Jeevan Vidya 2025

We live in such a world where everything is planned, by parents, society, schools, clocks, and calendars, and it may go up to such an extent that we start doing it for ourselves and others. A slight detour from the plan, and our world starts collapsing. Well, someday we all wake up and question what is going around. Sometimes, we may find the answers and sometimes it may take some time; and sometimes it is not just the right time for questions to arise. I think the right questions at the right time can change the course of one’s life and sometimes humanity; and as he said if the time is not right, keep the question alive.

Jeevan Vidya, something I have known about since 2016, and only good things. A couple of my friends & family have been to this workshop. 8 Days of intense conversations, questions, dreams, perspectives, and whatnot. Add-on benefits are you end up adding more people to your tribe, a peaceful & calm environment, connecting back with nature, a slow pace of life, and good food. So, finally, after suggesting so many people to attend Jeevan Vidya, it was my turn to be part of this journey in March 2025. Unlike a few others, I was there just to listen, just to sit next to the river of wisdom and knowledge and experience the sound of it flowing by! There were some like me as well, just to listen and some were there with a bag full of questions, answers of which they already knew but needed a helping hand of their own. Interesting people from across India, all of them were curious for sure and on their own beautiful journeys.

A lot of people asked me, what I learned there. Or what was my takeaway after spending 8 days almost cut off from work and family? I still don’t have an answer for that, the answer is still taking its shape and it may take some more time as it is not bound by any time-based tool. Rather, I can share that what fascinated me the most; and the top of the list is being back in the classroom kind of setup and yet the sense of freedom. Sitting somewhere again, just with a goal to learn and no exams to prove your worth, no one to judge if we mugged up everything or not. After that, the next best thing was this beautiful space, where one can put questions, and believe me our souls are full of questions, which we stopped asking as the world around us was not equipped with creative answers or just space for the options of having different answers for the same question. When one’s questions are dead, dreams start to fade, and with no dreams, one is not human anymore! So, keep the kid within you alive, who used to ask 300 questions a day until the world trained you with a sophisticated education system, how to not ask questions. But before that ask yourself, What is a question?

If we really look around, we live in a world where we can easily feel that something is not right; something feels wrong. The daily dose of capitalism, or the post-colonial, post-world war world; where a constant fire is needed on some or other place of world map to keep the system running, or maybe how our food is being contaminated as well as controlled, which in return fuels the bank account of health systems. Or our education system, where bigger and bigger buildings are coming up to carry on the outdated industrial-era system of creating human robots and they again should not ask questions. Spirituality is selling bigger and bigger in the market, Yoga is an industry! The top three rich are richer than the bottom 4 billion, so clearly something is not right with everything that is going around us. Mass consumption is so normal that we keep our eyes closed for fast fashion, the meat industry, deforestation, and above all global warming. In between all this, we pretend to live like everything is normal; I don’t remember most of my friend circle ever sitting together and speaking about global warming and how they see the future for their kids. Everyone is pretending to live a normal life, paying EMIs until they leave this body, and questioning nothing. There is something not right with the system in which we are surviving and it needs a brutal change.

Maybe I will still not share what I received in the whole workshop, but I will certainly share how beautiful it was to live under a banyan tree by pitching my own tent. How magical it was to be able to live in a forest that was created by a dreamer of Dharwad, started in the late 1990s (even you can go there anytime, do some forest service, and stay at the forest farm known as Suman Sangam). I will share how preciously the delicious food was prepared by Summi Aunty. I will share how I lived such a slow-paced life, yet felt like missing on nothing. After 10 days when I came out of the forest and saw a road and running traffic for the first time, something deep within me altered. I was thinking that, are we really missing something or we are forced and conditioned to think that we are missing a lot and if we do not buy the next best, we will miss it all? Well, I will also share how we all need to learn again to see the value of everything around us and not just the cost. We need to understand that the core desire of everyone around us is respect and happiness. There is no third desire! Or maybe there is, if that question comes to your mind, keep it alive 😉

I will keep the teacher of the workshop unknown as that soul is enjoying his peace, selflessly sharing his love and wisdom and if you ever go to this workshop you will meet him anyway; how it will impact you, that will be your journey. Mine was all about, finding structure to my thoughts; which I said in Hindi, Mere vicharo ko shabdh mil gaye. Everyone who was involved in this selfless workshop and gave us one of the most beautiful times of our lives sold us something for sure; Hope for a better world.

As you really read all this, here is the link to the website of Jeevan Vidya You can find the details of the next workshop and drop an email to know more.