After 2 weeks body and mind work at the Bodytree Ana and I are signed up to study yoga at the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Dhanwanthari Ashram in Nayyar Dam. The Ashram is only about a two hour drive from Kallar, a beautiful drive through small tropical villages and sits on the edge of a lake bordering a wildlife preserve. Sounds like paradise. We feel luxurious and go by taxi, which costs less than taking a bus for the same distance in the USA or Europe.

On my last trip to India I felt reluctant entering any kind of religious or spiritual institution. I was afraid I was going to get my brain washed, and I just wasn´t interested. This time it feels different. I am convinced that my brain will benefit from some sort of cleansing, and I want to gain more control over what is going on in my mind. I have to thank Ana for being able to enter into this new experience. She has received yoga training in a Sivananda Yoga Ashram in the Bahamas and had told me many positive things about it. I am still a bit skeptic about the idea of being ordered what to do, how and when, but I told myself that I will try to be open to whatever comes and make up my mind about everything after I leave the Ashram. I feel excited about doing yoga, stretching and inverting my body several times daily with nothing else to do, nowhere else to go and nothing else to think and worry about. And I will learn that Yoga is so much more than just the physical pastures we know as Yoga in the West.

By the time we reach the Ashram it is early evening. We enter through a gate, greet the doorman - is he there to hinder people from escaping I think to myself while I am passing him - on to the reception. Here it suddenly feels more like a busy hotel rather than a strictly structured spiritual institution and I am confused about what to think now. Everybody turns out to be very nice, which takes off the edge of my doubtful thinking. There is an international staff of mostly all volunteers running the Ashram year round and we are quickly checked in making our way to the single sex "Lakshmi Dormitory", equipped with our back bags, sheets, a mosquito net and a leaflet with Ashram info and schedule under our arms. We learn that an international month long teacher´s training course had just started a couple of days ago and the Ashram is quite full with people from all around the world. There are about 160 students in the teacher´s training course as well as a good view folks like Ana and I, who just come to stay and do yoga for a while. There is no rule about how long one can stay, but at least 3 days are recommended, and everybody is expected to attend the entire daily program. (For those who are wondering what an Ashram actually is, I would, after staying at the Sivananda Ashram, describe it as a place of peace, joy and happiness, in which you can leave the pressures of your worldly life behind and focus on your personal development and the pursuit of spiritual ideas. There are many different Ashrams for different purposes all over India and the world.) The charge for non-Indians is 450 Rupees per day in the dormitory, which is about 10 US Dollars. I have just enough time to find a bed in the dorm, hang up my mosquito net and fly over the BASIC ASHRAM SCHEDULE, which read as follows, before I am called to the daily evening activity called Satsang.

5:20 am Wake-up Bell
6 am Satsang (Group Meditation, Chanting, Talk)
7:30 am Tea Time
8 am Asana Class (Beginners and Intermediate)
10:00 am Vegetarian Meal
11 am Lecture
12:30 am Karma Yoga
1:30 pm Tea Time
2 pm Coaching Class (Optional)
03:30pm Asana Class (Beginners and Intermediate)
6 pm Vegetarian Meal
8 pm Satsang (Group Meditation, Chanting, Talk)
10:30 pm Lights Out

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