Ashram

My boyfriend told me to pack for a weekend out of the city for a surprise getaway.
I fantasized about Aruba, even though he hadn’t specified to include a bathing suit.
Instead, we met at Penn Station to take a train to New Jersey, transfer and head to Harriman to the Ananda Ashram. This was one of the first weekends of Sophomore year, August 2006.

This is our romantic weekend? It sounded like work, not like my idea of a sexy escape!
Ashram—it sounds so holy, so restricted—like we would be subject to commandments.

And our accommodations didn’t emphasize luxuriating... We debated whether to push our two single beds together but opted to sleep close knit in one bed; we’d become accustomed to sleeping in my dorm room’s twin bed over my Freshman year of college.

Our usual weekends consisted of quiet mornings of coffee and web-surfing, watching movies and reading. As we entered the gated country estate grounds of the Ashram I felt I was going to need to do something I was not yet equipped to do... It was the beginning of my knee-jerk reaction to the work and sacrifices that are necessary for growth. The communal dining hall and group meditations did not encourage laxity, they increased my self-consciousness—I felt ‘un-spiritual’ and suspicious—what was this place and who were these people??

Along with my averse, self-protective first-impressions, however, I was also immediately enchanted by the place.

I loved the wooden decks and stair-wells leading into the aged buildings. This place was a simple establishment to contain something light and peaceful. Ananda means bliss and really you can feel it in the air. Jordan wanted us to be able to escape to nature. We lived a very romantic, story book existence at that time. A living poem. So of course we walked in the woods and imagined the films we would make on location there. There were vines with blooming flowers creeping around and long, tall Pine trees shading the walking paths around the place. I went to yoga class on Saturday and felt light and free.

Jordan and I stuck out like sore thumbs, or so I thought in hyper-self consciousness. People stared but didn’t really strike up warm conversations, just maybe, “Where are you guys from”... Are you brothers?... No, friends... It was nice that we were given space to simply enjoy the place but I was also thankful when Kamaniya, a gorgeous, large woman with long chestnut brown hair introduced herself and truly welcomed us. After that I felt at ease, that this place was open for all to visit and enjoy.

On Sunday morning we sat in our cut off shorts and rugged curls on the deck of the boat-house as we wrote in our journals and took photos of the lake. We befriended Isa, a father of a little blonde boy named Amadeo. Isa had a blonde pony tail, a hoop earring and a Moon shaped, smiling face. He asked what we were writing. “A screenplay”, replied Jordan. “Hey Ama, look, it’s not everyday that you meet a screenwriter”. We did stick out but I sensed the place truly was open to anyone. I have discovered increasingly more over time how the Ashram welcomes all kinds, the teachings attract all walks of people.

I was ready to leave after the weekend immersion into this radically different days of contemplation. My body sensed the importance of what I had experienced. I was charged and exhausted at the same time. I felt like a bull on a short leash. I wanted to know everything about yoga immediately! I wanted to be there with the ashram people but keep wearing my cut offs and writing at the same time. The seed had been planted. I began to grow into my way of living and practicing towards the divine.

Ananda resonated like a gong over the next year as I began to change everything in my life—becoming vegetarian, doing yoga and studying Sufism. I wanted to be connected to that source I had felt there. I will forever crave to repay Jordan for many things-- so many gifts that sprang from the Love we shared. He introduced me to Ananda Ashram and, in the process, to my marga, my path of yoga. I would have never seen this different way of living without Jordan choosing it for us to explore. I wouldn't have been brave enough to venture into that unknown territory without him. For all those reasons, he and the ashram are connected as places my heart has known home.