Shadowing and Eating Sunshine

In American schools and businesses, the concept or practice of "SHADOWING" is common. A prospective student or employee follows an experienced person around, to learn about the new environment and get a sense of what it would feel like to become part of it.

Yesterday, I went shadowing with my friends, Raj "Rashi" Shekar and Veerabhadrag, to Svyasa University, 40 kilometers from where I stay in Whitefield, Bangalore.

Svyasa is reported to be the only university that offers a PhD in Yoga! I was totally fascinated by the programs in yoga therapy, and especially the research being conducted on how yoga can help heal such diverse afflictions as diabetes, post traumatic stress syndrome, asthma and schizophrenia! In my own practice, here and in Vermont, I have developed some protocols for serving people with these diagnoses, which I include in my ebook, Please Be. Seated. Healed. Happy. (see right upper corner of blog for link.) To see the body of work being done at this University, to visit the 15,000 volume yoga library, was paradise!


With Saraswati, the Hindu Goddess of Knowledge,
at the entrance of Svyasa University, Bangalore.
The University was founded about 30 years ago by Dr. and Professor H. R. Nagendra, and is based on the teachings of the late Indian saint, Swami Vivekananda. Vivekananda taught that, "The goal of life is to manifest the divinity within," which the University has embraced, "promoting this great wisdom of Yoga and Spiritual lore not only for alleviating human suffering but also for individual growth and universal peace, harmony and brotherhood."

Raj and Veera at the Banyan tree, behind the Temple.

Our day also included some time for meditation at a temple Veerabhadrag built when he was just 28, some 20 years ago. Imagine buying land and building a temple for the public to use. Today, Veerabhadrag is a busy lawyer in Bangalore, who still finds time to go and sit in the quiet of his country temple. On the grounds are two 300+ year old Banyan trees. One incredible feature of these trees is that they sprout roots way above the ground, that then grow down and into the soil. Rashi explained that this unique quality signifies the holiness of the Banyan, as it takes energy from the heavens and brings it down into the earth.

Driving home, we stopped at lush grape orchards and ate both sweet dark purple and green grapes, as well as cucumbers just picked from the fields. What fun to stop at a stand and have a cucumber peeled for us, sliced and sprinkled with seasoning. Eating sunshine and shadowing, a great day.