I've been at the ashram in India two weeks now. Week two flew by, but it was also a lot harder. I've felt more tired and I'm having a harder time focusing during meditation. They say week two is the hardest, that after a bit of healthy living your body starts to release toxins and tucked away emotions start to come up. I think it's also because we have started talking a lot more about Indian philosophy and all the interesting ideas have got my head spinning.

One of the weirder things we do is chant in Sanskrit (a romanized version of course, the language itself looks like this: संस्कृता वाक्). The sounds are fairly simple, and we have a chant book to follow, so now I can sing along most of the time. What's interesting is that this ancient language is thought to vibrate and influence various energy centers in your body! Apparently there is a bunch of interesting research going on right now in India regarding Sanskrit and energy vibrations. One story our Swami told piqued my interest. He said a bunch of people gathered together to chant the sacred word "Om" while circled around a pool of water filled with floating objects. Gradually the objects formed the shape ॐ , which is exactly how "Om" is symbolized!

At this point, all I can say is that chanting Sanskrit is relaxing and it doesn't feel weird anymore. If it's doing something more that is beneficial, great.