My 6 months in Sadhana Forest:

My experience in Sadhana Forest was one of the best experiences I have ever had in my life! It’s been nearly 6 months since I’ve been staying in Sadhana Forest, Auroville. I met a lot of incredible people from all over the world, every individual I met broke the monotony of my life, so many interesting stories and experiences were shared.

My favourite part of living in Sadhana Forest are the values of compassion, gift culture, natural learning, veganism, and seva that encompasses all aspects of living in this wonderful community!

Waking up every day early morning and listening to beautiful bird sounds, and getting ready to do seva in morning is just blissful, my favourite seva in the morning are gaushala, forest, and breakfast cooking.

My favourite second/afternoon seva was accommodation, I loved taking care of and maintaining the huts!

My best time in Sadhana Forest will always be in the gaushala. Previously, in my life I had never touched a cow until now. I remember when I brushed Hari, a friendly white bull, for the first time, I broke down into pieces realising how cruel the world is for killing animals for meat, leather, and other products

It’s been a great journey interacting with 9 cows/bulls and 3 calf’s….everyone have different character and personalities
For example Devi, Lucky, and Rosie prefer to be alone and take their time to understand us.
Happy, Vishnu, and Hari are starting to trust humans and love getting brushed.
So far I’ve experienced how Vishnu connects with every individual who comes to the gaushala!
I remember when one of our volunteers, Gargi, came to gaushala. I remember leaving Vishnu to Gargi to spend time alone and I was being with the kids in the children’s land to play with the other cows, then I saw Vishnu licking Gargi and this alone made Gargi decide to stay for 1 year just for Vishnu! The connection they formed in such a short time was truly incredible and touching!

You never know how one person’s emotions can make a great change in another person’s life.

The Tea Hut is a one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my life, it’s a cafe where we give coucunut milk and vegan laddu to any neighbours, local villagers, visitors, and volunteers as a gift, for free, and it was the best culture moment of my life. This idea of giving for free without any expectations really changed my outlook in life.

After spending time with lot of short-term volunteers staying for 4 days, most of them wish they stayed for more than 4 days. I would highly recommend anyone to come and live in Sadhana Forest for at least 7 days-21 days to fully understand the core values of Sadhana Forest. I also highly encourage families and kids to come stay in the forest, kids will certainly enjoy being free to play in nature and it adds a lot of liveliness and joy to the community!