Isha Yoga

I am going to pen my experience of Isha yoga, Velliangiri Hills, Coimbatore where I spent close to 20 days, doing various courses and staying in the ashram. I will not go into the details of the programs, just recollect what my experience was..

 I landed in Coimbatore, coming from Saudi off the August heat, the weather was welcoming. As I drove across the city towards the Velliangiri hills I could see how small CBE was, just a compact fairly well laid out city. Quickly the feel was like I was driving thro some roads in Kerala, greenery and the cold air..

As I entered the ashram, it just got better. If my few human interactions in Coimbatore city were pleasant, with the people ever conscious of their language - polite and mild mannered, inside the ashram it was surreal. The volunteers had something about them that I've never seen in the outside world. The smile, the warmth and the care seems to come from a different source. The look in their eyes were that of a long lost brother or a mother. I am trying to overtly put in words my experience of the people without getting carried away.

 The volunteers! Why would they volunteer? Why are they so nice to everyone? The whole Ashram is run by volunteers -permanent and  temporary. I wondered what was 'wrong' with them, I just did not get it!  Yes I've paid for the course, but you just cannot put a price tag on their love..suddenly there were brothers and mothers around me with this sparkle in their eyes that I did want to know more about.

32 years of this conditioned mind, so used to the plastic smiles and the 'near and dear' that are more worried about my life and my 'culture' and how I should live it, than their own, ever judging and preaching, I just couldn't digest this acceptance of me as I am without any prejudice. They made me feel welcome and  I belonged there!

My Inner Engineering experience..

Firstly, it was the Inner Engineering. Trying to keep aside all that I have read, the various theories, philosophies and belief systems. I tried to 'just be' with what was happening in the program. I found myself very emotional and could see the walls crumbling deep within while we went out to play a series of games. A team game and me! I was always a loner, the egoistic moron may be that never enjoyed playing a team sport ATALL. Is that why I like martial arts? Ill save that for later. Here I was fully participating in these simple games and I am not sure when I was more physically and mentally alive to a situation. EVER. I cannot say the 'child' in me was out because honestly even as a child I think I was restrained as far as my memory could recollect.

Sadhguru always says the one favor we could do to ourselves is stop reading spiritual books. I could see why as my mind threw concepts and counter concepts to what was being said in the program. The mind hinders 'what is'.

 Before I could realize the Inner Engineering program was over. No out of the world experience. I have a tool to enrich and nourish my life energy and hence my well being. Just few days of practicing the kriyas, I could feel the lightness of body and the energy. May be its the wholesome food and the ambience of the ashram. So let me test it in the in real world and comment after 60 days(usually 48) of practice.

My Dhyanalinga experience..

The Dhyanalinga Temple. Let me not attempt to verbalize the experience and leave patterns in the reader's(if any) mind. Just 'be' there, the Dhyanalinga, the living guru will take care of the rest.

My Hata Yoga experience..

 Hata Yoga  was for just over a couple of days. Just 3 words -tiring, tiring and more tiring. I tried not to resist and was amazed how supple and flexible my 20 kg overweight body could get. Oh ya thats right, its twenty kilograms in words, like we write in a cheque. Can I write it off to someone? Hah, that would be nice..

I've done a few Hata Yoga programs with no disrespect to them I liked this one as they stressed on awareness all thro. This actually made the difference. Instead of struggling with postures I was flowing into them and it made a huge difference. One more tool picked.

My BSP experience...

Everyone there the volunteers the teacher, old students etc kept talking about this BSP program. Do it at any cost! BSP this, BSP that. So I decided to risk it, risk as in the day it ended was the day i was flying out of Coimbatore. A tight rope walk when i am let go and make the 90 mins trip from ashram to airport.

Anyways, I did it and am I glad I did it? Lets see..

Imagine the feeling you get when u look into the eyes of a really loved one. May be it is your mother, father, husband, wife, brother, sister a close friend or your child. This feeling of love, a connectedness beyond the physical form. Now imagine having the same feeling, the same connectedness for a total stranger you have never seen/known in your life before. How about having the same feeling staring at a plant ...this is the closest explanation I cld give to my experience of the program. Yes the state of connectedness wasn't permanent, yes the so called 'logical' mind took over, but the experience remains. 

At the end of the program everything was clear. I could relate to why the volunteers were the way they are. It was no more surreal. The externalities of life batters and bruises us to such extent that our innately sensitive nature, the naturally loving, giving, inner being goes dormant. This program brings to our experience this inner being that though might be for just a few fleeting moments makes us realize who we really are.

The only sad moment of my whole stay was missing Sadhguru's darshan the day I had to leave. I am quietly confident his Grace is always there for the willing, hmm even more so for the not so willing.

My days in the ashram were filled with tears, joy, laughter, gratitude, humility and this unbound, unconditional love never felt before...I always thought I was a loving person. I was not! Love with our boundaries isn't love, it is just gratification, convenience and the ego's expression/reassurance for territorial safety. I can safely say, I experienced love in its unbound, pure form.

