Pranayakulam-commune of love
Train your mind to live with a firm footing in the present
Pranayakulam signifies a hope and belief in the possibilities of human life. Though everyone strives for happiness, the world has filled itself with innumerable contradictions: between pain and happiness, love and hate, health and disease and wealth and poverty. No one gets to single out any one from these pairs. No religion or no state has achieved liberty from these dichotomies and conflicts. Yet it is possible. Pranayakulam opens itself to that possibility.
Nature is yet another tale of duos. These aren’t contradictory but are complementary to each other, though they may seem otherwise. A duo that is in contradiction to each other cannot become one. Yet, in nature, things that seem dichotomous come together to form oneness, complete in itself. They generate the new. This process goes on.
The sense of fullness that emerges from the nature’s ability to complement itself is love. It is in the absence of love that contradictions and tensions germinate. When love is within, what is outside fills itself with peace and beauty. To define it as mere passion between men and women is to undermine its great power, with very grave consequences. By actualising the possibilities of love we can create a whole new world of love. Pranayakulam, the commune of love, stands for that quest.
A life of peace, one that is free and joyful, is within everyone’s reach. But it requires intense preparation. The mind shall remain stable and the body be in perfect health.
Health of the body does not follow from extraordinary physical strength. On the other hand, it leads to the misconception that one’s body makes her self. The body is liable to degenerate and decay. This natural process may cause grave misery to those who consider the body to be paramount. A healthy body that is free from diseases can release us from this obsession.
A firm, stable mind has its feet rooted in the present. The mind incessantly oscillates between memories and imagination. Memories mark the past, imagination the future. Yet, our actions take place neither in the past nor in the future but in the present. An unstable mind only renders them less effective. This makes us restless.
To ensure that the body stays healthy, Pranayakulam has put in place a system of healthy living: a natural diet, good rest, necessary exertion and limited exercise.
In order for the mind to be trained to live with a firm footing in the present, Pranayakulam conducts meditation sessions and provides adequate training in calming the mind. Purposeful, loving conversations with Swami Shoonyam also help one towards this end.
Swami Shoonyam
Swami Shoonyam is a saint, poet, artist, thinker, a social-activist and a family-man all at once. On any given day you may find him at this ashram leading his fellows in the experience of meditation, or sketching with his pen inside the hall, conversing with numerous visitors about a social-issue, interacting with students at any government school around, or even cooking at his kitchen with wife or friends. His approach to each of these is characterized by the same degree of dedication, graceful ease and happiness. On a wheel-chair, without voluntary control on his legs, he do these all. He became Swami Shoonyam ( which means ‘nothingness’) after leaving the old name and all those discrimination attribute to any religion, cast or god. He is able to treat people above any common criteria like politics, gender, nationality and anything that is illogical and he inspire others too.
Swami is a lesson for all of us. He is a guide to many among us, who lack a vision about life or getting looped with a problem of life. With his physical inabilities, he shows us how to drive our inner mind and thrive to achieve our life goals. He doesn’t speak much. But what he speaks matters a lot.
Swami often give guidance and leadership to mediation camps that take place in Pranayakulam and at many other centers. His teachings reflect the breadth and depth of Osho’s meditation techniques and are complemented by several methods that Swami has independently developed, to suit the complexity of modern life for the people from different shores and with different problems.