It was a dreary and humid day as buses of honors freshman and their mentors pulled into the parking lots of Satchidananda Ashram-Yogaville, about an hour away from Longwood in Buckingham County. Little did they know as they stepped off the buses, eyes still groggy from the lack of sleep the previous night, that they were about to be exposed to a completely different world that could open up a whole new perspective. And that whole new perspective began with breakfast.
After taking off our shoes and placing them in little cubbies at the entrance, we were ushered into a miniature dining hall with an assortment of brightly colored vegan food.
Many of the residents of Yogaville sat on the ground or with pillows around low tables. Occasionally throughout breakfast we could hear chants or songs coming from the kitchen. Later we would learn that these chants were actually blessings on the food and the people that were eating it.
The food was bland and colorful, but definitely interesting, to say the least.
But the most interesting part was yet to come. After breakfast we moved into an auditorium to learn a little bit about what we were actually doing there, and to begin our adventure through the culture and beliefs of integral yoga.
Satchidananda Ashram—Yogaville, nestled in Buckingham County along the James River is a yoga training facility and yoga retreat center. Founded in 1980 by famous Integral Yoga teacher Yogiraj Sri Swami Satchidananda, this center focuses on the belief that “truth is one, but paths are many.”
The eight hundred or so acre property includes an organic farm, countless housing units, meeting rooms and views that will literally leave you speechless. But the facility is most famous for the LOTUS temple, a temple placed in the middle of a man-made lake and modeled after the lotus flower. The LOTUS Temple or Light of Truth Universal Shrine was created as a sanctuary for members of every religion to come together peacefully to worship and meditate.
The temple was built and painted to look like a lotus flower to symbolize the spiritual unfolding of the soul.
In the lower level of the temple a little exhibit was set up for each known practicing religion as well as science, atheism, and all of the unknown religions. These displays featured pictures of each leader of the religion, as well as various quotes and symbols for the religion.
Junior mentor Michelle Kassel said, “The temple was my favorite part. You could learn about so many different beliefs in one room, and everyone respected that. It was so peaceful and open.”
The second level of the temple was unlike anything else I’d ever seen before. As I sat down and looked up towards the ceiling, I was awestruck by it. A strip of lights were strewn from each petal of the lotus flower to meet in the middle circle and symbolize the idea that there really are many paths to the truth.
Throughout our 90-minute tour and exploration of the facilities, we were challenged to stay silent for the entire experience and to just listen and take in everything. And while that may seem like a pretty challenging feat for a large group of college students, not a word was uttered throughout our adventure.
Senior Katy Lewis said, “At first I was apprehensive because I’m not a quiet person. But it was nice because we were forced to listen and really hear everything. And as cliché as this sounds, I felt like I could hear the world around me.”
Throughout these 90 minutes of silence, we were able to truly hear what the guides were telling us and appreciate the beauty of the nature and environment around us.
We learned a little about the lifestyles of the people of Yogaville and it truly felt like a different world.
They were all so peaceful, so in touch with nature. While they may have come from different backgrounds and have different beliefs, they worked so well together and seemed to truly be enjoying their simple lives. They shared meals together, meditated together and were just happy.
As we boarded the buses to go home at the end of our tour, the atmosphere of the group was changed. It was obvious that the tour had forced many of us out of our comfort zone and even given us a different outlook on some things—which was exactly why we went.
Senior retreat leader Joe Gills described the purpose of this little field trip, “Yogaville is a very unique place and it’s very different from many of the places that our students come from. It’s also very different from our little town of Farmville even though it’s only forty minutes away. One of the reasons for this trip was to experience something new and reflect on this idea of respecting others.”
And experience something new we did. Many of us had absolutely no idea what we were getting into when we got on those buses that day, but we came away with an experience that pushed us out of our comfort zones and exposed us to a completely different world, only a few minutes down the road.
