Patience is one of the keys for the success. All of you must have experienced it and so have I. I did The Art of Living Program on March 11- 16, 2013 and have continued with my volunteering ever since. In this journey, i always wished to become a teacher and guide people in the same way by which it had benefited me. I got that wish fulfilled after 4 years, on August 08, 2017 at Bangalore Ashram, India.
Teacher Training Program (TTP) is conducted twice in a year in which people from all over the world take part and mark their presence. In this program only selected people get opportunity to participate for which we have to undergo many Art of living programs, starting with Happiness Program. This time including me, 16 people were selected from Nepal.
We ( Rakshya, Jamuna di, Renu di) travelled via aeroplane to reach Bangalore with transit at New Delhi. After that, we had near about 2 hours of journey in a taxi to reach Bangalore Ashram of His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. The program date was of 25th July and we reached there on 22nd July. We got registered for our program and for our room as well.
I was fully prepared and excited to be a part of this program as i had eagerly awaited for this moment. A day before the, program everyone got their Name Tag and a Small book (awesome book). After that i enjoyed reading that book which was perhaps essential to complete before the program got started (I guess). The program timing was morning 5 am – approx 11 pm.
Every morning we had to wake up early and freshen ourselves to start our session. If we got late in the program, they got our names marked and our teacher would have all the right to give us any punishment. During this program we were not allowed to use Mobile phones and any food from outside the Annapurna Dinning Hall. As our batch was of full of international participants(Malaysia, Japan, China, UAE, Fiji, Singapore and many more) we got the diversity, variety and most importantly, unity.
Atika di was one of the best The Art of Living Teachers i had ever seen. We had so much fun, knowledge, excitement and entertainment as well as the grind. After 5 days we had to choose between Art Excel (AE) / YES program or Happiness program. I was committed to AE/YES, so those who were interested for it were separated to other teacher who would train us for AE/YES. As i have been teaching children since the past 3 years and want to work from the root, i was one of the happiest persons at that time. Only one man (that’s me) and 14 women from International group joined to AE/YES with another 80 mix participant from all over India.
Rajendra vaiya and Shreya di were our teachers for this remaining 10 days of the program. A perfect combination of both made me witness and learn so many things like being humorous and strict from Rajendra vaiya and being natural and silent active leader from Shreya Di. We played so many games, had fun and groomed up one another very well. Learning and teaching both together has always uplifted me. A big thanks goes to Garima di and Rachita di both for managing, helping and guiding us in every small matters. Frankly, it was always difficult for me to identify who was who as both look so similar to me.
Every evening we had a Satsang. A perfect time for everybody coming together to sing, meditate and being in a good company. Large number of people come to participate in Satsang and enjoy themselves. In the presence our master we had a QnA session which was so knowledgeable and important. Learning many different techniques, ideas, language and most importantly, being a good instrument of the master, our 15 days were about to complete.
Many people felt it was hard and difficult and showed laziness. But i enjoyed completely and i am happy for myself as well. Earlier, we had a few sessions with our master as well but i had not given the Drawing and wishes of children written in an A4 paper, which were collected during the Bal Chetana Shivir I had conducted. So on the last day of program i wanted to give that to our master before we officially concluded the program. And before the final few moments of being a teacher, i gave that with my wishes as well, to our master. He received that along with gifts and messages from everyone. Finally my patience paid off.
Proud to be The Art of Living Teacher and instrument of His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.
P.S. I am glad and grateful to all those people who have supported me in completing this wonderful journey. I thank all those who have supported me financially, emotionally, physically and indirectly as well. My sincere gratitude to all of you and our Master(Sri Sri) as well for all the grace and blessings.