Life at the ashram and beyond

I have now been In India for 6-weeks. And it has been a life changing visit thus far! I have been rather cooped up (for over a month) and am ready to do some touring of the northern regions of the country. I’ve got to get my hair colored and there is only one town nearby to do so, Dehradun, the capital of Uttarakhand.

My stay in Rishikesh was for 10-days at a really nice hotel close to the tourist sights and the Ganges River. I received daily spa treatments and the staff treated me like a queen. Rishikesh is known as the yoga capital of the world.

After the spa hotel, I checked into Swami Rama’s Ashram for a 21-day Science of Joyful Living Program. It was very basic living. I had my own room, but shared a bath. We hate in a dining hall and had to be silent at meal time, and then wash our own dishes. There were lots of bugs and critters around. I got trapped in my room for 2-hours because there were 20-monkeys outside my door, and many were mothers with their babies. They demolished a fruit tree and tumbled over the garbage. There was a cobra spotted in the cupboards of the area we washed our dishes. Thank gawd I didn’t see it! And I was rather intimidated by a spider that was the size of a coffee cup saucer who camped out in my bathroom. Kind of scary sitting on the toilet while looking over your shoulder at the spider. It was part of our program, over coming your FEARS. (False expectations appearing real). Otherwise I would have had him removed! Thank goodness the spider didn’t appear until my 3-days at the ashram. One day I saw the security guard with a stick, and I immediately thought the stick was to kill off all the cobras. But then, I saw him use the stick to get fruit off the trees!

Swami Rama was a famous Himalayan yogi who bridged the East and the West and introduced yoga to America. He was tested in Oklahoma in 1970 for being able to control his autonomic nervous system. He made one side of his body 11-degrees higher in temperature than the other. He made his heart stop beating and could control his heart rate. Swami made knitting needles move from across the room. He was recorded as being asleep, yet new everything going on in the room. There is still a huge campus in Honesdale, PA, promoting yoga, meditation and spirituality. On a sad noe, if you Google Swami Rama you'll find lots of info on the good things he did for humanity, but you will also find some not so ood newsd. He was charged with sexual misconduct even though he vowed for celibacy. It was more than just one incident. It sounds like a big over up with his faculty. I am a firm believer that no one can live sanely and be celebate. Enough said.

I felt like I was at a boot camp for joyful living. We were getting up at 3:30 am and our teacher kept us busy until after 9 pm every night. We learned about the body and the mind and how your emotions can cause illness and disease in the body. I experienced some unusual things that people who practice yoga and meditation for many years have never been able to experience. During one of my episodes, my classmates thought I was dead. I was so relaxed! My body didn’t move, and appeared to be dead or asleep, yet I was conscious and aware of everything going on in the room. (like Swami Rama did above) For 3-day afterwards I felt like a newborn baby. I had the total conscious awareness going and had reached a state of “Samadhi”, or enlightenment. Nothing in my body hurt, (very rare for me to not experience pain somewhere in my body) I felt like I was walking on air. Everything seemed new. Washing dishes and brushing my teeth seemed new and such a joy. Eating………….even the ashram food was such a pleasure.

On the other hand, toward the end of the program, m my sympathetic nervous system was out of whack. It was too high and put me in a fight or flight zone. My heart was racing, erratic and skipping beats, my breathing wasn’t right. And I was hot and sweaty all the time and felt agitated and anxious. I think I was too aware of my breathing, or my thyroid got out of whack. Our teacher was always watching us and would say, Your CHEST BREATHING. We’re suppose to breath through our diaphragm. I still don’t know what happened to me, but I liked the stages of Samadhi much better. I have since had a few other odd, but good things happen to me. I hate to put things in writing because I’m afraid it won’t happen again!

My classmates were fun and it was a multinational group. A mathematician from Russia, and Osteopath from Germany, an American who has lived in India for 40-years, an India couple from Mumbai. She was an educated nuclear scientist, who never worked, and he owns a huge worldwide manufacturing company………. and then there was me! The teacher only takes a maximum of 7-students at a time.

I had planned to take a 10-day break then return for another 21-days course. The teacher said it was too intense to do back-to-back programs and suggested I wait for 6-months to do another one. He is a doctor from Malaysia and was personally trained by Swami Ram for many years before he left his body in 1996. He is also on the board of directors for their hospital campus, affiliated with the ashram. So having no other plans, I am now going through Pancha Karma (cleansing and seasonal detox) at the Ayurveda Center. Who in their right mind pays to get four enemas? Your suppose to feel great afterwards. I received Pancha Karma in 2007 in Kerala, Southern India. Afterwards I craved sweets and was cold all the time. Usually I love spicy food and am hot blooded. I met an interesting sophisticated, sexy Indian gentleman here for Pancha Karma who comes here twice a year. He says because he loves his wine, alcohol and rich food that he is able to eat this way even though he is a diabetic.

The campus I am staying in is a massive 100-acre complex with a medical and nursing college, hospital and lodging for students and the 1500 doctors and their families. It is all funded by the Swami Rama Trust. I’m sure with all the medical testing the US did on him that they must have or are still contributing to the trust. I’m impressed, in the hospital there is the Ayurveda, osteopathy, homeopathy, mind and body medicine as well as all allopathic medical needs. I never want to go the doctor again in the USA. I saw a neurologist for my numbness in my little finger that has been acute for over 2-years and got an x-ray of my upper spine. I had a full blood panel done for cholesterol, triglycerides, and thyroid. And I saw a doctor of General Medicine, and received medications for my thyroid and vitamins for nerves. All of this for $32!

There are beautiful gardens here and lovely places to walk. I’ll be out in the real, hustle and bustle of India soon. Yikes, about 100-yards from where I am staying they found an 11-foot King Cobra snake. Now I really watch each step when I am walking!

I have a couple of days left for Pancha Karma then I am not certain what is next. I am trying to live in the NOW! Once again, more of my training. We were taught to live in the NOW, not the past or the future. The doctor wanted me to help set-up a massage center for the overworked doctors, but I don’t see it running up to my standards and getting the cooperation I would need from the local staff. I am however; want to do some volunteer wok for the campus. They have another area up in the mountains which might suit me better. I may stop in there on my way back from touring the area.

On my “to see”: list is Dharmsala where the Dali Lama lives in exile, Amritsar the home to the Sikhs, a religious population. Unlike the Hindu, the Sikhs believe in only one god. I also want to sleep in a luxury tent near the Himalayas, stay in a palace, river raft the Ganges, take a luxury train for at least one night, and see a wildlife park.

I still haven’t had an epiphany! All of my life I have struggled with do I want to be a servant to mankind or live in the lap of luxury. I may see a therapist for a Past Life Regression Session. I understand this can help a person with many things. Sometimes our past lives can create barriers for our current life. Anyway, it is something I may consider as I feel a bit stuck on where I want my life to go. Maybe I should just keep practicing living in the NOW and not worry!