You know an ashram is on the right track when there's blueberry cheesecake in the ashram café!
The Art of Living ashram on the outskirts of Bangalore is a three decade old institution built on an industrial scale. Think of spirituality for the masses. Spread over 65 acres and still expanding, the mind boggles at the scale and the organisation running it. The Annapurna dining hall feeds 20,000 people a day! There are thousands of rooms for the spiritually inclined from the simple to luxe villas with lawns and miniature waterfalls!
The pleasant landscaping and architecture thoughtfully makes use of the local geography and gradients. One can have a good cardio going up and down to meditation halls scattered across the huge campus. The distances are challenging to some, and the ashram very helpfully runs a shuttle service for those not trusting their own two legs to lug themselves around.
The highlight for me, though, wasn't the pranayama (breathing exercises), the guided meditation or the compulsory three day phase of silence. Located close to the huge, wedding cake style Vishalakshi Mantap - the spiritual heart of Art of Livin, is the Café Vishala, the spiritual tummy of this ashram. The word 'ashram' is derived from Sanskrit and means without effort. It required no effort from me to make a beeline to the café between meditation sessions. Its design would do commercial cafés proud. Open on two sides, it makes use of the natural breeze and surrounding greenery. The furniture and chandeliers have a pleasant antique look. The vast menu stretches from Indian favourites - mango lassi and ginger tea, through organic juices from fruits grown on the ashram farm, to blueberry cheesecake, of course.
I meditated on the vagaries of life, of what brought me here, between tiny morsels of cheesecake. Savouring the blueberry syrup, all very meditatively of course, and with complete mindfulness. With all my endriyas (senses) - on the form and colour, its sweet fragrance, its touch on my tongue, the sound of crunching as I bit into it, the burst of sweetness as it spread on my thousands of taste buds, its gentle flow down my throat and then the warm feeling as it hit my stomach. I was one with the blueberry cheesecake and in my own private food nirvana. God bless the Art of Living!
