Unlike the hustle and bustle of Delhi, cars, trucks, motorbikes, rickshaws, pedestrians and the occasional cow move through the streets in a semi-controlled chaos that is sure to cause anxiety for first-time visitors. Kanha Shanti Vanam It’s like a quiet oasis. A spiritual retreat just outside the southern Indian city of Hyderabad. It is a self-contained community where the speed limit is 20km/h, there are fines for honking, and people can safely stroll through the gardens and greenery that characterize World Headquarters.of heartfulness exercisea century-old meditation system.
Heartfulness, practiced around the world, has its roots in ancient raja yoga and offers its practitioners 16 stages of spiritual growth. While mindfulness meditation tends to focus on breathing and other moment-to-moment sensations, heartfulness involves practitioners placing their attention on their mind and imagining a “source of divine light” within it. guide you to do so. According to Kamlesh D. Patel, a heartfulness leader and founder of Kanha Shanti Vanam, this is an approach that fosters personal transcendental experiences.
Kamlesh D. Patel
“This is a spiritual journey for ordinary people,” says Patel, known to his followers as Daaji, which means “brother” in Hindi. “It is possible to live a spiritual life while living a daily life.”
This sounds appealing, but that’s not what attracted me to Kanha Shanti Vanam, which started in 2017 in a barren land.as beginner meditator After rapidly cultivating a daily mindfulness practice over the past few years, I was intrigued by the opportunity to experience group meditation in Kanha’s massive meditation hall, the world’s largest with a capacity of 100,000 people. Will sitting with so many seekers increase my consciousness? Will it transform me into a less anxious, more peaceful person? Perhaps it evokes the mystical feeling of oneness that spiritual people often talk about?
I first learned about Heartfulness and Kanha in late 2023 when my publicist sent me a copy of Patel’s latest book. Spiritual Anatomy: Meditation, Chakras, and the Journey to the Center, because I write about happiness. I was immediately intrigued by the clinic’s accessibility. Very many health methods are expensive to the point of being proprietary. Yoga classes can cost him more than $20 per session. Most Heartfulness services are free, although meditation courses are often more expensive. We are a non-profit organization supported by donations and volunteers. free class online and free app Connects users with meditators and guides around the world in real time. If he can go to India, he can stay there for a week at Kahashantivanam Ashram and it will cost him nothing, including food, lodging, meditation and yoga.
The grounds of Kanha are vast. He has 5,000 people living in what looks like a vast university campus. The 1,400-acre site includes tree-lined boulevards, multiple buildings, a hotel, apartments, a huge cafeteria, a bookstore, a market, a K-12 school, and a distinctive meditation hall. . If I had the energy, I could have jogged around the place and gotten a great workout, but jet lag and a hectic press tour schedule prevented it. Kanha representatives were keen to show off what makes this small, self-reliant village. We saw coconut palms, passion fruit trees, and elder bushes. These are some of the many edible plants grown on site to feed residents and guests. We visited a factory that presses its own cooking oils and essential oils, next to a factory that makes milk, cheese, and chocolate. (The cattle are kept on an adjacent property.) Kanha produces its own cattle. biochar to support a diverse plant ecosystem that transformed a once dusty landscape into a lush landscape. It was all very green and thoughtful. Is it a result of increased awareness? Or is it just careful planning? It was so dream-like, almost strange.
The entire premises of Kanha Shanti Vanam.
Before my adventure to the ashram, my friends told me, “Don’t join a cult.”
Although people respect Patel, 67, the Kaha founder seems to be downplaying himself, becoming the spiritual leader of Heartfulness (fourth in the lineage) in 2014. He entertained me with stories about the pharmacy business he previously owned in New York City. At one point during the interview, he coughed and reached for a homemade throat spray — a combination of elderberry and honey, which he said is high in vitamin C, fermented and contains some alcohol. I almost asked him for a spritz since there is no alcohol on the premises. An American woman I met during my stay who had been staying in Canha for three months confessed that she wanted to drink wine.
Patel began meditating in the Heartfulness style in 1976. He was inspired to found Kanha to fulfill the dream of his first teacher, who envisioned creating a nature-rich meditation retreat. Patel lives on-site with his wife and participates in weekly group meditations in the huge meditation hall.
