Yoga vacations and retreats have become a common business in India, but yoga is not a business according to many who practice the ancient Indian exercises in self-awareness. There are not many traditions of yoga, there is only yoga. Many Western practitioners who want to further their understanding of yoga and other related disciplines travel to India with the intent of living in an ashram and learning yoga as a way of life.
There are hundreds of schools, programs and ashrams in India that accept and even encourage Western visitors and students. Often, the visitors pay their way as well as pitching in with the duties and responsibilities of living in the ashram. Others teach yoga as a profit-making venture, or advertise themselves as resorts where one can learn about yoga, Ayurvedic medicine and cooking and other disciplines. A few, though, remain true to the openness and sharing that is a part of yoga tradition.
In India, the word ashram has two meanings. The first definition is "the usually secluded religious retreat or community that is home to a guru or holy man." The second is "a house that provides accommodation for destitute people." In the truest sense of the word, an ashram is a community where people come together to live their beliefs, which often include living a life informed by the principles of yoga.
In Vrindavan, Jaisiyaram Ashram is both a community that offers yoga retreats and yoga vacations to the public, and a community that cares for the destitute among its people. The ashram offers yoga teaching courses and lessons in Ayurveda cooking and Ayurveda massage, as well as operating a school for local children. People from around the world are welcome to come and take part in the community through a number of programs where they can learn yoga positions or take happinesslifetime.com yoga teacher training. The ashram also invites people to sponsor a child in their ashram school, in effect offering that child a way out of poverty through education.
Yoga retreats and yoga vacations have become so popular that the New York Times profiled the phenomenon in July 2009. The article focused on U.S. ashrams that offer yoga retreats, which, the article suggests, are always more popular during difficult economic times. Ashrams have always attracted those who live lives that allow extended time away, one ashram coordinator told the newspaper, but unexpected unemployment has made ashram pilgrimages more attractive to those who find themselves with time on their hands and want to do something profitable with it.
Yoga retreats at Indian ashrams offer additional attractions. They are more exotic, simply by virtue of being in India, of course. They also offer authenticity that ashrams in other parts of the world can't come close to providing. Most importantly, though, a yoga retreat at an Indian ashram offers a chance to disconnect from the world and reconnect with the smaller community and with your inner self.
Chris Robertson is an author of Majon International, one of the world's MOST popular majon.com internet marketing companies on the web.
Learn more about jaisiyaram.com Yoga.
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