What is it like to experience an Ashram in India? | Daily Meditation at Sadhana Mandir Ashram

Transcript

Hey guys, we are here in Rishikesh, 
the spiritual heart of India. We'll be staying in an Indian monastery 
on the bank of the holy Ganges River. We'll be doing everything in an ashram, including 
meditation, breathing exercises, and yoga. We're going to share with you 
how a typical day in an ashram would look like. [music] We are Aaron and Char, and we are embarking 
on a one-year adventure around the world. In August of 2024, we traded our paychecks 
for backpacks to explore all that this incredible planet has to offer.
We started our journey in Asia, and we are now heading to Europe, 
the Middle East, and the Americas. We believe that traveling 
does not have to be expensive, so we are embracing the world on our own terms. Join us as we journey around the world, 
learn about diverse cultures, go local, and make every day an adventure. Now, let's get back to the video. We are filming this two days after our ashram experience.
After a few intense days of New Delhi - with the honking, the chaos, the crowds, and every 
single thing that just came to us, we were ready to seek something really different, something that 
is quieter, something that is more reflective. We decided to go to Rishikesh.
Rishikesh is known as the yoga capital of the world.
There are many ashrams and schools offering courses on yoga, meditation, and also philosophy.
Rishikesh is also known as a holy city, and it's a major destination for Indian Hindus.
For us, we spent a couple of days in an ashram - a place where people can 
come in to meditate, to practice yoga, to seek silence, and seek self-reflection.
The ashram that we went to is called Sadhana Mandir Ashram.
This ashram was founded by Swami Rama in the mid-1960s.
If you're like us and not really knowledgeable about the yoga world, you 
might not have heard about Swami Rama. Swami Rama was born in the Himalayas in 1925.
After learning and practicing yoga for multiple years, he was directed by his master 
to go to Japan and the West to share more about his yogic practices.
He later went on to establish the Himalayan Institute of Yoga Science 
and Philosophy in the United States. He was also famous for his ability 
to control his body in Yoga Nidra. Like, he was able to stop his heart from 
pumping for about 17 seconds voluntarily, and also he was able to create a temperature 
difference between two areas of his palm. He was also controversial because he allegedly 
sexually abused some of his followers. This is our first time in an ashram, 
and it was actually recommended by our friend who knew that we were going to India.
Out of all the ashrams in Rishikesh, Char Googled this one, and we decided to come to this ashram.
Initially, it was fully booked, but thankfully, I think someone canceled, and they emailed us 
saying there was a slot, so we joined them. Religion is such a huge part in India, and staying 
in an ashram gave us a very good experience of it. This was a completely new experience for 
us, and let us share with you how it’s like. Sadhana Mandir Ashram is not very 
far from the city of Rishikesh. In fact, it is about a 2 km drive away
from the Rishikesh train station, and it's actually about a 10-minute 
drive, considering the traffic in India. Our first impression of the ashram was that it 
was really clean and really well-maintained. Once we entered the ashram, there was this huge 
sense of serenity and peacefulness, such a huge contrast from the place where we alighted at.
The compound actually is simple, very well-manicured, it's not too fancy.
And we were greeted with so much hospitality the moment when we entered the ashram.
As we walked around the compound, we couldn't help but notice that there were 
many portraits of Swami Rama everywhere. It was almost everywhere, including 
the dining room and even our bedrooms. In some rooms, there were 
multiple portraits of him. Sadhana Mandir Ashram is right on 
the bank of the holy Ganges River. There is this huge, long pathway 
that we could walk along, and it was super peaceful, super serene. 
Really beautiful, with people walking, and running, and exercising along 
the beautiful riverside walk. It's gorgeous. When you stay at an ashram, you could be 
following their ashram schedule, or you could be there for a retreat or a yoga course.
For us, because we wanted to understand what living in an ashram was like, we decided 
to follow their daily ashram schedule. When we arrived, we realised we were 
in between two different retreats. Before we arrived, there was a retreat that 
some of our friends said they had attended. When we left, there was going 
to be another yoga retreat. I barely know anything about yoga and meditation, so I went into this completely blind.
I also did not know what I was about to expect, but I was ready to embrace the unknown.
Outside of the few yoga and meditation practices I had done before the pandemic, I had 
essentially stopped practising yoga ever since. This daily schedule introduces 
us to the basic-level practices, and it is minimally a three-day programme.
Every single day, there is this daily ashram practice that starts at about 6:30 
a.m. with "joints and glands exercise." What is "joints and glands exercise," Char?
To be honest, when I first read the schedule, I was like, "What was that?"
When you think about exercise, you think about exercising your 
muscles - not your joints or glands. I don’t even know what glands are.
The night before, our instructor was reminding us, “You have to be on time. Do not be late.”
I had trouble sleeping that night because I was so afraid that I would be late.
But actually, there was another reason why I couldn’t sleep properly that night.
And that was because my stomach was churning all the time. A classic first time being in India.
Yeah, I think you can guess. I had the Delhi Belly.
I was tossing and turning the whole night. It was rough.
