For over ten years now the Manor has organized an annual sabbatical, a six month residential course for men. Ketan Suchak shares:
“I enrolled this year, as six of us spent three months in India, beginning in September with a three-week stay at a Mumbai monastery. There we studied the scripture, ‘Nectar of Instruction’.
We next flew to Calcutta and booked a car to Mayapur. The spiritual city is the birthplace of Lord Chaitanya, the place where the Lord danced and sang the Hare Krishna mantra. We spent ten days there and in the evenings I enjoyed listening to melodious prayers in the Sri Mayapur Chandrodaya temple.
We then stayed four nights in a beach guesthouse in Puri, Orissa, famous for the ancient temple of Lord Jagannath. We saw the beautiful deities and sampled some of the 56 (not a typo!) delicious food items daily prepared and offered to the Lord.
Then we joined 3,500 pilgrims on an awesome, well-organised and spiritually enlightening 8-day pilgrimage of Hampi and Udupi in South India. We witnessed breath-taking views and visited sites recounted in the ancient Ramayana.
Next we spent ten days witnessing the sheer devotion and beauty of Vrindavan, where Krishna spent His childhood days. In the evenings, we enjoyed beautiful singing of prayers in the lush grounds of the Krishna Balaram temple. We embarked on a six-hour walking pilgrimage around the sacred Govardhan Hill – some walking barefoot! We also visited the ISKCON cow sanctuary, famous for its fresh, handmade medicinal cow products.
We returned to the UK in time for the second half of the sabbatical that began in January, as fifteen of us participated in a course aimed at gaining a comprehensive understanding of Krishna conscious philosophy, culture, history and scriptures.
The sabbatical provided us with an extraordinary opportunity to relish the spiritual treasures of India, the discipline to rise early and relish meditation, and an invaluable experience of monastic temple life”.