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                                                                                                  A Spiritual Center on the Banks of the Susquehanna

In her book, Eat, Pray, Love, author Elizabeth Gilbert writes of her travels around the world as she sought to recover from a difficult divorce.  The “pray” part of her journey was a stay at an ashram in India, where she found her spirituality.  Many westerners would love to have such a profound spiritual experience.  But how many of us can afford the time and expense to go to India?  Fortunately for the residents of the Twin Tiers, there is an ashram in our own backyard.  The Vishwa Gayatri Yogashram is located just north of the James St. bridge in Sheshequin Township.

Ashrams, which are part of the Hindu tradition, are primarily places for spiritual instruction and meditation.  Historically, ashrams were located in forests or mountains, far from populated areas, where the natural surroundings were conducive to spiritual practice.  The Vishwa Gayatri Yogashram, while not far from the busy town of Towanda, sits on a wooded hillside overlooking the Susquehanna River.

But an ashram is not just a temple, where people go to pray.  As Pallavi Dave, manager of the ashram in Sheshequin, notes, “An ashram is more than that – it is a place where we can do activities to help the community.”  The mission of the Vishwa Gayatri Yogashram ashram is “provide cultural and spiritual character building moralities to all.”

Before the establishment of public schools in India, ashrams provided education for children. “Thousands of years ago in India, we didn’t have schools for education,” Pallavi explains.  “But we had Saints, who established ashrams.  People used to send their kids there.  From age seven to age fourteen, the children lived in the ashram, where they were educated not only in academic subjects but also in how to live the ‘real’ life.  So an ashram is not only a spiritual place - it is a place where you can get ‘life education.’” 

The Vishwa Gayatri Yogashram in Sheshequin was founded by His Holiness Shri Shri Shri 1008 Maha Mandaleshwar Swami Alakh Giriji Maharaj, known as Swamiji.  He was born Ramanbhai Pholabhai Patel in 1939 in the Indian state of Gujarat – coincidentally, the same state where Mahatma Gandhi established his first ashram.  His family were farmers.  From a very young age Swamiji was devoted to God.  As a youth, he underwent the traditional seven years of education in an ashram.  His first guru, Swami Amrutgiriji Maharaj, predicted that the young boy would become a Saint.  At the age of fourteen, Swamiji began to study yoga and was introduced to the goddess Gayatri.  Swamiji formed the Vishwa Gayatri Mission in 1954.  In 1982 he built a temple to the goddess Gayatri in his home town of Kasor.  He has also built several ashrams in India where pilgrims can stay at no cost and where he teaches Dayan Yoga.  He has been recognized for his teachings by several prominent spiritual leaders, including the Dalai Lama, who awarded him the title of Shree Gayatri Vedacharya. 

In 2010, Swamiji bought the property in Sheshequin Township and put up a building.  Considering its sparse Hindu community – just a few Hindu families live in Bradford county – Sheshequin would seem an unlikely choice for an ashram.  Pallavi explains, “Swamiji was invited to visit Towanda by one of his followers.  When he came, he felt that the Universal Mother and his Guru were telling him to establish an ashram here.  He found many connections with the story of Lord Shiva in the name of the river, Susquehanna.  The natural beauty of the area seemed to him like heaven on earth.  The mountains in the winter reminded him of the Himalayas.  The beautiful river, trees, and birds made it a perfect place for finding peace in the body and mind.”  Bob Patel, Jaimie Patel, and her mother helped Swamiji find the property in Sheshequin. 

In the beginning, Swamiji came to Sheshequin at least two times a year and stayed for three months.  He led meditation and yoga for the “local” Hindus.  The “locals” live as far as a hundred miles away; they come here because there is no other ashram like this one within at least two hundred miles.  In 2013, when Pallavi Dave became the manager, the ashram was opened to the public. 

The original building was destroyed by fire in December, 2014, but the ashram was back in operation by the following May.  The current building, a double-wide modular home, is 80 feet long and 26 feet wide.  It has a large room for yoga, a temple for the Universal Mother, several guest rooms, and a kitchen and dining area. 

Manager Pallavi Dave, like Swamiji, was born in Gujarat.  She came to the U. S. with her husband in 1987.  Pallavi’s affinity for spiritual practice came from her parents.  “My parents were very spiritual,” she says, “so I became spiritual and religious, too.  But when I started my married life here, I went to work and had children.  I didn’t have time to do meditation or prayer.  I didn’t even have time to go to the temple.  But I still had spirituality in my roots.”

As the children were growing up, Pallavi recalls, “I began to realize that I was missing something in life.  I had a husband, kids, a house, a car, money - I had everything, but something was missing.  Then I met Swamiji in 2000.  He came to Chicago and stayed in my friend’s house.”  Pallavi attended a seven-day spiritual “camp,” consisting of yoga and meditation, led by Swamiji.  At the end of the seven days, she says, “I felt inner joy and happiness.” 

