My Yoga School -Yoga Vidya Gurukul - IINDIA ( PART I )

Yoga Vidya Gurukul - Nasik, India

• There are many wonderful memories to remember ; this is one of those a month-long complete yogic lifestyle and teacher training course at this Ashram, - Yoga Vidya Gurukul in year 2005. A year later, I made another trip back there for the Yoga therapy course because of all the wonderful people, the lifestyle, the place with full magnetic charge.

The Ashram Diary;-

• 5.00AM before dawn, waked up time, do whatever personal cleaning for morning meditation, followed up by two hours of Asana / Pranayama practical session.

• Every morning you could hear Gayatri Mantra / other sacred chanting played from the dining hall and quickly the soulful mantras infused your mind into a deep clarity. The feeling was very nice and super. The morning herbal tea they served, was equal quality as STARBUCKS coffee, non caffeine drink started your day at the Ashram with full of positive energy!!
• We have to do the initial and finishing prayer for the practical session and OM chanting as well I enjoyed the vibration of OM, I felt deeply in my whole body, in my head and my heart........

• And for 12 rounds of classic Surya Namaska (Sun Salutation) incorporated with each particular mantra. Each round symbolizes a special meaning / explaination for the practice while the mantra connected you into more spiritual sensations.

• NO modern comfy facility provided in the practicing hall. NO branded yoga mat used ; they used only the natural straw-made and rug for Asana practice; the practice was really took you into your true self, as NO mirror to see yourself or others.
  

• Anything was simple and basic here. The whole atmosphere played a role to remind that everyone ws equal in humanity. As you were living at the Ashram, it encouraged you to be non competitive, non material and non personal oriented. The only thing you had to do is to be present in the class and it was our chief teacher's motto - do practiced your yoga sincerely
  

• I enjoyed the precious moment of interacting with other course-mates after sessions. We interchanged ideas on yogasana practice and other theoretical part of yoga study. Some of them who were already yoga teachers but not me, so I guess I was the most beneficial one as their invaluable advices and lifetime experiences & techniques that they shared were hard-to-find gem for me.

• Theory class was Academic alike, with several breaks between the class, rest, yoga nidra and meals times. we had to sat there and jotted down notes on the lecture
  

YOGA NIDRA - nidra means 'Sleeping'

• If it is directly translated, it means 'yoga sleep', however, it is not practiced that way. It was developed by Great Swami - Styatanada (founder of Bihar School of Yoga). Practising Yoga Nidra actually brings you into a state of boarderline between sleeping and awakening. And the practice taps into the deeply layer realm of your sub-consciouse mind with good , positive, affirmative manifestation
  

let say, If you are asked to undertake a task

with this practice, over period of time;
YOU would say YES, and I love to try

without
you would probably say NO, or I think I would try, or let's see

the former is more AFFIRMATIVE whereas is less AFFIRMATIVE in the latter

Yoga Nidra practice Before lunch time, about 11.00am daily The steps and guideline played from a recorded CD, it's a half and hour practice. Most of time, half way you could hear snoring sounds in the room as some people already fell asleep, though the instruction keeped on reminding that DO NOT FALL INTO SLEEP .

It is proved that it 's a total relaxation and the mind transformational technique if followed through all the way completely without ZZZZZZZ,

Yoga Nidra like Meditation, you need day-to-day practice, to reap the result and see any significant change on a mental level.


to be continued in PART II ..........