People in the ashram don't live their lives, they celebrate it. Whatever they do they give their all. Abundance there has a totally different meaning. They might not have the material comforts that is normally related to 'abundance' but their abundance transcends the externalities and they flow through this life with no friction and embrace life. Being there is like living, feeling, experiencing this poem of life every moment. They work, they eat, they pray, they play they do all of this with so much poise and grace. They just flow!

All I have is this feeling of gratitude to Sadhguru and I thank whoever/whatever it is for the chance to experience it this lifetime..

Being romantic....valentine's day etc..

Dictionary meaning of romance:  (noun) a baseless, made-up story, usually full of exaggeration or fanciful invention.

(verb) to court or woo romantically; treat with ardor or chivalrousness

Romantic : fanciful; impractical; unrealistic: romantic ideas.

What is to be romantic?

 Romance comes from retaining your child like behaviour and the love for life and the child like amazement at all the things around you. To a child anything is possible, everyone is lovable, the childs mind is a mind devoid of impressions, baggage and expectations. The child's actions are spontaneous and not orchestrated or deliberate.The more we manage to retain that child like mind, the more romantic we are in life. The giver has no dearth of romance in his/her life.

In relations being romantic is sensing what is required and doing or saying things without being asked for -in all relations..your partner, parent, child or a friend likes, that abundance in love and zest for life is romantic to me.

Thanks to media and commercialism and 'believe all you see' innocence and malleable minds in people, romance is tied to only the relation between a man and a woman and focussed around the fancy stuff that can be bought, written words that can borrowed to express 'one's' love. I dont have a problem with chivalrous men as long as the man sees even a woman past her prime and  with missing teeth as deserving as a damsel he is courting.

Current day take on romanticism is nothing short of narcissism.

Is buying a bunch of flowers on Valentine's day romantic? To me its academic, its just going through the motions...Why do something that you don't mean, why say things that you didn't feel? Romance is not in a printed card or an expensive candle light dinner. It is in being spontaneous, being unconditional and it does not 'show up' based on a date or a day. Romance is this smile that comes from within that emnates optimism and unbridled faith in our loved ones and  fellow human.

Well if you ask me the flowers are better off left in the plants. They are more beautiful there. Can't we enjoy their presence 'as is'? Hmm..

Saudi hospitality love etc

Been a while since I stopped blogging on events in every day life. Today has to be an exception. Last night my mom traveled from Chennai to Jeddah via Riyadh. There was a transit and there was a situation- a flight delay by 2 hours. While she was looking for help to communicate with me a kind hearted middle aged gentleman helped her with making a phone call. He directed her to the right place for transit and even woke her up while she dozed off waiting for the delayed flight.. just in time to make it! Generally made her feel welcome and safe talking to her. From what I understand from my mother he was a local, traveling with his little kids and his mother in a wheelchair to meet his sister. Even with his loved ones around- 2 kids and mother in wheelchair to take care of, he still had time to help someone in need.

The man's heart had just love, love that's not blinded by the needy 's race, religion or color or sex. Through his eyes he just could see an elderly lady that needed help, it was not his relation, and he had nothing to gain.I messaged him today thanking him and he replied 'You welcome anytime sir'!

Just reiterates my observation in my earlier post, there can only be love in our heart or no love not love that's bound by 'factors' and the 'I' where it becomes matter of convenience, and 'interest' on our objects of possession, glorified and 'treasured'. My beloved, my love, my sweetheart... right.

My mom had a first great first impression in this land, hopefully it continues..Amen to that.

I love you

Isn't it the most sought after, abused set of words? Can there be 'I love you soo much' and 'I love you not as much'. The love we have for animate and inanimate objects, are they true love? I love my wife, my mom, sis, brother, my country, my religion, my culture..the list goes on..Isn't this normal. It is, so is there a problem?

Can love and hate ever coexist. Can I hate Pakistan and love India. Do I really love India? To start with do I know to love? The audience or objects we have as the 'beneficiary' of our love follows a pattern here. It revolves around 'I' and 'my'. It creates too many 'isms'. Love for my country creates 'nationalism', and it creates army, navy and air force to 'protect' it. The soldiers are actually taught and strongly believe that its ok to kill. For the love of God one is taught to kill the non believer and attain martyrdom and it is ok too. What is going wrong here? If in both examples if the love was not abused with a certain belief or an 'ism' and the love was for mankind could there be conflict?

The truth of the matter is I dont know how to love. Love is a matter of convenience, security and objects of indulgence. How far your love goes is just reflective of how far you have shed your narcissism. We all are narcissists of various degree. Some are 'pure' cant see beyond their nose tip, for some its 'I and my family', for some its 'I, my family, my community' so on and so forth...

With the word love there is one more word used in tandem, most times - unconditional. When one can actually love unconditionally , it dissolves the 'I' then love is true love and then there is clarity and no contradiction in action. There is no way I can hate people of Pakistan to express my love for people of my country. I either have love in my heart or i don't. Everything else is only 'I' convincing 'I' that I can love. Its a shield I use to nurture my 'I' and 'I's short sighted interests and protect it.

The obsessions of 'I' is the root cause of all conflicts in this world. I loves I*, nothing else. Period.

* I loves I is a leaf out if is S.N Goenka's discourse. Most blogs will have huge influence of my interpretation of Dhamma and Jiddu's thinking.