Program Reviews

We came here as a group of 11, with my college friends. Definitely an experience. We had a lot of fun cooking and playing in the mud pool in the Sadhana forest. There are tonnes of birds for budding bird watchers and insects for biologists.
We were pleasantly surprised with the aesthetic huts and the bamboo architecture. It gives a lot of space for beautiful pictures and videos.....good ig content too. There are couple of dogs and many cats which make wonderful companions throughout the stay here. Overall a memorable experience.

Although I wasn't mentally prepared to begin with, given the kind of alternative living this involves, once you do get used to it, it's really completely fine. There is a built-in community here, with many people to guide you through the volunteering process.

The place is quite pretty, too - being a proper forest with a lot of different species of birds and a mud pool to cool off in after seva.

Eventually, you do begin to realise how a lot of different everdyday things can not only be recycled, but upcycled. It is a self-sustaining place where all waste goes back in through a different process that makes it useful somewhere else, at least as much as is possible, which I find interesting.

Working at Sadhna forest
Pros
Give you a chance to quit cigarette
Great experience to live in a community and forget your past traumas
Meet various people around the globe and and interact with them
Get a sense of living a minimalistic life style
Spend time away from your routine and spend it in the nature
Highly sustainable living and zero waste

CONS
More than 5 hours of hard labour
Harsh and humid climate and away from the main city of Pondicherry.
Don't expect any luxuries as there are no fans and lights .Which gets makes sleeping at night very frustrating due to extreme humid and hot climate.

Sadhana Forest as an organisation is a great place to learn the value of self service or seva, sustainability goals, veganism as a lifestyle as well as community living. The organisation emphasises on their core values as well as creates pathways to put it in to effect in reality. It's an ambassador of an alternate way of living that protects nature.

Although the heat can get to you as there are no fans because of lack of any sort of machinery, the values learnt are worth the sweat. One has enough opportunity and space to engage with different forms of physical labour and reflect on the morale behind. Overall, a 10/10 experience. There's a 24/7 operating banana counter as well!

So I visited Sadhana Forest because I was a little confused about my life and I wanted some time alone to think about all the issues happening in my life. I needed to find an answer to them and I always wanted to have a more minimalistic life that is connected to nature but I never had the chance previously.

When I learnt about Sadhana Forest, the life I imagined and never experienced, I finally got the chance to try it. I packed my bags and came to Chennai from Udaipur, Rajasthan.

So if you ask me now, if I achieved what I wanted in Sadhana then the answer is YES! Outside of seva, I get my own free time to be explore my interests. I also got the first-hand experience in helping take care of the forest and animals, like the cows and dogs here. The food they serve here is pure vegan and it is very healthy and I feel that my health has improved.

The experience I had here made me realise how we can still be kinder to every living creature and how I can coexist. It was an amazing exposure for my 6 years young daughter to get to live in and being cared by mother nature and it's elements and she learnt how to care for it in return. We have a LOT of take aways definitely to implement in our daily lives. It just lit my conscious a bit more and I feel a lot of blanks got filled up. Being an unschooling family, a community like this, I had always been looking for. I am glad my daughter found a home in nature with a wonderful caring and conscious living community. So grateful to have got a chance to be the part and contribute something through seva to remain the part of this place forever. A warm stay with a lot of memories for life. Coming back soon..😇

The community is the best part of Sadhana Forest. It's a dynamic community centered around compassion and sustainability that expands and contracts all the time. But the friendship and comradery are always constant. It is a place where the east meets the west in perfect harmony. I left my country 44 years ago, and this is the closest I have come to "home." The hardest part is saying goodbye to friends.

Sleeping huts are comfortable and rustic. Made of all natural material. My first impression was Robinson Crusoe's hut. Waking up to the sound of birds is the best part.

The food is great. Plant based whole food. Just my style. The breakfasts are heavenly with so many different types of fruit. Other meals are a mix of internal cuisine depending on the lead cook. No one goes hungry here. Most people socialize during meals. I usually eat mindfully in silence.

Goshala is a unique experience.
"The place of cows." Every cow and bull has their own personality. It can get exciting at times, especially around meal times. Most of them love to be brushed. They actually show you the part that they need brushed. And tell you when they don't like something or when they're done.

The tea hut is the most amazing place. The ambiance is great. It reminds me of the old west. The servers are awesome, too. I jokingly refer to the pair as the cute bar girl and the boundaries. A place to unwind and socialize.

Sadhana embodies the values it stands for.
It reflects in each person, who is residing there, and that's a difficult feat to achieve,
And as the name suggests if you wish to truly let go of the self, and engage in selfless practices it's the right space to be.
Also personally, I have felt disconnected from my body due to the nature of my livelihood and the kind of highly cognitive livestyles we live in. The few days I spent there helped me to stay grounded with my body, and just forget the daily grinds and be attuned to nature at its rawest.

I have learned huge amounts after spending several weeks in the forest and I believe my life has been changed, in big and small ways, because of it.

To start with the big things, I learned, firstly, what it means to function as part of a collective. Everyone works together in selfless service to maintain the community. The result is that no matter how much I give, I always feel like I recieve more. Additionally, I discovered a model for living which doesn't cost the planet. I thought I was already environmentally conscious as a vegan who avoids excess consumption etc. But until coming to Sadhana, I didn't consider the impact of my toilet, my hand and clothes washing facilities, my meal choices, and so much more. (Or if I did consider them, I didn't believe I could implement them as I didn't have a model of people who were living this sustainably). I will not be able to continue many of my lifestyle choices that are taken as a given in England.
Moreover, the story of Sadhana Forest generally inspires me in life. It's hard for me to believe that this thriving community was once just 1 family, and the huge forest was once barren land. Experiecing the impact of a small group of people who wanted to create change gives me hope. Also, knowing this first hand gives me more confidence in myself to do bold actions than if I read about it.
I could go on, but I'll end the 'big things' here.

In terms of smaller things: I've made deep and rich connections, I've gained tons of creative food recipes, I've met all sorts of wonderful forest animals, I've developed lots of budding interests from workshops offered by volunteers, I've become much physically and mentally healthier.

Thank you Sadhana :)

Sadhana Forest is an incredible organisation that isn't just about the indigenous reforestation or water conservation. It is also about a compassionate and sustainable community living!

I got to experience living in a hut built from natural materials like wood, bamboo, coconut leaves, coconut ropes, and stone pillars. I shared this space with like-minded people focused on the environment, veganism, and practicing a conscious lifestyle.

I had never experienced living in a community, especially one inside a forest before, but I am so glad I found Sadhana Forest. It is full of open-minded, non judgemental people who are eager to welcome you into their family. I've learnt that being in a community is more than just sharing the same communal space, it about helping and supporting one another while also building the community together.

From Sadhana Forest I will take away the concept of "seva", which is doing selfless service, and try to practice a more compassionate and conscious lifestyle. I've learnt more than I expected and have grown in ways that I previously didn't even think possible.

May there be more forests to grow people!

Thank you Sadhana Forest for everything!