• Table of Contents
  • First Initiation by Swami Veda Bharati
  • Something Swamiji Said by Four Sadhakas
  • This Journey by Lucia
  • A Spiritual Retreat in Thailand by Stoma Parker
  • The Birth of Swami Prashant Bharati by Joanne Sullivan
  • Kamadeva & Valentine by Lalita Arya
  • Dr. George Mann
  • SRSG Impressions by Ian Stenlund
  • Back to the Himalayas by Gustavo Plaza (Arjuna)
  • Anatomy in Clay by Mary Bowman-Cline
  • Reeny Rowny Cookies by Margaret Woods
  • 2011 Events and Beyond
  • Full Moon Meditation Dates
  • Location of our SRSG ashram
• AHYMSIN Newsletter Archive

SRSG Impressions

by Ian Stenlund

(Click for larger photo)

If the most sacred journey is the inner journey, then why come all the way to India to meditate?  Why travel at all if inner realms are yet to be discovered?  There is an obvious irony here.

If I were a monk, then maybe a cave wall would be all the scenery needed. But I'm not a monk, and to my naive, unenlightened senses, the atmosphere of a place can have a profound effect on my mood, and traveling to foreign lands gives me a real sense of adventure, which I'd like to think builds character.

Arriving at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama (SRSG), however, did not arouse any extraordinary emotions within me -- but that in itself now seems extraordinary....

The SRSG campus is clean, elegantly teeming with hundreds of varieties of flower, vine, and tree, and the layout of the guest cottages is in a pleasing contrast to the main centers of activity (such as the dining hall and main office), which offers the residents both privacy and the feel of a serene village. All in all, one feels at home here. 

How could this be?  On the other side of the world - and still at home?!  So the really extraordinary thing about SRSG is that it feels quite ordinary – even though it's in a strange and distant land.  No matter where you're from, you can feel at home here.  Thus it is aptly named.  "This is not an ashram," Swami Veda has repeated recently, "it is a global village."  Sadhaka means "one who practices Yoga," and Grama means "village." So Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama translates as "Village of those who practice the Yoga of Swami Rama."  Taking a stroll through the heavily vine-clad lanes between the red brick cottages, I feel like an oversized chess piece.  I spot a giant bee buzzing from flower to flower, suckling the plentiful nectar from the jungle bouquet, and for a moment he looks like the black pedal of an otherwise sky blue vine blossom.  As we turn the corner we catch a woodpecker with a stripped mohawk hopping on the ground.  Then a stick snaps under my foot and he flies quickly away. We follow it zig-zagging through the grassy lanes lining the cottages that echo old-fashioned childhoods with picnics and easter-egg hunts.  We don't find the woodpecker, but in this moment the whole garden opens up wild and free, and I realize how many plants and animals live here as happy neighbors.

Everyone who visits SRSG leaves a little portion of their spirit behind, and while we dream about it from home we meet together on the astral plane that Swamiji has furnished for us.  Visiting only once, you will never really leave, and even the people you didn't talk to at the retreat will be lifelong friends of yours.  

So I guess there is a reason to come all the way to India to meditate: to discover a true "home away from home," one where your mind can go and rest, no matter where you are.