About 12 years ago I felt the need to start meditating. I didn’t know why, and I really didn’t know what meditation was, nor had ever heard about it, but I just felt the need to do it. As that need increased in me, opportunities began to emerge. Within a few months, I went to a Buddhist monastery and did my first meditation retreat. Since that time, meditation became my companion and the curiosity and the need to learn more about it also aroused more in me.

During those early years, I continued to go to various centers to study and practice meditation.  At the same time, I started reading and followed a well-known Spanish yoga and meditation teacher, Ramiro Calle. His books encouraged and inspired me to continue practicing. Also thanks to him I started to practice Hatha Yoga as a helpful tool for my meditation practice. As he conveyed his teaching, I understood that it was not just a momentary practice in the day but a lifestyle.  Also in his books he narrated about his trips in India, all the masters he met and interviewed and the sacred places that he visited. These inspired me and aroused my curiosity to travel to India and to discover a little more about Buddhism and Yoga and their roots and origins.

Some years later, I travelled to India for the first time.  I remembered perfectly the difficulties that I encountered almost every time I went to a yoga center. I remembered many places where as soon I entered, they just offered me to do a Yoga Teacher Training Course. At that time, this was not on my mind and I didn’t even think then that I will end up doing it some years later. I only just wanted to know a bit more about yoga and its tradition.

That first trip lasted almost a year and it was very enriching for me on many levels. It turned out to be very self-transformative. I felt the immense benefits of yoga and I fell in love with the country and many of the places I visited. Since then, my life has been a back and forth travelling between Spain and India. Even so, the curiosity to delve deeper into yoga was still there.  But although I had visited many yoga centers, Buddhist monasteries, and visited many places in both Spain and India, I still had the longing to find a place where I can focus my studies and practice because I had the feeling that I was jumping from one place to another but not grounding.  I also started to feel a bit disappointed because I was not finding what I was looking for.

But in my search, different friends recommend me an ashram and I also watched two documentaries that showed the ashram they recommended to me. So, almost three years ago, when I went to India again I decided to visit it. I remember perfectly the first day when I arrived at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama. I felt very welcome. My stay there was an oasis of peace, and I felt I was at home. I felt that the atmosphere throughout the ashram invites introspection. During the two weeks I was there, I attended all the classes, lectures and meditation practices. I felt very connected with this way of approaching yoga. I was really impressed with its resident teachers and all they taught.  I could feel they were not just talking, they were transmitting from their inner wisdom and experience in a very humble, respectful and lovely way. The presence of the Guru was constantly present in them. This was very inspiring for me.

The following year when I returned to India, I went back to SRSG and attended the TTP Level I program. I admit that before joining the TTP, I was a bit insecure of it because I had already done a couple of trainings before and couldn’t find that inner approach on yoga that I was looking for, but something urged me to join it. As soon as I started the training, all my doubts vanished. I was completely impressed and amazed by the teamwork of all the teachers that were involved. They transmitted all their experiences and wisdom in a very selfless, humble and lovely manner and always reminded us of the presence of the Guru lineage.

The TTP is not just a course of 15 days than once it is finished, you return home. It is just the beginning of a process of personal self-observation, introspection, transformation, practice and continued studies. This is what I have been looking for all this time. Despite the distance from India, you are accompanied and guided throughout the process thanks to the assistance of the mentor that is assigned to you. In this way, you never feel alone in your personal journey. In addition, fortunately at this time, the pandemic provided the opportunity of continuing our study online, so we can all continue to feel close together.

I would like to add that I had the experience of staying in the ashram for the first two weeks more or less during the lockdown in India. During that time, I realised of all the efforts, hard work, organization and preparation that are done in the ashram in order for it to function perfectly when we are staying there. Undoubtedly, I am very grateful for having had the opportunity to start my studies at SRSG and am eager to return there as soon as the situation permits and continue with them. Luckily, there is no more need of being jumping from one place to another, I have just found what I was looking for and I have the guidance of the lineage on that sometimes “tricky” path.

Om

Rebeca Pérez García