These guidelines help ensure everyone can fully enjoy the program and keep the ashram a pleasant place for all. These practices were established by Babaji to promote harmonious coexistence and support everyone’s spiritual development.
The challenge of living together with familiar and yet unknown brothers and sisters on the spiritual path also contributes to your personal growth.
• We wear house slippers or socks in the main building. Bare feet are also allowed.
• Please don’t enter the kitchen unnecessarily unless cooking or cleaning is part of your duties. If you need something from the kitchen, please ask the cook or someone from the ashram team.
• It is not permitted to pick flowers or branches in the garden unless you are asked to do so as part of ceremony preparations.
• Due to fire hazard, burning candles or incense in the rooms is not allowed.
• Smoking and the use of alcohol and drugs are not permitted on ashram grounds. (Smoking is allowed in the designated smoking area).
• Pets are not allowed in the building or in the temple.
• Silence is observed in the ashram and in the rooms between 9:00 PM and 6:00 AM.
• Please ensure you arrive before 9:00 PM upon arrival. If you are delayed for any reason, please contact us: 055 5052871.
Meals
We prefer not to eat before ceremonies and Aarti. This helps with spiritual deepening and inner concentration. Drinking and having a piece of fruit or some nuts is acceptable. All meals are vegetarian, sometimes vegan.
Flowers and prasad
According to Indian custom, it is good practice to bring flowers and/or nuts or sweets for the temple and ceremonies. It is a way to express your respect and devotion.
For nuts, consider unsalted and unroasted varieties. Sweets can be anything, but no flour products like cookies. For flowers, we suggest roses, chrysanthemums, or asters.
Clothing
During Aarti in the temple and during havan and other ceremonies, we wear clean clothes. Clean, appropriate clothing shows respect and helps participate with the right intention.
For women, this means a long skirt, sari, or kurtha, and for men, a lunghi or sarong (wrap cloth). Don’t let these dress requirements discourage you from coming – special loaner clothing is available for first-time visitors.
We enter the temple and fire place without shoes and if possible without socks.
During Karma Yoga activities, we wear comfortable clothing appropriate for the activity.
Purity and hygiene
Purity is a fundamental basis for spiritual practice. Before each ceremony and meals, we wash our hands and rinse our mouths. In the morning, we always take a shower before participating in any ceremony or activity.
Showering and brushing teeth are recommended before evening Aarti.
Sexual relations
The ashram is not a place for maintaining sexual relationships. The lifestyle at the ashram is intended to direct attention inward so we can come to ourselves.
Special rules for women
It’s important for women to know that during the first four days of their monthly period, they can take more rest and do not participate in temple and fire ceremonies. Women are also exempt from kitchen duties during this time.
It is possible to participate in other Karma Yoga activities. During this time, women go through an intensive cleansing process that requires different attention than participating in ceremonies.
