants, which we already should have had for the morning classes…
Open Courtyard of Sivananda Ashram
By 12 noon it was time for some good meditation coaching, followed by a 1.30pm tea in open courtyard. At 2pm we had then a very nice lecture about yoga theory and at 3.30pm we had another round of two hours of practical Asana Yoga underneath the main hall. By 6pm it was then finally time for the second meal of the day, dinner, which consisted of another thali on the floor, but instead of rice we were served idly and I was quite happy about that… : )
At 8pm we had then our evening Satsang, which consisted once more of group meditation, chanting and a very brief talk. By 10pm we were going back to the dorms and the 10.30pm lights-off concluded a really busy and physically challenging day that was completely lacking any personal space or time. Nevertheless, I was already excited to see how the next couple of days would turn out to be…
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