Blog Archives
Sivananda Yoga Ashram and Kovalam Beach.
Over looking the waves and rocks at Kovalam beach (Kerala, India), I have thought a lot about our short, four and a half day stay at Sivananda Yoga Ashram. Leaving much earlier than our month or two intentions.
We enjoyed the asana classes immensely. The food, though repetitive, was very tasty. The accommodation was spartan but adequate for our needs. We really struggled with the satsang. Chanting I don’t mind, but four hours every day was pushing my limits of respectful observation. By day two, we were being strongly encouraged to participate in worship which neither Fiona or I felt comfortable with.
One of the teachers showed an overt display of frustration and annoyance at several students leaving a satsang early, yelling out to the students that their actions were disrespectful, eventually running out of the hall to retrieve some of them. I’m not condoning anyone’s behaviour in this scenario, the movie we were shown was tremendously boring – a poorly crafted, too-long visual homage to Sivananda, who grew in size, wealth and popularity in each clip. Leaving satsang at any point is a sign of disrespect, though this information is inferred and not made explicit. This event caused no further open discussion the following day from our teachers. This was not the first example of lack of open communication.
Fiona and I talked intensely for two days about whether to stick it out or leave, whether we felt our ego’s were to blame for our inner rebellion towards satsang, whether we could endure satsang for the sake of the wonderful asana classes. In the end, we decided that Sivananda just wasn’t for us, so with some sadness we left on the Friday after having only arrived on the Sunday prior.
We have now been in Kovalam for just over one week and although, at first, we thought it too touristy and western catering, we are now learning from locals and long term residents about all of the little hidden gems of this little coastal town. It is likely we will plant ourselves here for quite a few weeks more.
With so few westerners, it is easy to strike conversation in the street or at a chai stall with the other foreigners. We me Mikey, from the US, while swimming in the beach two afternoons ago. He told me of a lady taking yoga classes in one of the closed restaurants which I attended that same afternoon. Evangeline, from the UK, is offering yoga classes as selfless service and just asked us to put in 20 rupees (less than $1AUD) each to give to the restaurant owner as a sign of our appreciation for use of the space.
Evangeline has been living in Kovalam for the past six months while studying yoga and yoga teaching and has been a wealth of information regarding local eating and shopping haunts. She is a really wonderful yoga instructor and my daily 4pm yoga class followed by a swim at 6pm has become somewhat of a ritual.
There are more and more connections and conversations every day, a type of lifestyle we just don’t cultivate on peak hour trains to and from work in Melbourne. I have always been struck by the silence. It seems a shame, for you never know who you could be sitting next to and how they might help colour the rich tapestry of your life, or how you could impact the direction of theirs.