Pallavi kept in touch with Swamiji after he returned to India, and she came to Sheshequin whenever he was here.  Each visit brought her more inner peace.  In 2012, Swamiji decided to open the ashram to the public, and he was looking for someone to manage it.  He offered the position to Pallavi.  Her children were now grown, and, after consulting her family and thinking about the opportunity for several months, she accepted his offer.  Four years later, she is sure she made the right decision.  “I am fulfilling my dream,” she says.  “If I had stayed at my other job until I was old enough to retire, I might have had some health problems and not been able to fulfill this dream.”

 

The Vishwa Gayatri Yogashram in Towanda serves as a gathering place for Hindus in New York and Pennsylvania to celebrate the monthly holidays.  The Hindu calendar, unlike the western calendar, is based on the cycles of the moon.  A celebration is held at the ashram at every full moon.  The celebrations begin with prayer.  “We begin in the morning by singing a prayer, over and over again, for two hours continuously,” Pallavi says.  “It is a meditation to calm our minds.”

 

While prayer is part of every event, each holiday is celebrated differently.  Pallavi explains, “For Lord Krishna’s birthday, people arrive at 10:00 at night, because Lord Krishna was born at midnight.   From 10:00 to midnight we do prayers and sing a song.  At midnight, we do a candle prayer; we make a nice crib, put the Lord Krishna’s statue inside, and rock him.  After that we have a meal, and then people go home.”  The Navratri celebration, on the other hand, lasts nine days.  “We chant the mantra with a necklace that has 108 beads.  We do the necklace 40 times – so every day we do about 2500 mantra chants.  It takes about four hours.  The last day of Navratri we do the yagna puja.”  Yagna puja is a fire ceremony which is dedicated to Lord Shiva and the Universal Mother Gayatri.

 

Food is served after every celebration.  For the smaller festivals, Pallavi and her assistant prepare the food at the ashram.  But for longer festivals like Navratri, other members of the community get together to help prepare the food.  There are about one hundred Hindu families within fifty miles of Towanda.  They don’t all come every month, but there are at least one hundred people at each festival.

 

Because India is a diverse country with many dialects, celebrations are conducted in Hindi, the universal language of India.  Specific holiday rituals and deities also vary from region to region in India.  But, as Pallavi notes, “All Hindus believe in Lord Krishna and the Universal Mother.  Those two figures are universal in Hindu religion.  Like in Pennsylvania, there may be 100 rivers, but they all go into the same ocean.”

 

In addition to holding monthly festivals, the ashram hosts visitors seeking a spiritual retreat.  The building has five bedrooms, each with a twin and full bed.  All of the visitors so far have been Hindu.  They come for a few days, or even a week or two, to pray, meditate, or do yoga.  In addition to lodging, the ashram provides two meals a day, all on a donation basis.  Pallavi expects that, as word of the ashram spreads, more visitors will come.

 

There are also programs for children.  “We do a summer kids’ camp here for three nights and four days,” Pallavi says.  “We teach them religious prayers and the good story that can help them to develop their minds.  We also take time for picnics and other fun things.”

 

Daily religious rituals at the ashram are open to the public. “We have a daily prayer at 6:30 in the morning,” says Pallavi.  “At noon we have another small prayer, when we’re feeding the Universal Mother, then at 6:00 we do the evening prayer.”

 

As part of its service to the community, the ashram offers a delicious, home-cooked Indian lunch every day on a donation basis.  Some of the vegetables used in the dishes, including peppers and eggplant, are grown in the ashram’s garden.  Lunch is served from 1:00 to 3:00 in the afternoon.  “Everyone is welcome,” Pallavi says.  “Walk-ins are OK, but we prefer that they call ahead so that we know who is coming and can prepare food for them.”  Special dietary needs, such as vegan or gluten-free, can be accommodated.  Indian food can be quite spicy, but they can adjust spices to visitors’ tastes.

 

Non-Hindus are drawn to the Vishwa Gayatri Yogashram primarily by its yoga programs.  As a philosophy, yoga is one of the six major orthodox schools of Hinduism.  The goal of a yoga practice is to better oneself physically, mentally and spiritually.

 

The ashram offers yoga classes twice a week on a donation basis.  Anita Duvall, who has been teaching yoga in Bradford County for about twenty years, is the primary teacher at the ashram.  There are different styles of yoga, some more strenuous than others.  At the ashram, they do Hatha yoga, which is gentle.  All the asanas (postures) are done slowly and smoothly, so that people of all ages can do them.  Pallavi explains, “It is physical exercise, but not one that will help you lose weight!  It’s more like a body relaxation.  We focus on breathing and meditation.”

