Ashram Stories

The Art of Living ashram in Bangalore as per me is the most beautiful place on earth. It is situated on 250+acres venue out on the outskirts of Bangalore on Kanakapura road. There are  beautiful buildings, Including the majestic Vishalakshi Mantap, the Amphitheatre and Guru Paduka vanam with its musical fountains, the beautiful greenery and the lake . Taking a walk there particularly in the late evenings, when the soft yellow lights  are on, gives one a feeling that we have come to an Hill station right in the middle of Bangalore. I have had the privilege of going there and staying on multiple occasions . Below I would like to share some of my experiences of the ashram.

Ashram Food – The food in the ashram Annapurna kitchen serves thousands of people per day and is fully sattvic. Though our perception of sattvic food is that its generally boring, if you taste the food in the ashram kitchen you will realize that is not the case here. There is a varied menu every day and all the items are finger licking tasty. I think it is because there are prepared by sevaks with a pure intention and bhakti bhav or maybe because of the positive vibes of the ashram, that the food is so tasty. Truly everyone should go to the ashram at least just to enjoy the food there.

Here I would like to share a small incident which happened in ashram kitchen. I was doing an advance silence course and I was in silence. For breakfast there was vermicelli noodles which I really like. Along with it certain times they serve chutney powder which is a good combination with the noodles. This time they had not given it and I was slightly disappointed. I started my breakfast . In front of me one person came and had something red on his plate and i was just looking if it was chutney powder , but it was not. Suddenly one person came from nowhere and I saw to my surprise , that he had a cup of chutney powder in his hand.   There were many people sitting in the row with me , but he just came, gave the cup to me without a word. I was literally stunned out of my senses and I could not believe it. There were many people sitting with me and he could have given it to all of us, but he just put it on the table next to my plate and walked off.

My logical intellectual brain which tries to find a reason for everything, could not grasp any reason for this action of his    I realised there are powers beyond our comprehension and we should just humbly accept the situation as it is ,whether sometimes it is good as in this case, or appears bad in other cases. As Guruji says, ‘Accept people and situations as they are’.

More than the powder it was the feeling of being loved and taken care of, which really touched my heart. I then realized that the Divine is aware even of our small silly desires and many times fulfils even these.

 An Important lesson.

When I  stayed in the ashram for multiple times, the positive vibration and high energy of the place has a definite impact on me. I sort of expected miracles to happen. Here Guruji taught me an important lesson. It was 2014 and I was staying in the Ashram for 15 days, 5 days for an advance course and 10 days for my eye treatment. For Both courses, my stay was in different residential blocks which were in the opposite ends of the ashram. I had just finished my advance course and was in a Uplifted state of mind after all the processes and experiences of the course . I walked to Vishala block to pick up my suitcase and take it to the Aparna block where my next stay was arranged.

When i exited vishala block, the security guard warned me to wait for some time and told me that It might rain. I told him that I was not worried and if it rained Guruji would take care by sending a ashram shuttle for me. I was walking with the suitcase and as expected it started raining heavily. I had my umbrella, but my suitcase was getting wet and there was no shuttle in sight. I waited for 5 minutes but no shuttle. I realized then we have to exercise basic care of ourself and not be careless depending on miracles. I humbly bowed on to Guruji in my mind I accepted my mistake and was walking in an humble state of mind in the rain. Then suddenly a jeep came and stopped in front of me. A lady who was sitting inside, asked me if I wanted a lift and she dropped me near my residence. Thus both things happened, I learnt a lesson and still I was not troubled too much.

 Then I realized that deeper purpose of the Guru is to help and guide his disciple to grow to a more mature human being and he does it in a manner which is most suitable to the particular individual. There might be some pain in the learning process, but that is the most minimum required to serve the purpose.

