Divya Singh
The trip to Sidhbari almost didn’t happen. A free week between Delhi and a family gathering in the adjoining states of UP and Bihar had seemed like a gift. But in practice, it looked like this: a death in my extended family, logistical challenges criss-crossing Delhi’s unrelenting traffic, and a string of trekking plans that evaporated as fast as I formed them. I had no tickets, no confirmed bookings, and no certainty except one: if Gurudev wants me to experience his heavenly abode, it will happen. And it did. Surrender and acceptance, as hard as they were to practice, were the only things in my control. A dinner with an old friend opened the possibility of a bus trip. The next evening, with help from college friends, I found my way to the Interstate Bus Terminal in Delhi. As soon as the bus rolled north on the winding road toward Dharamshala in the state of Himachal Pradesh, the chaos fell behind like a curtain dropping, and what remained was simply the road, my thoughts, and a feeling of being carried.
Had I heard or known much about Chinmaya Tapovan in Sidhbari before? Other than the fact that it was a place so dear to Gurudev, featured in Chinmaya prayers, I knew very little about the ashram or the village. But once I landed there, thanks to everyone around, from the driver to the staff at the ashram office, I quickly realized how special the place was. Tucked into the Kangra Valley at the foot of the Dhauladhar range the Himalayas, Sidhbari is one of the villages adjoining Dharamshala where Chimaya Mission’s Tapovan Ashram and CORD center are located. Dharamshala is also where another great spiritual master, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, established the center of Tibetan Buddhism, just a few years apart. Within half an hour’s drive from the bus station, through terraced farm valleys and village clusters, I was settled in my room. The ashram is a serene campus with a grand idol of Hanumanji, Gurudev’s cottage, a beautiful Kerala-style Mahasamadhi site where his ashes are preserved overlooking the valley, a Ram-Sita temple, several residential buildings, an auditorium, a kitchen, and a dining area that can serve hundreds of residents. In February, the only residents were the dozen or so Hindi Vedanta course students along with a few visiting grihasthas like me. Monaji, the center head lives in one of the cottages and thoughtfully oversees all activities.
Ashram Rhythms: A Day Inside Tapovan
The ashram moved to a rhythm that brought back memories of life in my grandparents’ village household in Bihar. Mornings began before dawn, with chanting at the Mahasamadhi site, followed by puja and morning aarti at the temple. Freshly made meals and afternoon tea are served at set hours. The Vedanta students spent their days immersed in their curriculum, except on Sundays when they ventured out to the CORD villages. Saturday mornings have a special Hanumanji aarti. Evening aarti was followed by an open Gita Satsang in the auditorium. Sitting in on the long, detailed discussions with their Guru’s- the senior Brahmachari’s offered me a peek into a world of sincere inquiry. Their engagement with the Gita, the precision of their questions, was a reminder that Vedanta does not belong to any one language or demographic, but to every sincere devotee. Afternoons opened into the ashram’s work rhythm: ongoing construction, kitchen service, and the maintenance that keeps a community functioning. There is a teaching embedded in all of this: that the divine is served brick by brick in wall construction, in the serving of meals, as surely as in the recitation of shlokas. Evenings closed out in the stillness of the Dhauladhar range, and just as quietly in the stillness of my mind.
The Work Beyond the Walls: CORD in the Field
CORD, the Centre of Rural Development, is the seva arm of Chinmaya Mission, and Sidhbari center is one of its finest living examples. The story goes that Gurudev wanted to do something for the women of the Himalayas, feeling indebted to them for all the bhiksha-daans he had received during his travels there. The land donation at Sidhbari, the opening of the CORD center a few years later, its focus, its services, and its role as a trusted partner to the state government on policy, practices, and program implementation could fill a dedicated article on their own. For me, since service is an essential part of my family’s values, seeing this dimension of the Mission was a priority. On my first full day in the valley, I walked to the Goshala, where local families raise several dozen cows, and then to the CORD clinic serving the Kangra district. It is a modest building doing the quiet, unglamorous work that headlines rarely find: healthcare for differently abled children and adults, preventive education, maternal support, reaching communities who might otherwise go without. The center felt less like a government program and more like a family attending to its own. A small shop just outside the campus sells the products made by CORD programs and the Mahila Mandali’s.
The following Sunday brought a different kind of witness: a trip to the villages and homes of individuals whose lives were concretely changed by the Mission’s work. In a small courtyard, I was invited to meet a disabled woman who had learned the livelihood skill of sewing through CORD’s vocational training. I purchased one of her pieces. A high school-age child with limited mental acuity, but with bright and curious eyes, showed me her dance, her friends, and her animals. A woman farmer who had stood up to become her village head in a setting that has rarely allowed women to lead. And finally, around noon in a panchayat courtyard, we joined more than a dozen women participating in their Mahila Mandali- praying, singing, and planning their community fundraising. Their warmth, curiosity, and camaraderie as a group, while also tending to their farms, families, and communities, left me inspired and hopeful. It is one thing to see pictures of CORD service trips or read about Chinmaya Mission’s humanitarian work in a newsletter. It is another to sit in that courtyard, walk through that clinic, and witness firsthand what seva looks like, when it has been sustained, patiently, over years.
What I Carried Home
Three days is not a long time. What I brought back from Sidhbari was the experience of being in my spiritual home, where the juxtaposition of the Himalayas inviting one to be a silent observer, the devotion of young brahmacharis and brahmacharinis growing in Sanatana Dharma and preparing to carry Chinmaya Mission’s work to centers around the world, and the consistent service of CORD to women and children in need, all stand as living, breathing signs of Gurudev’s Mission. At Sidhbari, in every corner of the ashram and in the faces of the people in the valley, Sanatana Dharma and Gurudev’s teachings are not just recited, they are lived.