 

The ashram is also a registered school for yoga instructors.  Anyone who graduates from this program can open her or his own yoga school anywhere in the world.  Anita Duvall is also the instructor for this 200-hour course.  “There are 86 lessons, each of which takes two to three hours,” she explains.  “We run this program once a year, and we schedule the classes to fit the students’ needs.”

 

The second group of students graduated this month.  Maggie Belokur, a member of the class, was first exposed to yoga in elementary school.  She attended the Barclay Friends School in North Towanda, and her teacher was Anita Duvall.  Maggie thoroughly enjoyed the yoga instructor training at the ashram.  “It’s been a wonderful experience, coming here every day, even multiple times on some days, spending time with these women.  It’s been very relaxing, a nice break in my day.”  She hopes to be able to teach yoga in a rented space in Towanda.

 

Several local school teachers have taken the yoga instructor training.  After hearing their concerns about their students’ difficulty focusing on class work, Pallavi suggested that they incorporate meditation into their classes.  She told them about her own experience as a child.  “When I was in school in India, every classroom had a loudspeaker.  The microphone was in the main office.  Before school started, there was ten minutes of prayer time.  The prayer was sung from the microphone in the main office, and, in every classroom, the students were silent.  After that, class began.  It made a big difference in the atmosphere.”  This practice is still followed in Indian schools today.

 

The teachers have taken Pallavi’s advice and found that it works.  Jennifer Lane is a second-grade teacher in Towanda who graduated this month from the yoga instructor training.  She began using meditation in her classroom in May.  She says, “I have always used breathing to help children calm down and re-focus, but I had never used the words ‘mindfulness’ or ‘meditation,’ or anything related to yoga.”  Following Pallavi’s suggestion, Ms. Lane started experimenting with a few minutes of quiet time in her classroom each day.  She does this several times during the day, primarily at “high energy” times such as the start of the school day and right after lunch and recess.  “I make it clear that it’s not prayer, it’s not any sort of religion.  We’re just trying to calm our minds.  Kids come to school with all kinds of emotions – they’re upset, angry, or tired.  The quiet time helps them control those emotions.”

 

Ms. Lane does not tell her students what to think about during the quiet time.  “I tell them to just be silent.  They can put their heads down on the desk if they want.  I suggest that they close their eyes, and I turn the lights off.”  She limits quiet time to one to two minutes – they are second graders, after all!  Almost all of her students are able to sit still for that long.  In just short time before the end of the school year, she saw results.  “Some of the kids actually liked it.  Quiet time helped my students to be able to focus better for a little longer time.  My teaching partner and I are planning to implement more mindfulness activities into the classroom.”

 

In September, Pallavi is planning to start a yoga program for children.  The idea for this program came in part from her own experience as a parent.  “I have two children, so I know how kids are,” she says.  “These days kids have so many things occupying their minds – the busy world, videos, phones.  For a long time, I’ve had a goal to do something to help kids.  Meditation and yoga can help them to bloom, to find peace of mind.  These practices will help kids think about what is going on with them and what they are supposed to do with their lives.”

 

The kids’ yoga program will be geared to children ages seven to twelve.  Pallavi says she will focus on meditation to calm the mind.  How long can children can sit still and be quiet?  Pallavi says, “They say in yoga that for meditation, you don’t have to do it for half an hour; you can begin with five minutes.  If you just sit down, close your eyes, and relax your body, slowly you will begin to get results.”

 

Interestingly, education of children is again becoming a function of ashrams in India as well.  Pallavi says,  “Children in India have been educated in public schools for a hundred years.  But now parents are beginning to think about what is important in life.  Many parents are going back to the old tradition and sending their children to ashrams instead of public school.”

 

Besides a kids’ yoga program, the ashram in Sheshequin has many plans for the future.  A concrete patio for the yagna puja is currently being built in front of the building.  Longer term they will have another building with more space for yoga classes and guest rooms.

 

This summer, there’s a lot going on during August at the Vishwa Gayatri Yogashram.  First was the yoga instructor graduation on August 2.  Then Swamiji will be coming during the second week and staying for about two weeks.  On August 26 and 27, there will be a party celebrating the anniversary of the establishment of the ashram.  People will come from as far away as Chicago and eastern Canada.

 

The Vishwa Gayatri Yogashram is located at 48 Simpatico Lane off the Sheshequin Road.  Visitors of all faiths, colors, and ethnicities are welcome.  The ashram is open seven days a week, from 6:00 A. M. to 8:00 P. M., except from 2:00 to 4:00 in the afternoon.  Yoga classes are held on Wednesday and Saturday mornings from 10:00 to 11:30.  Pallavi Dave can be reached by phone at 630-359-1622 or by email at pdave92@gmail.com.  Attend a yoga class, or stop by for a delicious mid-day meal.  You’ll find a warm welcome at the ashram!Type your paragraph here.