From Distressed to De-stressed : My Experience With Art of Living..
The earliest memories of my bonding with Art of Living (AOL) dates back to 2001 when I did the ART excel course in Ahmedabad, I vaguely remember what I learnt and practiced at that point in my life...
During my bachelors in 2006, I was re-introduced to it by my cousin, Ramya, who now happens to be a full time AOL teacher. Since I had not met her since a long time, I decided to meet up with her at the Bangalore AOL Ashram. All I remember from then was it was one of the most beautiful new year eve celebrations of my life.. I then decided to do the YES + to experience the magic with Kavi didi. I enjoyed the course to the fullest, and also practiced whatever I learnt very religiously everyday, even when I didn't realize how it benefitted. It was just the faith in Guruji - I kept doing the kriya and pranayam.
Unlike most of my friends who did the course with me went on for the advanced course soon after, I was one among the few who didn't do it, until now- a huge gap of 5 years! As they say- Better late than never! The factor that drove me to do it now was my state of mind.. I was super stressed out for the past 3 months due to my PhD admissions and my hunt for jobs. I took the opportunity to go do the advanced course with a desire to relax and get destressed.
The reporting was on Wednesday (21st March) - I engaged myself in some seva activities and explored the ashram and attended the satsang in the evening. The course was scheduled from Thurs to Sunday- I used to leave my room every morning at 5:30 and get back only by 11 in the night. I have never been so busy of late and thoroughly enjoyed being so. There was no time absolutely to get stressed with negative thoughts. The course included advanced yoga and meditation sessions, seva and satsang in the evening.. all in silence..
I had gone for nadi pariksha- a non-invasive technique to know the nature of the body by feeling the pulse beat. The doctor felt my pulse and told- “Your prakriti is pitta (fire), you are very sensitive and emotional, and worry too much unnecessarily, also- do you fast very often?” I nodded, she then said “You need to eat properly during fasts and you don’t chew your food well while eating”- I cannot imagine how she could know all that just by feeling the pulse! Time and again, I have been advised by people to chew my food properly before swallowing. Now I have vowed to make a conscious effort to chew the food well.
We had rigorous yoga sessions early morning with all the aasanas, surya namaskar followed by pranayama and sudarshan kriya. The yoga hurted my spine due to the slip disc I had earlier, but I still managed well.. It was then followed by breakfast and seva session where we all were allotted different departments. I made it a discipline to do the serving seva before every meal I had. I was in the kitchen seva- which included cutting vegetables, sweeping, mopping, cleaning the utensils. The vegetables there were in humungous amounts - 400-500 kgs of every vegetable, feeding 1000-1500 people every meal. The best part is that the people working there are the ones who’ve quit their jobs and have voluntarily come here to do seva- very inspiring! Many of the teachers are IIT, IIM graduates- which makes it more fascinating.
We had intense and deep meditation sessions everyday. While meditating, I used to sometimes feel so sleepy. It was a state where I thought I’m sleeping but still could hear the sounds and instructions by guruji. To my surprise, after relaxing and getting up, I used to be super energized. In spite of the hectic schedule and getting tired, I don’t know where the energy came from for doing seva. In the afternoons, we’ would again have some meditation exercises, and sessions where we’d to sway in the music with eyes closed. One of the days after doing exercises for cleansing our chakras- which was supposed to enhance creativity, we were given crayons and asked to draw whatever we felt like.. It was super fun, to get back to childhood days with crayons..
As instructed, in the evening we used to take nature walks in the ashram alone. It was amazing to breathe fresh air in and mingle with the nature to appreciate its beauty. In the evening we used to rock in the satsangs, with lots of bhajans, dancing and singing. I did not realize how these 5 days flew by. I was just in some dream world, without stress or any tension.
Undoubtedly, Yoga and Meditation sessions were very beneficial. But doing Seva was the best part of the whole course. Other things, I did for my own self. Doing seva gave me nothing but satisfaction- ultimate satisfaction. We were in silence throughout the course, and still got to know so many people only through smiles and gestures- a lovely process.
After the dinner, we used to go to kitchen for cleaning the vessels, it was unimaginable- the cooking and serving utensils for over 1000 people were so huge that we literally had to get into the vessel and clean it. It was a task in itself, as there were just a few of us, who stayed back till everything was cleaned, mopped the kitchen, which took almost 2 hours. It was so beautiful coordinating the work in silence and still managing it very efficiently- all in high spirits. At the end of the 3rd day, I knew a lot of people through smiles, but not by their names. There was a guy, maybe in mid-thirties, with who I had developed a great rapport in silence. On the day before we broke the silence, he gifted me- an idol of ganesh ji. I was so touched, I didn’t even know his name, it was just the seva we did together, and the guru we both connected ourselves to. The next day he just came upto me and said- that’s the spirit of seva and gave a hi-fi ! I was so happy to meet so many people. At the end, we all shared our experiences of the process-- everyone had different and beautiful ones.
It was one of the most blissful experiences of my life, and I can't wait to do it again. Among the 100 participants in my course, I was one among the few to do the course the first time. Most of the people have done it more than 10 times- twice recommended every year. Some people have done it as many as 38 times.. It was such a beautiful experience to be with yourself, discovering your inner self, knowing people only through smiles. And as I have heard, one gets more refined with each advanced course. I thought I will have a difficult time not communicating, but even after the silence broke, I didn’t feel like talking for a long time- it was so peaceful! I am very grateful to Ramya and my whole family who encouraged me to do the course!
The organization is involved in so many noble activities- conducting programs in prisons, in rural areas, opening 149 free schools all over india- I am so proud to be a part of the organization. To increase the awareness of yoga among common people, “Yogathon” event is happening on 7th April all over india- wherein everyone will be doing surya namaskar 108 times together. Its happening in all cities, at many centres with almost 25,000 people registered at some cities in same centre. Lots of educational institutions have also registered totalling upto 1 million participants! Get registered and experience the bliss!
So see you all at the Yogathon ! Jai Gurudev!