An Unexpected Darshan

My 15 days in the ashram were coming to an end and I was about to leave the next day. It was a Saturday, and there was supposed to be a Darshan line every Saturday where in people meet Guruji at a designated hall. We were supposed to register for this darshan line in secretariat well in advance. Thus myself and a lady who was doing eye treatment with me , went together to the secretariat to take an appointment. There we were informed that the darshan line was cancelled today as Guruji was busy . We were very disappointed and were about to leave. Then suddenly a Ashramite who I didn’t know, but who acted like he knew me, came and started talking to me. He asked me what the matter was. I told him that we had wanted a darshan but supposedly there was no darshan line. He mysteriously asked me to come at 2.30 to the secretariat. I was surprised and a quite excited. I also took his phone number. All this discussion was happening in Kannada. The lady with me could not follow what was happening. She asked me outside what we had discussed. I was tempted to lie to her that he had told there was no darshan line as I was afraid that if I took her along with me, the invitation which he had given only me might not be valid. But then I thought how can I cheat one more devotee who was trusting me and I told her the whole story. Both of us had a quick lunch and then went to the secretariat at the time.

This person was no where to be seen. No one knew of him in the secretariat. We were starting to get worried. Then I called him and he asked us to contact a specific person in secretariat who will take us to meet Guruji. We told Mr X about this call, and he smiled at us and told us to wait outside. There were lot of other people waiting outside. Then after 15 minutes all of us were taken inside Bhadri Vishala hall where generally the darshan line happens. The people waiting were a group of people who had travelled all the way from Maharashtra for a darshan with Guruji and had taken an appointment for the same. We had been graciously added   to the same group by the ashramite.

We were both excited and humbled to be getting this unexpected darshan. Guruji came and asked all of us, if we were from Maharashtra. I kept silent. I think he had a mischievous smile when he saw both of us. We had bought  some flowers which we put at Gurujis feet when he came. The lady with me had tears in her eyes and was crying a lot with joy. I also told Guruji that I was changing my job and he blessed me.     This incident really humbled me as I felt I was nowhere worthy of the  grace which he had showered on me which had given this most beautiful and unexpected darshan. Also my connection with him became much stronger after this incident as I really felt special and taken care of.

Going Back home

My 15 days stay at Ashram was over and I was really feeling sad and heart broken to leave this magical place. It was my great good fortune that Guruji had been there in the ashram for most of the 15 days , so we had met him almost daily in the evening satsang. I had made some nice friends in the Ashram , particularly some Interns in the events team had become very close to me and we had some very good times. But anyway my new job and existing responsibilities were calling me and I had to leave.

My train was from at 8.30 pm the Bangalore Railway station which was quite far from the ashram and I had booked a taxi to take me there. I was supposed to leave at 6pm from the ashram, but saying bye to my friends and discussion in Vishala cafe took more time than expected. By the time I was in my taxi it was almost 7PM. The taxi driver asked me what time my train was. When I told him it was at 8.30 , he said no way i could catch the train as , Bangalore traffic was at its peak time then (metro had not yet started). I told him I was not worried as I had full faith in Guruji. After saying these words, reality hit me and I started getting worried.

Then we started our journey which I can never forget to this day. The first signal light was off and the police man just passed us thru. This happened in the next 2-3 lights. Then I started seeing something strange and wonderful was happening. Whenever we would come to a signal light It would turn green. The taxi which started at ashram might have stopped only for a minute once for traffic, till it reached the railway station. We had passed through maybe 10-12 signal lights which had all been green, or turned green when we reached them.

With all this speed , I reached the railway station just on time for my train. I could not believe it, neither could the taxi driver. My logical brain could not comprehend the power which could make this possible. The logistics which might have been involved to create this phenomenon was mind boggling so I stopped trying to grasp it. I felt so humbled to witness such a tangible and indisputable miracle. All the doubts which had been still there in my logical and scientific mind fell off and I realized that there are phenomenons and powers  in this world which I cannot understand. I also felt so loved and special. Again I humbly prostrate at Gurujis feet for taking care of such an Ignorant person as me.