Ashrams

Hello Natasha 😊

I moved this to the Asia forum.

I think you have to be careful about which Ashram you join. Some of them are not exactly for what they are supposed to be for. Be sure to go to a recommended one. Maybe somebody from India or somebody who has been to an Ashram can recommend one on this thread.

Mel

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I spent 3 weeks in the Sivananda ashram in Kerala in Oct/Nov 2006. Their website is here Sivananda . You can email them to book a place - they ask you to stay a minimum of 3 nights and you can book for as long as you want, and probably stay longer than you intend once you're there (also leave earlier if you want, without having to pay extra). I had a mixed experience there, and have nothing to compare it to as it was the only ashram I stayed in. In my opinion, the good points are that it's a really good opportunity to meet people, (a typical yoga 'vacation' has about 30 people, from all over the world); the local area and ashram complex itself is beautiful; there is an Ayurvedic health centre on site with a doctor (who has regular medicines as well) and lots of choice of ayurvedic treatments and massages. The not so good points is that it is a bit 'born-again' Sivananda style hinduism; the day is very full, waking up at 5.15 am, then meditation, chanting, 2 hours of yoga in the morning and the same again in the afternoon, work period, more meditation and chanting in the evening, and daily lectures. Some of it is interesting, but can be a bit full-on. You're expected to attend everything and they have a sign-in register for Satsang and for the lectures (though if it all gets too much, you can always pretend you're menstruating, then you're not allowed in the temple area anyway).
On the whole, I'm glad I went, I just think I stayed a bit too long, and started rebelling against the institionalisation of it all. The yoga was partly good, but also gruelling - Sivananda style is a bit severe in approach and it can feel more like an army drilling than yoga (depends which teacher you get). And the main Swami is a westerner, which actually doesn't help with the rigidity of the place. The ashram has a large Indian community too, although you're kept separate from them - but the ashram has undoubtedly done a lot of good in the local area, providing accommodation and work for its own community as well as funding projects in the local village.
You get a couple of hours free time in the afternoon, and a while again after the evening meal, before Satsang (meditation/chanting). You also get a day off every Friday, people go into Trivandrum or to Varkala or Kovalam (beaches) generally.
Oh - other good things - they have a large water filter where you help yourself to water (bring your own bottle though) and also free Ayurvedic water which is really good for you. You get two chai breaks a day too. The food's not bad, you won't go hungry, though you don't get to eat till 10am and you're up from 5am.
The dorms are quite grubby, and a word of warning - they had a really bad bed-bug problem while I was there, which they wouldn't admit to - they may have dealt with this by now but take a sheet sleeping bag with you.
If you want any more info, you can PM me, I'm happy to talk more about my experiences there. And if you go, (if he's still there), give my love to Viera (one of the staff) - he's the gem of the place! Reply to this

I've no idea and I asked this question a lot while I was there (never receiving an answer). The ashram unfortunately (in my opinion) is run by westerners, at least, the main swami is a westerner, as are some of the team under him, though a lot of the yoga teachers are Indian. Westerners often seem to ruin Eastern philosophy and tradition by strangling it with misinterpretations and unnecessary rigidity. The ashram generates its income from running these 'yoga vacations' - which have their own particular structure; ie a permanent ashram inhabitant would not do 4 hours of yoga a day and go to lectures on the philosophy of Sivananda and Hinduism. Some might say there are benefits to the structure they offer to visitors. Maybe it gives them the reason to charge the rates they do for these times and so get their income. Personally I would have preferred to just become part of the ashram properly for the time I was there.

There was one day where there was a particular festival to do with Krishna, and it was the only time we all got together - we went to a ritual down at the ashram community temple, led by the Indian priest (normally we had a separate temple, run by the swami), and then all had a meal together in the main hall - it was the only day I really really enjoyed there, there was such a great atmosphere with the whole community there, all the families and children. There was a real warmth that day, which had been lacking the whole time I was there. And the priest was so much more happy and vibrant than the swami. Before we went the swami was saying 'don't take pictures at any time, and stand here, and don't do this or that'.... but when we were there, the priest was saying, 'come, come! join in, take lots of pictures, welcome' etc etc etc.

I felt at the very least we could all eat together every day, and no reason not to have the satsang (daily meditation/chanting) all together - it would have been so much more alive Reply to this

Maybe, I never went to another so don't know - but from what I heard, a lot seem to follow similar structures ie long days with compulsory attendance at things. the one I went to was 450rs per day (for dorm accommodation). Technincally they said the yoga and philosophy teaching was 'free' as this follows the spiritual tradition, so you are paying for accommodation and food - in that case I got a lot better for less in most basic guest houses around the rest of India - the ashram was full of bedbugs, the dorms were dirty (even though we had to clean them every day, the stone floors and cracked walls just encouraged a constant dirt and grime), and there were infestations of ants everywhere inside - when I got back to my bed in the evening, it was a menagerie of different insects. Also the mosquito nets were all full of holes, so no use at all, and it was a terrible area for mosquitoes - being so close to a lake, we were all bitten to death both by them and the bedbugs. And when I asked for a change of sheets on my bed after I'd been there more than 2 weeks, there was a big argument about it - they said the reason we had got 2 sheets at the beginning (in reality, two cut-offs of cheap fabric) was so that we used one, then the other when the first got dirty - so presumably you were supposed to either sleep on the bare mattress with a sheet on top of you, or sleep on the sheet with nothing on top of you.
Also the swami said that the reason our accommodation was so basic - thin mattresses on hard boards, cold-water showers etc, was not because this was India and this is what it's like (which would have been reasonable) but that it was good for our spiritual development to live in austerity. After a while we suspected that the power 'failures' which happened several times a day (extreme even for India) were engineered by them personally to add to the austere conditions. And there was a hot water system in the ashram - just not for us. I don't go along with that belief at all - if all there is, is basics, then that's fine, but if it's possible to be comfortable (doesn't have to be luxury) where you can get a good night's sleep and feel clean, then surely that's going to be better for your spirit and ability to function and thrive, rather than feeling sleep-deprived, exhausted and grubby and not able to focus on anything but that.

that brings me to this whole other area (maybe should be a new topic) - a lot of traditions seem to exalt this way of living, ie denial of basic comforts, as a path to spiritual progress. I used to know a western man who had been a Buddhist for several years, living in a monastery in Sri Lanka for years, practised Zen too, and for a while lived in a Theravada Buddhist monastery in England - he said that there, they just got one meal a day, as the belief was that the monks/nuns shouldn't get 'attached' to food. But he said instead the opposite happened - because there was only this one meal a day, people were queuing up, and getting really edgy that there would be none left by the time they reached the front of the queue - he said because people only got this meal, they spent so much of the day thinking about food and being hungry and wondering if they got enough, it defeated the whole purpose of having it that way. Reply to this

I spent a month at Yoga Vidya Gurukul in Nasik, India. It was a beautiful place run by amazing people. The program is thorough and legit. The price is good too. You can find information at yogapoint.com or write to me and I will answer honestly and with enthusiasm. This is a place that I truly believe in and will surely return to. Reply to this

Hello all,

Try isha yoga centre located Coimbatore-India.

www.ishafoundation.org

Will change life for sure.

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'Tulasidalam Yoga ashram' is a beautiful remote ashram in one of the peaceful villages of Kerala. Reply to this