Staying at an Ashram

Early this morning I moved from my guest house to an ashram on the opposite bank of the Ganges. The ashram, The International Vishwaguru Meditation and Yoga Institute, has 200 basic rooms, but because its the middle of summer only a handful are booked. For just 100 rupees per day, i get my own room, 2 yoga classes, 2 meditation sessions, and a daily lecture on such topics as yoga, meditation, Hindu beliefs, etc., from the ashram's guru. It is a very warm and welcoming community of people from Japan to Austria to Brazil. The ashram's guru is well known throughout India and while I know very little about his specific teachings, his melodious, cooing voice kept me enchanted during his 90 minute lecture about finding your inner-self and the importance of knowing your true self before searching for happiness in the external world. One of my favorite things he said today was if you give crumpled things, you will get crumpled things in return. By no means a brilliant or even unique lesson, but one that, for one reason or another resonated with me today. In essence, its the basic law of karma.

I had planned to attend the evening yoga session, but got to talking with Kristina, a girl from Austria who's now in her fourth stay at the ashram. This time she is going through a Panchakarma treatment, an Ayurveda detoxification. The more we talked, the more I wanted to know and soon I'd picked up a book on Ayurvedic Medicine and devoured half the book within a few hours. This 5000 year old concept of science and medicine makes perfect sense to me and is a science that western medicine could stand to learn a thing or two from. I've still got diarrhea like I've never experienced before and tomorrow I'm going to talk to one of the local Ayurvedic doctors about possible treatments. I can't continue to be chained to the toilet all day! :)