We woke up early. Today is our first day of daily 
meditation at the ashram, and looking forward. Char had to drag her feet out of bed 
for this "joints and glands exercise." This was held in one of the 
meditation halls in the ashram. So, it turns out this is what 
"joints and glands exercise" is: We started out with massaging our faces.
We started off with massaging our eyebrows. And then the different parts of 
our faces and massaging our jaws. After that, it moved on to eyeball exercises. What our instructor shared with us was that 
a lot of people have eye problems nowadays, and it's very important to 
have this kind of eye exercises. This is the part where I think I learned quite 
a bit because I personally have pretty bad eyes. This eye exercise basically entails 
moving our eyeballs up and down, diagonally, and also around the 
room without moving our heads. I really didn't know what I was doing, 
but my eyes felt tired afterward. I guess they were strengthening. After the eye exercise, as well as the massage, we had some neck exercises where we rotated our 
necks left and right, up and down, and sideways, as well as making a "turtle neck" so that we 
kind of stretch every single part of our neck. After the neck exercises, we moved on to arm 
exercises like arm rotations, then up and down, basically strengthening the arms and shoulders. It was a great wake-up call for me by that time
because I was very sleepy before that, and finally, this woke me up. This got the blood pumping. There were also hip rotations and deep 
stretches for our muscles at the back, hamstrings, and other parts of the body afterward. It took us about one and a half 
hours for this exercise to take place that morning. It was a pretty good and light exercise, and the 
warm light pouring into the room, which was pretty nice. But what was not nice was my churning tummy. I was wondering if people around 
me could hear my tummy churning. After the joints and glands exercise, we were 
introduced to this concept called Nadi Shodhan. Nadi Shodhan is a breathing technique 
where we inhale and exhale on one nostril and then the other 
side for at least three times. The second part of it is to breathe 
in and then breathe out through both nostrils for three times as well, and then 
we repeat the cycle if needed. I learned that there are subtle energy 
channels within our body, and those energy channels could be blocked because of stress, 
anxiety, or all sorts of various reasons. If Nadi Shodhan is done properly, it 
can help to quieten and still your mind. After this exercise, I felt really calm, and I felt that this exercise 
had an instant impact on me. Next on the schedule was breakfast, but I couldn't even head to the kitchen because of 
how badly my stomach was churning. I just headed to the room, and I couldn't control myself, I just vomited every drop of 
water that I drank in the morning. While she was struggling in the 
room, I decided to get breakfast. Breakfast consisted of some apples, oats, 
milk, and sometimes noodles or so. They switch up the food a little bit
every day, and it's all vegetarian. Immediately after breakfast, there 
was some time before the next class, so I ended up catching up on some sleep and some work. At 10:30 a.m., there's this schedule called the philosophy class. Char was still very sick and was deeply asleep, so 
I had to go to the philosophy class by myself. This philosophy class was a recorded video of 
Swami Rama in a lecture before he died in 1996. The title of the video was "Stressless 
Living," and it was almost a full hour of him trying to explain that true peace 
can be achieved inside our minds. I wasn't paying too much attention to what 
exactly he said but how exactly he said it. He was speaking in a very simple and direct style. He was very convincing in many ways because he 
made profound teachings really simple, which makes him very 
accessible to a broad audience. Sometimes he would throw in jokes or 
anecdotal references along the way, which made everyone more 
receptive to his teachings. Unfortunately, I missed the lecture, 
but there are a lot of his books available. After a short break at 12:30 p.m., it 
was time for diaphragmatic breathing. This was a short program, so I decided 
I could muster up some energy to join. Diaphragmatic breathing entailed was us 
lying on a mat in the hall with our arms crossed above our heads, lifting 
our chests slightly above the mat. From there, we would breathe in and out. And because of the way we lay on the mat, when we breathed in and out, our bodies 
would move up and down as we inhaled and exhaled. The whole time, our instructor was telling us the different parts of our bodies to focus on. This exercise was really calming, and 
I could feel myself very grounded while doing the diaphragmatic breathing. We just finished our second class, 
which was a meditation class. and we were like It was quite nice, actually. It's a nice 
feeling to be lying on the floor on your belly. I felt rather peaceful and calm also. But whenever the attention shifted 
to my tummy, I could feel it churning, it wasn't pleasant of an experience for me just because of 
how my body was trying to recover. And that was then I decided my body couldn't handle 
much movement, so I decided to take a rest and just skip lunch. Lunch happens after the diaphragmatic 
breathing exercise. And lunch consists of rice, vegetables, and some fruits as well. As usual, everything is vegetarian. This was supposed to be a quiet experience dining, but I was taking the opportunity to 
try to catch up with all the other attendees. People whom I've met were extremely nice. There was this uncle from Penang offered us antibiotics pills
for Char, upon knowing that Char was ill. There was also another lady offered medication for my tummy. And I was very thankful for all of them. And then there wer other people in the Ashram who were residents living in the ashram. Everybody comes from different walks of life. These conversations made me realise that while 
other ashrams were more strict, more disciplined, more routine in terms of their schedule, Sadhana Mandir ashram was a lot more 
homely, a lot more relaxed, a lot more friendly, and supportive. Even after this lunch, when we met them subsequently, everyone was asking how i was doing, or everyone was asking him how I was doing. There was so much care and concern, going on. And then I had to give them daily updates how Char is doing. Oh she's feeling not that great oh she missed this class there was so much love and care going all around. Poor girl. Poor tummy. Post lunch, Char was still feeling extremely unwell. I took one piece of paracetamol, and that led to a very deep sleep whic I was so grateful for and i think i kind of got well-rested after that. For me, I rested a bit too before deciding 
to run along the banks of this river. This is the most beautiful 
part of the entire Ganges river. At different sections of the river might be a little bit more polluted. This river was 
stunning and truly beautiful. And I saw so many different water 
buffalos along the riverside walk. The next up was hatha yoga.
