Taking the Leap

Getting started in life is always the hardest part. I am not sure I could have taken the leap, dropped everything and flown to the other side of the planet, had it not been a group to start my travels with. Over the past two weeks, I am grateful for the opportunity to travel with 15 amazing souls through the heart of Southern India. I didn’t have a clue what a Yatra was before I left San Diego, and now I can hardly find words for how transformative the experience has been.

We covered a thousand of kilometers via narrow, pothole (and cow) laden streets and spent our days in quiet ashrams. Starting in Kochi on 11/3 and ending in Tiruvannamalai, it feels surreal to finally come up for air from such a powerful experiance. It’s has been grounding, but busy with frequent travel days, learning new practices and living amongst the India culture of devotion and spirituality. As I start a new chapter within my travel sabbatical, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the journey thus far!

I’ll briefly summarize the destinations on the journey thus far. Each place carried its own energy and vibration, reflecting the freedom and diversity that is available in spiritual worship.

Purna Vidya Ashram – Coimbatore, India

A quiet and secluded ashram experience to begin the trip. It was here I began to understand that I didn’t know, what I didn’t know. I understood quickly that was not in control of the experience and surrender or resistance were my only available options. There were lots of beautiful and devotional rituals like Homa; – a sacred and Vedic fire ritual of offerings to the fire, in order to purify the path forward. This honestly scared me.

Ampritam Ashram – Amritapuri, India

A city like ashram on the ocean. Led by Amma; Guru, Devi and Universal Mother. She spreads love through her darshan of hugging; and she has hugged hundreds of millions to date. It was spiritually charged environment with lots “Cali energy”; the embodiment the dark feminine and destroyer of illusions/ false beliefs. I have to go back to claim my hug since she was in Germany.

We practiced Kirtan on the water and I found a new love for Karma Yoga; the path for selfless action. During my practice of cleaning the cow stable, I tried to preforming duties with full love and dedication as if preforming for God without any attachment to the results.

Shivananda Yoga Vedanta Ashram – Kerala, India

Finally, an ashram that resonated with me. A peaceful oasis with an academic stricture. They teach based on the mantra, “serve, love, give, purify, meditate and realize” as an approach to spiritual growth. I fell in love with the yoga here which involved breath work, sun salutations and deep asana practices. I felt like I was drinking from the river of Vedic knowledge as every day was packed with lectures and satsongs focused on awakening to the true self.

Aranchula – Tiruvalmalai, India

The sacred mountain, regaured as Lord Shiva. The manifestation of human consciousness. The beginning and the end of time. The creator and destroyer. The ocean that contains life. It is a place of spiritual realization and the teachings are direct, but not easy. The energy brings you out of your mind and into your body. The devotion is unlike anything I have ever seen.

The mountain is the teacher, and Ramona Maharishi’s ashram sits at the foot of the mountain. His teaching was the magic in the silence; wake up to the language of the universe. Contemplate on the question – “Who am I?”. Your true self is the closest thing that could ever exist. You cannot become your true self, you can only realize it.

“You can reflect on the past or future. You can contemplate on what you have heard just now. It is futile to recollect and ruminate over previous experiance. It is our imagination and guessing that prevails. Hence understanding that the most valuable learning happens in the present moment. This is what is happening right now. Listen to this and contemplate on this. Even this will become past. Discard it. There is no need to contemplate it once again.”

Sri Sadguru – A conversation in Silence

Learning from the silence and feeling the energy of this sacred mountain was a reminder. I am exactly where I need to be. Things don’t have to make intellectual sense; that’s a tool that my ego loves. There are so many false beliefs that I have adopted over the years. Let’s name a few- I am a bad singer, there is only one path to God, safety can only exist outside of myself… Giving these up for a trust that the universe will provide the best possible outcome has been a lesson I continue to sit with. The practices, I have learned in the ashram journey are my tool kit and the people I’ve traveled with have become family.

In Vedanta philosophy, they teach that the duality separating us from one another is an illusion. Despite how diverse the world appears, every soul is not separate. We are no more divided from the divine that created us than we are from our own hand. There is a oneness that holds everything together. That’s a worldview that excites me! If everyone you meet is a version of yourself, then there is no “other”. There’s no need to stress. Do your best. Follow what pulls you, and allow life to unfold. It can feel like a grind, or it can feel like a beautiful, auspicious unfolding—either way, you’re the one who decides.