The YIC experience
One day in October 2007, I decided to go for a walk. I really needed to clear my thoughts and get some perspective on my life. I was in an unsettled phase of my life. I had started my first job as a management consultant focusing primarily on e-learning a year before and now some of my closest colleagues had quit their jobs. Furthermore, my work area was going to change and I wasn't sure into what, and then the whole organization that I was working in was restructuring, so a lot of things were in general very uncertain. At the same time, I personally missed the freedom of being a university student with flexible work hours and days, and I missed having time to practice my main hobby, which is travelling.
The walk took me along the beach of Eastern Fyn, one of the largest islands of Denmark. The weather was beautiful. Autumn. All the leaves were yellow and red, the sun was out, and the sea was still. I decided to sit down and meditate. About one hour later it was all clear, and I happily walked back to tell my Indian husband about my plans. I was going to follow my heart and need for freedom and travelling, and I had a feeling that yoga would be the answer to my questions about work and my path in life. I would ask my boss for a two months leave.
My husband is a beautiful soul. Always up for interesting things, very relaxed and free. So, he immediately liked the idea. Within an hour the plans were clear, the tasks divided and the spirit high. We were going back to India to do a yoga course immediately after our second wedding in Goa in February 2008. Now we just needed to find the right place and then settle the details.
It quickly became my task to find the right yoga place, mainly because I was the one with the largest requirements. My husband and I had both been connected to the Yoga Institute, Santa Cruz, Mumbai, which is a lovely place, but I knew that I wanted something else. I wanted to be far away from any city; it had to be a secluded and completely quiet place. At the same time I didn't want to do a course at a 'touristy' yoga place, where one would pay a fortune only to be with other foreigners. I wanted the real yoga experience. I wanted to know the background of yoga, I wanted to understand the philosophy and I wanted to be with Indians.
By coincidence, I one day ended up at the webpage of SVYASA. It immediately struck me by its seriousness and professionalism. I loved the idea of a University, and the YIC course starting March 1st 2008 was just perfect for our travel plans. This was it. We signed up on the net and then waited with great anticipation for what it would all be like.
Suddenly it was February 29th and my husband and I were on a flight from Goa to Bangalore. We had had a wonderful wedding in Goa with family and friends from all over, and were now ready for some quality time focussing on personal spiritual development. We had booked a taxi through SVYASA and imagined all sorts of things while going from Bangalore airport to the University campus.
The first thing that struck us was the little space left between Bangalore city and the campus. We had imagined a place far out in the jungle with no contact to the outside world at all. Unfortunately those were the days. The city of Bangalore is growing with great speed and at some point even Prashanti Kutiram (the campus) will be included. However, one does not need to hesitate. Prashanti is and will always be secluded and peaceful even if it ends up in the middle of the noisiest city. Once you enter the gates and leave the outside world behind you, there is only peace, and this peace is for everyone to experience. Only it requires some effort. For some it takes a lot, for others it is easy to blend in. But everyone will get there without doubt.
We arrived a day before the YIC course was going to start. We spend that first day walking around campus figuring out where to appear the day after. We got our room, and liked the simplicity. At the same time doubt came crawling in. Was this really as good as we thought? What if we didn't like it? Would there be any people that we liked? What would be the system of teaching, and many other doubts? We decided to give it a couple of days and then decide.
Of course, it never came to a point where a new decision had to be made. In one month we became one with Prashanti. One with our fellow YIC students and one with the fellow students and all the teachers and didis and bhaiyas of Prashanti.
The process of change that one goes on in one month at Prashanti is almost impossible to explain. It has to be experienced. On the physical, emotional and mental level you will come out as a different person, if you accept, relax and take it all in. By doing your asana classes 2-3 times a day for 30 days the physical changes are amazing. You will feel the difference in your steadiness, your balance, in the level of effort you have to put in, and in the calmness of your mind. Emotionally, you will be challenged during the one month. You will be with your co-students all the time and you will have to work out all situations in cooperation with others. It requires patience and emotional balance. If you don't already have that, you will learn a lot at Prashanti. Mentally, you will be overwhelmed with the amount of information that has to be taken in, contemplated, reflected on and processed to be a part of your own self in one month. The beauty is that it is possible, and you will learn and it will make a difference to you. 30 days, up at 4.30am and in bed by 10pm focusing only on yoga all day is a gift that you should consider for yourself.
Personally, what Prashanti gave me in that one month was more than I could have imagined. Not only did I get the answers to all my questions, but I also experienced a beautiful glimpse of the immense landscape of spirituality and how one is supposed to navigate into spirituality. It is like a huge map of the never ending universe has been laid before me. Most of the map is empty, but a few spots have been filled. I now know what yoga is. I know where yoga came from. I have learned about the four paths of yoga, and how they all lead to Moksha and eternal bliss. I have learned about all the steps of the four paths of yoga and how one is supposed to continuously refine the journey towards Moksha. I have learned about the applications of yoga; in education, in management, in health, in science, and in family life. I have learned the techniques to navigate this huge map. The techniques to fill out many more blank areas of the map throughout my life.
Most importantly is that I have learned to see yoga as a beautiful recipe of life, which is always there in any situation that I am in. My one month at Prashanti is not a closed chapter. It was the opening of a never ending book, which I have decide to open and will continue to read throughout my life because each page is even more amazing than the one before.
I have now gone back to Denmark with my husband, and I think yoga all the time. I have found the right path at my work, which can include yoga, and I didn't even have to change much. It was all there before me. We have included yoga in our private life, and it didn't even take much effort. It was right there before us. Yoga requires effort and sincerity, but once you have taken the first step and give in, what you get in return is almost unimaginable.
I would like to end this piece with a few lines for all my potentially divine friends out there in the world who have chosen yoga as their path. Or rather those lucky ones, whom yoga has chosen to bless.
The words are not my own. I've borrowed them from Sri Vyasa's commentary on the Yoga Sutras in the Vishnu Purana.
'Yoga is the teacher of yoga; yoga is to be understood through yoga. So live in yoga to realise yoga; comprehend yoga through yoga; he who is free from distractions enjoys yoga through yoga.'
Sarve bhavantu sukhinaha
Sarve santu niramaya
Sarve bhadrani pashyantu
Ma kaschit dukhabhag bhavet
Om shanti, shanti, shanti |
