You have been at Kanha Shanti Vanam for, now, seven months.
How has that time been,
because seven months is a long time you know?
Yeah, it is a long time.
I came here in October and my plan was to stay till January.
So, I had actually come a month before. I had a Yoga training program. So I was going to become
a certified Yoga trainer. And I came a month before just to kind of get the vibe of the place,
just kind of settle in nicely.
And during that month I was able to kind of spend – you know still of pandemic time –
there were still things not opened up.
It was really kind of personal quiet time in this kind of sanctuary
and I really liked it.
I really liked when things were quiet and I was able to go on walks.
And I did get a lot of time with the global guide during that point with Kamlesh D Patel, Daaji.
seeing other people come in and meditating from different kinds of faiths, religions, backgrounds
and I learnt a lot of things such as poise. I mean poise is really important,
joking around.
I can tell this freely. One day, I was just super upset and I was really sad,
I guess I was really homesick that day.
He walked in on me crying and he was like “Oh no What’s wrong
and who are you on the phone with?”
I said, “With mom”.
He was like, “Cut the call.”
So I cut the call and was like my God, I hope my mom understands.
And later on he was like, “These U.S. kids have no mental strength.
They can’t do anything.”
My tears started turning to anger,
“What do you mean that I have no mental strength?”
But he was joking about it. His goal was achieved.
He got me in a happy mood
and I was not upset anymore.
So things like that, I felt I was getting comfortable with the place.
This was the first time that I was coming to India alone
and there was a little bit of homesickness and a little bit of
uncertainty as to how to get things done.
So,
kind of, am closer reference who knew I was coming here made me feel comfortable.
And then Yoga training started. And that was a whole different experience.
You know I would recommend everyone doing it.
I would really recommend. It seemed really tough before and kind of going
through it, but at the end, it was “Wow!”
Yeah, it was a one month program.
Every Sunday, you have a class. Last two weeks were super intensive.
From 10:30 am to 8:30 in the night
we were doing Yoga.
We had two hours of theory packed in,
theory too.
Diet?
You had to watch your diet ?
We did - only leafy greens.
I am sure a lot of us cheated at one point.
Oh yeah, no oils, no sweets, no spicy food,
no kind of high carbs, no bread.
So it was like – there goes breakfast, there goes toast.
But the two weeks were actually quite eye opening.
You know, most people think of Yoga as boring.
I had actually started Yoga 3-4 years ago in high school,
I was a swimmer,
so they were, like, to have to pick up another activity as well
because colleges need to see you as an allrounder, etc., etc.
So what is super easy that I can do by myself
and no one is going to be, like, “You are doing that wrong.”
So it was, like, Yoga.
Then we had someone nearby who was a Yoga trainer and practitioner.
I was training with her, but it was more of us chatting than doing Yoga.
But I had fun. I learnt off and on, here and there.. And during the pandemic,
when the gyms were closed, everything was closed,
I was like, “Not that I went to the gym anyways.” It was an excuse.
I can not workout now.
And so maybe I should try Yoga.
And I would do it about three times a week.
And as I was doing throughout the year, I wanted to get more and more involved in it.
So I was, like, “Okay, I think, becoming a teacher is the next step for me
where I can easily imbibe what it is to do Yoga.
So I was looking out for programs and Heartfulness came out with one.
So I was like, “Oh, that is wonderful.
I can tie it in, come to Kanha.”
So I came and I did the program here and
Yoga for me was always, like, kind of, slow and easy and, I think, that is the
perception everyone has – it is slow and boring.
It is not slow and boring.
This is the most cliched question everybody asks.
How has it, how has it helped you,
how has it changed you? What has meditation done for you?
Yeah,
if I see what meditation has done for me, it is in what I am seeing
now as more, less quick to judge.
We make so many judgement calls throughout the day, like, snapshot judgements. You know
what colour shirt to wear,
you know when you are walking on the street, is that person safe, does the road look safe
there are so many judgements we would make in a nanosecond that run throughout our head.
And sometimes those judgements are not accurate, especially when they come to people.
Psychology
teaches that a lot that first-time impressions, they do not really speak much about the person,
which is a pretty sad thing that most interviews and most companies place a lot of pressure on
the first interview.
But I was side tracking. I have definitely started to be more accepting of the situation,
more accepting of the people,
and you know, you can kind of say it on the face that, “Okay, yeah, you know, I accept it.” But internally,
do you really accept it?
That kind of disconnect always bothers you, until there’s like a connect with, you know,
“I truly, like, it is okay, I truly accept it”.
I think, that truly part is what I got.
Because, externally you can say all you want, “It is fine, it is okay, it is okay.”
But if internally you feel like, “Oh my God, I am going to yell at this person later.
I am going to write about them in my diary”,
you know, it does not work.
So I think that kind of connect where the two merge - it is okay externally, it is okay internally. Everything is cool.
That kind of change I have seen has come across. And you look at everything more positively.
Sure
Most people are like “Aren’t you positive to begin with?”
and which I would like to say I am but I see things even more positively, even more happier
with the way things are.
I found some instances when sometimes things do not go your way.
It is really easy to get angry and frustrated and I support that and
I understand but with meditation it has helped me be, like,
“It is okay”, internally and externally
so that kind of unification of my thoughts has happened which I think is really important.