Testimony to the yogic lifestyle

While we were quite ready to go after 12 days following a strict schedule, it was such a rewarding experience during our travels. It definitely made me pause to evaluate my own life and reconsider the choices I am making. Two women in particular were quite inspiring. One was a polish woman, who was a visiting swami. At the satsang on her first night at the ashram, she shared her story with us. She was in a car accident from which she sustained serious injuries. The doctor told her she would be confined to a wheelchair the rest of her life. Being a strong willed person who was not willing to accept that truth, she turned to yoga as a form of physical therapy, as well as a lifestyle change. She knew little about it, but decided to go to an ashram in Montreal back in the 70s when yoga wasn't so in vogue as it is today. Her friends were waryof the drugs and sex that 'likely' took place within the walls of the ashram. However, she stood before us nearly 40 years later and sat cross legged through the satsang with much more grace than I could. She had her PhD in genetics, yet started to study the Hindu scriptures after her experience with yoga began to change her life. I couldn't say what her age was but she was still sharp as a tack.
The other woman was Rada, an African American woman from Chicago. She also picked up yoga in the early 70s and was teaching by the late 70s. I assumed she visited the ashram annually, but later found out that this has been a dream for her all her life to come visit the ashram in India. After teaching much of her life in one of their yoga centers in Chicago, she was finally realizing that dream. She was a tall wiry woman with a shaky voice that led our afternoon yoga sessions during our stay. She would demonstrate postures with such agility, and usually could hold a posture much more advanced than we were ready for in our 'beginner class'. And then we found out that she was 77 years old! She also was incredibly sharp, but her physical abilities at 77 floored me. We were so fortunate that our stay at the ashram overlapped with these two marvelous women. The two of them are great motivators to keep us practicing yoga in hopes of a long rewarding life ahead.