A day at AOL
For the people of Bangalore Art of Living is a common enough name which recalls to mind an image of Sri Ravi Shankar and the meditation classes(not to mention the babes who attend it!). So last week I agreed to the plan of a friend of mine to visit this center as a different kind of an activity away from the normal ones like hanging out in one of the watering holes in the City of Watering Holes.
This activity was planned on a Saturday and after finishing up my Yoga(my latest fad). I started off to this Art Of Living(AOL) after browsing a lil bit and finding the basic facts abt it. The website says AOL center is visitable on any day but Bangalore prefers to do it on Sundays. The daily itenary starts with AOL brand of Yoga(like Iyengar's Yoga) and goes on with activities like cooking/cleaning and other social activities which might include classes for the poorer masses.
A little background info on the AOL. It was started by a guy called Ravi Shankar(from Tanjavoor in Tamilnadu) some 20 yrs back I guess. It is extremly popular these days among the upper middle and higher class youth brigade. It has branches all over the world and Ambanis, Dutts(sanjay & his wife) and the political elite are some of his better known deciples. One very good thing about it is the organisational capabilities of its followers. They are spreading it to the youth by tying in with the managements of the colleges to have the classes, essentially yoga and meditation, taught to the students. Some of the places where it is happening in Bangalore are IIM, ICFAI, IIFTetc.
I started driving towards it from Ulsoor area and unfortunately my guide(my friend who accompanied me on this trip) took me thru the longest possible route by taking me thru Ulsoor-Marathahalli-Ring Road-Banashankari-Mysore Road. So by the time we reached there in my bike I was pretty tired with all the driving. The way to the place is lined with trees on both sides for the last 6/7 kms.
The first thing that you notice of the Campus(as AOL center is called) would be a white dome structure(in shape of a lotus) set on top of a hill. After you go past it (really the road is in the valley between two hills) you would find the entrance for the Campus. If you are unlucky enough you will get one particular watchman who wouldn't let your vehicle thru them whereas every one in all other gates(there are 5 in total) would not have any problems with your vehicle. Unfortunatly we drew on this particular watchman and left my bike outside.
The first thing that you can do(and we did) is to go to the reception right in front of the main gate and ask for a site map. This they give out to every visitor. After getting it we started walking around. The Campus is really a cluster of buildings spread over the slopes of two hills. The map is a really useful tool for navigating the place. We roamed around for a while and finally went up to this dome structure(Vishalakshi Mandap). This is in form of a spread lotus where there is a floor for every layer of petels. There were 4 such floors and on the top was the dome made of reflecting glasses(the type that you see in the buildings of MNC companies in Bangalore). The petals are painted white and there is a row of lights (the ones you see in the North Indian Marriages where the lights give an impression of moving from one point to another) adorning it's outer perimeter. Although it was not that iimpressive I had a feeing that it would be grt in theevenings.
The inside of it is done entirely in white marble and there is an amphitheatre like arrangement for the people to come and sit to watch the prayers or the speaches. There is ultramodern audio system and the entire place is kept spotlessly clean. You feel the sense of rich and money pervading your senses. To go to the other floors you can take the old cottage style wooden stairs. On the third floor there was a lady sleeping on the floor on top of two matresses put together to form a bed. We went one more foor up to the top and stayed there for sometime.
My friend was very impressed with all these and he was saying that next time some of his relatives come he would bring them there. But it must be agreeed that the place had the tranquil atmosphere where you can see the road very far off and the only reality is the greenary around you. The Mandap is constructed so that every floor is a round room with french windows and doors all around. The doors open out into a space between the wall and the petals. There was a cool breeze floating and we sat down on the space and fell into some small talk. Suddenly he remembered to call to his cell phone provider and was trying to ring them up. While he was waiting to be connected I fell into a nap on the shade of the dome. After that call me made another one to his fiance and as it took the usual time such calls take. As a result I had a very refreshing nap.
By this time we were hungry with me more than him. So I convinced that we can partake of the community lunch that Ashram promissed every visitor. So we backtracked a little and went up where the food was served. It was a good experinace where people come in line, pick a plate have the luch which consist of a rice one chapati and sabji made of whole grains. Very nutricious. Everyone has to clean their own plates and rinse them in 4 different water basins to completly remove any strains.
After that we decided to go explore the other half of the Campus a little quickly because there were engagements for both of us in the evening. So we went around i nthe path. The paths are made of small cobble stones and are shaded by trees all around it. One thing that struck was different kinds of lamp shades that were hung along the path (Indian launthers, Chinese, Arabic etc) . So we went to the Thyan Mandap but were disappointed becoz the floor was essentially sand and there were carpets spread over which people are supposed to sit and meditate. Hence we moved on to few other places like library, guest rooms etc and ended up on another hilltop where there was an open air mandap called Someru was there. This is essentially a marble tiled walkway with a roof built on top in a circle around a big Banyan tree. There were many visitors and resident students of the college (there is a college for this special brand of spirituality inside the campus) were sleeping on the floor on matresses.
Here my friend started to make another call to his fiance and hence as is my custom I dutifully lied down and went into a deep sleep this time. The cool breeze helped not in a small way. After about an hour I get up and still find him talking. Soon he finished and came back and wanted to rest for a while (fatigue becoz of all his excertions). He went to sleep while I was supposed to wake him up after 15/20 min. The next thing I knew he was waking me up after an hour later. I usually pride myself that I can sleep anywhere(City buses, Office chairs, Classroom chairs, rocks on hills were some of my unusual ones) but very few have come close to this for the pure comfort.
Conclusion: I never realised that spirituality can be this comforting ;). Should do it more often in future.
