“After four months in Shri Kali it has gone from good to better! I came to Shri Kali without any expectations. I had just visited the website and heard from people who had been there before, how this whole system had helped them. Overall, I feel much more calm and relaxed now, and open to learning and receiving more. It was a 180 degrees change for me because everything that I thought existed or was real, one by one, I realized was far from it. Growing up in India, I had too many preconceived ideas about religion, morality etc. A lot of things were explained at Shri Kali, and one by one, lecture after lecture, peel by peel, I gained more insight and clarity into them through the science here. Everywhere else I had been earlier, nobody had ever explained the deeper understanding of religious practices, which eventually lead to the culture. Besides, my biggest attraction to Shri Kali was that the foundation of its teaching was the Vedas, nowhere else in India could I find another school that was not only based on the Vedas, but also taught the basic Vedic principles. Everything I learnt earlier, left me more confused than before, but, at Shri Kali, lecture by lecture, everything is explained with the complete science and philosophy that you are not confused. For now I want to keep learning without any limitations here.

I was looking for places in the south to be more relaxed and not to have to worry about work, family or relationships; not be distracted by them. I was new to yoga with about a month learning in a local school in Delhi. It turns out that not having prior experience could be an advantage, from older students’ experiences: less experience, less confusions. I wasn’t really looking at an ashram for āsanas but when I read this website I realized it was about more than just āsanas. It was about the philosophy, Sanskrit, the culture and so much more, it was a whole system; a traditional Gurukul system that imparts true Vedic knowledge. This is what every seeker of the Divine should look for. So when I was looking for a sojourn, I heard about Shri Kali, and I realized that this was a whole system. You find what you’re truly looking for, consciously, or, subconsciously. My education growing up did not really give me the answers I was looking for; it merely groomed me, not shaped me. It did not give me any real life solutions to build up my inner strength and values.

Divine Initiation is the core of this system. Divine Initiation helped me demystify the preconceived notions about many Vedic beliefs and practices. I can’t help it; I want to go back again and again and reread sections because every time I read it, I learn something new. You read any other book and you learn something, but you read Divine Initiation and you realize something. That is the difference.  It is going to be my Bible for the rest of my life.  I feel sad that so many people within India and around the world, the way that they think about their religion and about God or what’s right and what isn’t, is so often off the mark. Everything is explained with formulae in Divine Initiation. I think that this book is really the gateway to freedom. When I look at religion, when I look at what is right and wrong, all that I believed growing up, is dropped every time I read Divine Initiation. I look forward to reading it more and more. I think that I will read it all my life.

Before I came here, I was so disappointed with spiritual practices that were for the convenience that I looked at every situation as hopeless and that had made me quite cynical. In Tantra, I finally found a system that teaches that the internal and the external can coexist, and that, we do not have to chose one over the other, so it helps everyone in having a guilt free existence by reflecting that we are okay as we are; that, for me is true liberation. Most other systems I’ve known are looking to reform people, but Tantra asks you to free yourself by not looking at yourself as a project, but as a sacred being. This changes every thought that existed or will exist in the future. This knowledge brings me hope that there is a system, which, if truly followed, can free you from all confusions. That has never happened to me before with any other school, any temple, or place of worship. Here I connect with the answers, so I have decided to be here long enough to culture myself from this spiritual system.

I was already part of a non-linear culture so I did not really have to ‘deal’ with the non-linear aspect of this system. Ironically, even though I am part of an original non-linear culture, due to the hypocrisy, and maybe the British influence on Indian culture, the modern knowledge and education of India was so linear that now I am happy to get back to my roots. I feel more grounded and open, I feel like I am in the right place because of this non-linear structure. I never had much of a view on yoga. I mostly thought of it as a healthier substitute for other physical practices. I was looking for one system for physical health, and another one for spiritual depth, never understanding that one cultured the other. Tantra Yoga brought the two together for me. I had heard that yoga was more internal than external but I had barely experienced this. The first time I experienced this was a year ago when I was in Pondicherry, within one month of practicing with a group, I had a sense of relaxation. This was when my search for a yoga school began.

It is due to the British cultural erosion in India that Tantra is highly misrepresented in India. It is either not spoken about, or spoken about condescendingly. Most Indians think that Tantra is black magic or voodoo. I had friends though that were practicing Tantrics and from what I heard from them, something made me want to try it. I started researching on the Internet and in books and I found that the whole world was interested in studying Tantra; there had to be something real about it. I decided that I must go and find out what it is. Within India this is the only school that really teaches Tantra as it should be taught. And now I realize why India is supposed to be the origin of such sacredness. I thought that they were all bullshitting when Indians were always saying, “India is the origin of this… of that”. But now after being a Tantra student, I know India really is the origin of so much, of the source. I had ideas and I was made to believe, believing in fact became a practice to me, but I am glad that I have more understanding of the practices of India now.

One thing that I really like about Shri Kali is that it does not ask you to believe, rather, it asks you to understand. Here no one forces you to believe in their system, whereas in other systems, there seems to be a pressure to believe in whatever is being taught. Here, they just give you answers and if you relate to those answers great, and if you don’t, there is no pressure. As a student that is why I value my experience here with these teachings. The teachings here are so profound and beautiful that it seems hard to imagine why anyone wouldn’t relate to them, but even more than that, this is not just a system that I want to believe in; rather, this is a system that I want to live.