My experience at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama Ashram was similar to others but it was more challenging.
It is normal to have two meditations daily during yoga retreats. But in general the meditations change and their duration too. However in Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama the two meditations were silent for one hour. I’ve always meditated but I’ve never meditated for 2 hours a day watching my breath. In general, my daily meditation is in silence and contemplation of the breath, but for 20 to 30 minutes. I had already done longer duration meditations but they were guided. So of course, the first one hour meditation was a challenge.
I’m sorry, I’m not being honest, the first time was almost torture, especially for my back.
But nobody said it would be easy. If it were that simple, there wouldn’t be so many people going to the ashrams to practice.
Here the meditations were programmed after Hatha Yoga practices, so the body was already prepared to sit for an hour with the spine aligned. For those who couldn’t sit down, there were benches, or they were allowed to lie down on the mat.
Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama has a Gurukulam, a school with a 3 to 5 year program for students living inside. It also has a research center, bookstore and library. They take the Himlaya tradition seriously. The study of theory and philosophy is as important as the practice.
The space is very cozy, careful and flowery. For visitors and participants there are cabins well equipped with kitchen and capacity for 4 people.
Several times herds of monkeys appeared around the practice room in the 5:30am class. The room is made of glass and the doors were always open. The little monkeys were watching but none ever entered.
The theoretical classes were very interesting. Evening class was sometimes with videos of lectures or about Swami Rama.
During free moments, he could borrow books from the library and continue his studies.
Unlike other ashrams, here there were different teachers for each type of class. There was a teacher for the theoretical classes, another for the gentle Hatha Yoga class in the morning, another for pranayama and another for the Hatha Yoga class in the afternoon. I really liked the teachers and I wanted to hug them goodbye.
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