Build a Little Ashram in Your Soul
Life is a Festival #87: Shiv Charan Singh (Karam Kriya)
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Two weeks ago, with heartache swirling in my soul, I sought refuge at the Guru Ram Das Ashram in Portugal. After days of chanting mantras, performing seva (selfless service), and doing kundalini yoga, I was granted an audience with the founder of the ashram, acclaimed spiritual teacher Shiv Charan Singh and took the opportunity to create this podcast for you.
On the show we talk about how an ashram is both a holding container for spiritual crisis and a pressure cooker for transformation. We discuss Shiv’s life and why he chose the spiritual vehicles of Sikhism and kundalini yoga. We talk about how loving yourself means remembering that you are already loved and finally how to see the whole world as an ashram, and whether life really is a festival.
Shiv is the founder of the Guru Ram Das Ashram and the Karam Kriya School in Quinta do Rajo, Portugal. He has written a number of books and developed an applied science of numerology called Karam Kriya. Shiv studied with Yogui Bhajan, the founder of Sikh Dharma in the West and serves on the advisory body of the Kundalini Research Institute.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but it turns out that life isn’t only a festival… it can also be an ashram.
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Timestamps
:07 - Why call it a spiritual crisis?
:16 - The power of solitude and how we call in crisis
:26 - My experience at the Ram Das Guru Ashram
:32 - Social media and commercialization as Maya, the view of illusion.
:38 - Why did Shiv choose Sikhism and kundalini yoga as spiritual vehicles?
:50 - Moving from loving yourself to knowing that your nature is that you are loved.
:59 - Wanting to run away from the spiritual pressure cooker of an ashram
1:09 - How to build a little ashram in your soul
1:13 - Shiv challenges the premise behind “Life is a Festival”
Graphics Designed by Andy McErlean
Audio Engineering by Trevor Coulter
Theme song ““Peculiar Colors” [Manjumasi]“ by dj atish