Why oh why I go to an ashram?

Article written by By Pavitra Galindo

Pavitra was a participant of the Guru Poornima celebration in July 2023 at Ishtadev Niwas Ashram in British Columbia, Canada. This event was coordinated with the Yoga Academy of North America.

“There are two adjacent trees in the road from the magical land where my family is staying, Ilomaa (“Land of Joy” in Finish) to Ishtadev Niwas Ashram, the other magical land where the Guru Poornima celebration is taking place.”

My 8 year old daughter says: “Look mom, this is the portal to enter Niwas (the ashram)”

“What do you mean?” 

“Mom, this is a portal, don’t you feel the difference??” 

I take a moment to feel. 

“Ah! Yes, love, I feel the difference. That’s why I love coming to the ashram” 

You ask me why I go to an ashram? I don’t expect that you will completely understand but I will do my best to explain. 

This portal takes you to the place where you can, if you dare, if you trust, experience the absolutely best version of yourself. 

It’s a place where your heart expands to the size of the Universe itself and you have a visceral experience of what the potential of the human experience is. 

It’s a place where we remember that we are Love, so we give it freely and abundantly. It’s a place where this crystal clear spirit looks at you through the eyes of others. And so we connect genuinely, heart to heart, soul to soul, because we know we all came for the same reason. We are all celebrating with infinite gratitude the gift of the light bearers lighting our path. 

Ashram is a container for our ego, so that our wounds, beliefs, conditionings, trapped emotions come to the surface for us to witness and purify. Because once you allow yourself to feel the overflowing love and acceptance around you, you know that you are in a safe place, even with all your shortcomings.  

This place, a lot of us say, feels like home. 

Home, because you know you belong, because you know you are loved just for existing, because in this place is easier to feel the sacredness of your existence and you slowly slowly learn to recognize this sacred place within you. 

It’s a place where you learn the true meaning of service, and you realize that when we serve each other we are serving ourselves, our true Self, because we know between us there is no separation. 

It’s a place where you can experience what bees experience in their bee hives, where we remember that we are meant to be in community. A place where we give it our all and together we create something way, way bigger than what we can ever imagine doing by ourselves. 

It’s a place where all kids are cared for and guided by all parents, like it used to be, like it should be. A place where all parents know they are not caring and guiding their kids by themselves. The whole community is doing it, the way it used to be, they way it should be. 

It’s a place where you don’t get asked “What do you do for a living”. We know what we all do for a living… We give, we serve, we love. You might get asked instead, “What inspires you? What are you passionate about? Or how do you serve?” 

We know we came to earth to serve and we do. Some of us in big ways, some of us in little ways, but we all (hopefully often) know that our contribution matters and we matter. Our existence is enough, we are extremely worthy, and we are infinitely loved. 

It’s a place in which the love you experience is so intense and so, so tangible that some of us can’t help but cry. Cry tears of joy, like my teacher says. Some of us even cry for those of us who are not ready to cry. 

I think the best way to understand is for you to come and experience it. Describing being in an ashram is like something I read once, “like explaining the taste of mango to someone who has never tried it”.

So come. Come have a taste if you want to remember who you are and what you came to do on Earth. 

Come so we can meet in our hearts, in the place where you and I are one. 

Pavitra Galindo was born in Colombia and currently resides in Canada. Pavitra has been practicing yoga for almost 20 years and is passionate about embodying the best version of herself and serving humanity which she is currently doing through her writing and her offerings as a death doula.