However, before participating in these group gatherings, all beginners to heartfulness practices must receive at least three private sessions with a trained instructor. My guide was a soft-spoken, fair-skinned, middle-aged woman who had been practicing for over 35 years.
During my first “sit” on some sofas at Kanha’s Pearl Hotel, guests can pay for a private room instead of sleeping for free in a shared dormitory. She taught me total body relaxation, which is similar to the body. -Scan meditation is something I learned about in an introductory college class several years ago. Center for Mindful Awareness Research at UCLA. I was asked to imagine Mother Nature’s healing energy entering my feet, legs, torso, arms, neck, and head. “Your whole body feels completely relaxed,” she said when we completed this process, and she was right.
Then the meditation began. I tried to focus on myself as I was told. Similar to mindfulness, I also tried to follow my breathing. When my mind wandered, I brought my attention back to myself. Nothing magical happened, but years of mindfulness practice enabled me to sit quietly during at least his 20-minute sessions.
In addition to the tour and meditation session, I experienced three Ayurvedic treatments at Khana’s Wellness Center. The center is staffed by Ayurvedic doctors who practice traditional Indian healing systems, and anyone visiting Kanha can receive treatment there (for a fee). Doctors first assess the patient’s physical condition, note the appearance of the skin and texture of the hair, and measure the pulse. He diagnosed me as anxious and easily excitable (no surprise there) and prescribed a series of herbal body treatments. I was given a pair of disposable pants, lied down on a carved wooden table, and two therapists worked together to give me both the familiar (an oil massage) and the unusual (herbal teas to pour over my body, a burning We proposed a variety of treatments, including things like inhalation. A leaf comes out of one nostril and smoke blows out of the mouth). I’m not sure if my constitution was balanced as a result, but I came away feeling pampered and relaxed.
After sitting with my meditation guide for the third time, I was finally able to do what I came here for. It’s about joining the thousands of people who take part in Sunday sessions in the meditation hall in the center of Kah. After breakfast, I sat with hundreds of people (some in sarees and other traditional Indian costumes, some in Western clothes) in a white stadium that reminded me of his SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. I found myself walking towards a hall with a pitched roof. Most of the meditators were Indian, with a few foreigners here and there, including a British woman I met a few days ago, who had traveled from Scotland to Kah for a week with her husband and 29-year-old daughter. He was on a retreat. Everyone entering the space was required to remove their shoes, and hundreds of pairs of shoes were stuffed on shelves outside the multiple entrances. I strategically placed my sneakers behind rack 8 and took a photo with my phone so I could find them later.
I went inside and sat on an old plastic chair near the center of the gender-separated room. Some people seemed to be already in a deep state of rest. Meanwhile, I was excited. This was the moment I had been waiting for.
Patel sat in a chair in the center of the stage at the front of the hall, and the footage was shown on large screens on either side. The woman who led my one-on-one session was standing at a podium with a microphone. She told us to pay attention to her own heart. Then she, I, and over 8,000 others closed our eyes and began meditating.
Have you ever experienced a moment of silence at a sports stadium and the place became perceptibly quiet? This was the same, except it lasted more than 20 minutes. The only sounds were birds chirping, a few random coughs, and the occasional ringing of a cell phone someone had forgotten to turn off.
The guide ended the meditation with the words, “That’s it.” After that, we witnessed her three weddings, each of which took her less than a minute. The couple was not introduced. Each took to the stage in formal Indian attire, exchanged marigold garlands and rings, fed each other small morsels that I later learned were cashews, and shook hands. Mr. Patel presided over the ceremony, but only the newlyweds were able to hear his remarks.
Then there was some shuffling and a little chatter. Some people stood up to leave. Others stayed there and wrote diaries. I spotted a group of gorgeously dressed women dancing together across the room, wearing red and green jeweled sarees. They invited me to take pictures with them. This was the highlight of my experience as I felt an instant warm connection with a group of happy women from Rajasthan. Then I found my shoes and went back to my room.
Unfortunately, I didn’t emerge visibly changed. As I packed my bags and prepared for the 21-hour flight back to Los Angeles, I still felt anxious. But as someone who usually meditates alone in my bedroom, I feel like sitting quietly with many other seekers somehow enlightens me, as if I am alone, but together. It was like we were trying to reach the same place.
Sandy Cohen is an author, health and wellness coach, and host. inner peace comes Podcast. Follow her on Instagram @aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
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