Hatha yoga is a session conducted by the instructor, supposedly at 5:00 
o'clock, but I actually arrived at 5:30. Can’t believe the instructor arrived 30 
minutes late. I bet the instructor was so angry. Yeah, I kind of interrupted the 
session halfway through, but luckily, the instructor accepted my presence and allowed 
me to continue for the rest of the class. If you have not heard about hatha yoga 
before, "ha" means sun and "tha" means moon. The idea is to bring the balance 
of sun and moon within us. Hatha yoga emphasises a series of 
physical postures designed to stretch, strengthen, and align your body.
Usually, these postures are practised really slowly and deliberately so you can actually 
focus on your posture as well as your breathing. Hatha yoga got me sweating bollocks.
This yoga session was really interesting because it allowed me to stretch a little bit more. And then it was 7 o'clock, it was time for dinner, which, unfortunately, I skipped because 
I was too tired and uncomfortable. For us we had some roti, some potatoes dal
and some kind of peppery green soup, which I have no idea what that is.
Everything was really simple but certainly was still really tasty, and we could get multiple portions of it.
I was really full after dinner. Immediately after dinner was 
the guided meditation session. This guided meditation was about half an 
hour long, and Char recovered enough to be able to attend the session.
We were in the hall again, and this time it was completely dark.
We were sitting on a mat in a meditation position. Our instructor came in, and we moved on to the 
savasana pose, which meant that we were lying on our backs with our feet apart and our arms apart.
And there we began our guided meditation practice. Our instructor was walking around and 
instructing us with his very calm voice on the different parts of our bodies 
to focus on throughout the 30 minutes. By then, it was close to 9:00 p.m., 
and the room was getting cold. There was this stillness in the air 
which I had not felt for a long time. This was one full day of a very 
spiritual and guided programme. For me, I really enjoyed myself trying 
to go through the different courses, even though I was really nervous and anxious 
at the beginning, not knowing what exactly to experience, But after one full day, I felt like I had gained 
so much from what our instructor, Prince, was actually doing for us and sharing with us - so 
much about being mindful about our rest, will take care of our bodies as well. As we mentioned earlier, this ashram is in Rishikesh.
In Rishikesh, there’s this aarti that happens along the Ganga River almost 
every day, and it’s a must-attend in the area. In case you are as clueless as me, an aarti 
is a prayer ceremony where people offer sounds and lights to the deities.
It is a way to express devotion and seek blessings from God.
We attended the aarti at Triveni Ghat at 6:00 p.m. in the evening, which is about sunset time.
This aarti is within walking distance from the ashram.
If you want to get good seats, you should get there about 5:00 p.m. so you can sit 
near the water and see what the priests are doing. An aarti experience is like no other.
The ritual starts with chants and mantras. The priests hold large fire bowls in their 
hands, and devotees can take flower baskets and float them down the river.
This is exactly what we did. The aarti at Triveni Ghat is really special 
because right at the end, everyone breaks into a dance. We didn’t expect that to happen, 
we just joined in the dance anyway. I really enjoyed myself in Rishikesh as 
well as the entire ashram experience. The ashram programme opened up my mind to 
accepting more spiritual concepts, specifically other ways to feel rested, other ways to cope with anxiety, and to
find inner peace, and get clarity of thought. I realised this is just the beginning.
There are so many different concepts, there are so many different principles, and schools of thought.
I’m so happy I got to experience an opportunity like this.
It was a good way for us to practise simple living and also develop some form 
of discipline through the routine at the ashram. Throughout the whole ashram experience, 
we also really enjoyed meeting new people and talking to them, and
them becoming our friends as well. The ashram experience is definitely an interesting 
one, especially if you’re into yoga, of if you're into meditation, or you're just looking for an interesting experience in India.
We would like to thank Prince, as well as the staff and security at the Sadhana Mandir 
Ashram, who has made our stay really enjoyable for us. We are also so thankful for all the 
people and friends we met along the way. If you haven’t caught up, check out 
our previous video on all our crazy adventures in Delhi.
If you’re new to us, check out our Japan adventures because 
we started our one-year travel there. Or if not, we’ll see you guys 
in our next video. Bye-bye! and support us!