Dit blog werd geschreven door Olga Estadella

Recently I came back from teaching Osteopathy at Sri Sri University in Odisha in India. It is such an special place and I had such a great experience that I would like to share this with you..

I wish I had studied there

It is India’s first smoke, alcohol and drug free campus. It is a University that aims to bring together the best of Western innovation such as osteopathy studies, with the ancient wisdom and values of the East through programs in yoga and naturopathy among others. The offer that such a young university has is very impressive in Postgraduate and Undergraduate programs. From Osteopathy to MBA in General management, AgriBusiness, M.A in Good Governance and Public Policy, Yogic Sicience, Sankrit, Philosophy. In the Undergrad’s they have bachelor of Architecture, of Commerce and Tourism, of Fine Arts , Music and Dance. It is an University where meditation, Sudarshan Kriya practice, knowledge, satsang are part of the daily life of the students. Where program such as Silence Courses and DNS are compulsory to all students. Who doesn’t want their children to study and live in such a place!! I wish I was a student myself there!

Under the ground

The evening I arrived at SSU it was dark and I could not see much, but I could already feel a special energy in the campus. The welcoming I had from the osteopathy students and staff on that same evening already was very warm and caring. I felt home right away, and I was eager to get immerse in the experience, the sooner the better! When I woke up in the morning the early sun brought a lovely light to the campus with a beautiful and contrasting reddish color of the earth. The campus was so much bigger than I had expected. The first thing got my attention was how many buildings were partly “hidden” under ground! Then I learned that the 185 Acres of the campus used to be an old mining site and the already existing excavations had been very smartly used to build-in different faculties and even sports facilities. You can imagine that this is a great advantage during the hot summer days, since it is easier to keep the coolness from the AC inside the buildings.

It was time to go to class and to start. As I opened the door all the students stood up and greeted me with a “Buenos dias”, they have even learned how to say good morning in Spanish! What a fantastic and surprising start of my next 3 week teaching.

It is such a joy to teach these 9 students who were eager to learn, who are very involved in class, taking notes and practicing any new osteopathic technique I share with them. They all had a solid medical background (some of them even being doctors) and they were all developing a wonderful palpation and sensitivity skills in their hands, really needed when they become osteopaths and need to practice visceral or craneo-sacral techniques.

Like a dream…

Yes, it was very intense 3 weeks but I loved every single minute. Three weeks full of stories and experiences passed so fast! Time to say good-bye arrived. I know it was not a “real” good-bye, I’m taking all these wonderful students in my heart! Was it a dream? I felt like this also the first time when Guruji told me, more than 10 years ago, that I should go to India to teach Osteopathy and also when, just a few months ago, he asked me to go to SSU! Is it all part of a big and wonderful dream?

Olga Estadella is van origine Spaanse, teacher en woont al een aantal jaren in Den Haag.