Trust comes first.
Everyone who comes to aaram trusts us with their body and with their pain. That kind of trust cannot be asked for. It has to be earned, through honesty. This page shares the intention behind everything we do.
Yoga asks you to let go: to lie down, to bend, to breathe, and to release the way you have been holding your pain.
No one lets go for a business. People let go where they feel safe, and where they trust deeply.
So before we tell you about classes and timings, we want you to know where aaram comes from, what it stands on, and what we promise in return for your trust.
"aa" is the sound of pain."Ram" is where it comes to rest.Together, they make aaram: rest and relief.
In Hindi, aaram is the word for rest, comfort and relief from pain. For millions in India, Ram is the most sacred name of the Divine: one name that holds all joy and comfort. We believe that when the Divine abides in the work, relief becomes His prasad: a blessing, given with grace.
aaram did not begin as a business plan. It began with the blessings of Gurudev, our spiritual teacher, and it moves forward only by Gurudev's benevolence.
We do not see ourselves as the doers. We are simply the hands through which care reaches people in pain. Whatever good comes from aaram is his grace. Whatever mistakes we make are ours to correct.
We believe this deeply, so at aaram nothing is dressed up. We tell you plainly that each day's class is carefully prepared in advance, so we can show you every movement clearly, and that we set a routine time for you, because healing grows from daily discipline. We tell you that yoga walks alongside your treatment and does not replace it. We tell you when a practice is not right for your body.
We will never promise a miracle. We will only tell the truth and do our work honestly.
When you place your body in our hands, you give us something precious. We do not take it lightly. We earn it every day: with a self-care lesson before your very first class and regular reminders after it, and with an easier option for every practice.
Trust works both ways. Just as you trust us, we ask you to trust and listen to your own body. When something hurts, ease off. Never push beyond your limits.
Trust grows slowly, like a seed. We will be patient with it.
Our line, aaram se YOGA se aaram, comes from this teaching. It means: practice yoga with ease, and receive relief through yoga.
We will never push you into pain to prove a point. We stay within comfort, and from that comfort, healing begins and future pain is prevented.
In India this spirit is called seva: service done with love, without chasing reward. Money and recognition are not what drive us.
But service does not mean giving everything away free. What is free is easily taken for granted, and a practice taken for granted brings no healing. A fair fee brings commitment from you, and it lets us keep improving, researching and serving more people. The majority of our surplus goes towards shubh karma and satkarma: good and noble work that helps others.
The results we do chase are yours: less pain, more ease, a safer body. Those we measure and take seriously.
We did not pick our colours from a chart. A blue form in a yellow garment is how India has pictured the Divine for thousands of years, and each of these forms carries a meaning close to aaram's heart.
In Shri Ramchandra Kripalu, Tulsidas describes Ram as beautiful as a fresh blue rain cloud, and in the next line, his yellow garment shines like lightning. A blue form in a yellow garment is exactly neel and haldi. The Ayodhya Kand also opens by bowing to Ram, dark as a blue lotus, with bow and arrow in hand.
His meditation verse begins: his form is peace itself. It calls him the colour of a rain cloud, and the one reached by yogis through meditation. He wears the yellow pitambar.
He is Ghanshyam, dark as a rain cloud, in a yellow pitambar. The Gita calls him Yogeshwar, the lord of yoga.
He became Neelkanth, the blue-throated one, by drinking the poison to save the world: taking the pain so that others could have relief. As Adiyogi, he is also the first teacher of yoga.
The lower hand holds, supports and receives. The upper hand rests on it with care. Together they make the oldest gesture of comfort there is. It says: "I am here."
Look at it one way, and it is the Divine hand holding all of us, giving us care and relief. Look at it from the other side, and it is the Guru's hand, resting on us in blessing.
This is what we want every member to feel when they unroll their mat: held, cared for, and blessed.