Ashram Life

by Josna Pankhania

Satyananda Yoga Ashram at Mangrove Mountain is a place where my children and I feel deeply nourished and cared for, it is a place where we learn wonderful ancient yogic practices, which help us to be strong and to feel peaceful. My daughter and my son have attended many children’s yoga programmes and each one of these programmes has been filled with, music, drama, dance, picnics and indeed fun with the many animal, tree and mountain poses, relaxation yoga nidra and the bed time stories. When my son started to outgrow the children’s programmes, he was welcomed with great encouragement into the adult programmes. How many young teenagers receive such positive support and validation as they negotiate their way from children’s space into the adult world? For my daughter, the children’s yoga programmes continue to be a highlight during the school holidays.

This year in January, I started the Yogic Studies course and for me it has become a life transforming experience. The Yogic Studies is the most extraordinary and awesome course where we receive great knowledge and wisdom from the most dedicated of the Satyananda Yoga teachers. Each student is supported in their learning at whatever level they begin. There are so many things that I love about Satyananda Yoga at Mangrove and the receiving of the most ancient knowledge through the most sophisticated and modern learning technologies is just one of them. We learn through a disciplined practice, which we are supported to develop, we learn from the most ancient texts and we learn through the most brilliant power point presentations and computers. Sometimes it takes my breath away.

At Satyananda Mangrove, I have learned by observing all the Swamis and the Sanyasins that whatever we do, it is best if we do it with the best of our intentions, with our undivided attention, unconditional positive regard and without attachment or seeking personal gratification. I am also learning that when we waver, the ability to stand back and to witness from within and without and the ability to adopt a meditative awareness of our actions and thoughts can very quickly change chaos into a deep calm. Yoga helps me to distill the gold from the toxic waste that we all carry and the polluted waters that we find ourselves swimming in so often in our lives. Most importantly yoga offers me a purpose and a meaning for my life.

I now have a daily yogic practice, thanks to all my teachers at Mangrove and the Yogic Studies Course. My daily yogic practice helps me to live each day to the best of my ability with the best of my self. Before I get out of bed, I do my pranayamas, breathing exercise and besides oxygenating my whole body and mind and giving me a burst of energy, the pranayamas help me to feel strong and clear and help me to contemplate my day with love, peace and creativity. As I take on the flurry of activity related to the demands of the day with calm and poise, I thank in my heart Paramahamsa Swamis Sivananda, Satyananda and Niranjananda and all the Swamis and Sanyasins of the Satyananda lineage for offering me so much. In the middle of my morning, I do my asanas, which are a series of very gentle exercises that are done with a meditative awareness. The asanas help me to get stronger and more peaceful each day. This is because the aim of asanas is to make the body strong and fit for meditation. The strength that begins to develop in the body is at a very profound level for the asanas help to release stress, tension and distress that accumulates in our joints, muscles and internal organs over years and years. Whenever I can, I try to squeeze at least one yoga nidra into my day. Yoga nidra is a most wonderful technique, which helps us to relax at so many levels. Yoga nidra does not only help us to relax at a physical level, it helps us to relax at other levels too for example the psychological and the emotional levels. Yoga nidra helps us to resolve deep emotional and psychological conflict and distress and strengthens our spirit. It is the best counselling that I have experienced and this I say as someone who has received counselling and as someone who has worked as a counsellor for more than two decades. At night, before I go to sleep, I try to meditate on most days. Meditation helps me to feel a confidence and a calm in an ever-changing sea that can indeed get quite turbulent.

The many elements of the Satyananda Yoga, the asanas, the pranayamas, the yoga nidra, the shatkarmas, the meditations, the chanting, the kirtans, the karma yoga, together offer us a pathway for our spiritual growth. Satyananda yoga helps us to attain physical, emotional and psychological health and an opportunity to nourish our atma, our divine spirit, in order to live each day of our life with love and compassion, with peace and a most profound joy, with creativity and fun, even when we are in the midst of a great personal crisis. One of my son’s friends recently asked him if I was on ecstasy and he said to her, “no my mum does yoga.”