How Letting Go Brought Me Happiness at Gyan Sarovar

I’m Virginia Sharma. I’ve spent the last three or four days here in Mount Abu at Gyan Sarovar, and it’s been a very timely experience for me. I think that I’ve been grappling with a few questions in my otherwise very good life—a very successful life—that I haven’t really found my answers to. I’ve been looking for the answers in many different places, and I think the biggest takeaway for me is that many of those answers reside within. It’s a different kind of journey when you connect with something within yourself.

A lot more work to do to connect with myself. The gift I’m going to give myself is: can I do one new thing every week? I think that if you leave and try to do everything together as soon as you get back, after a few days you get busy, you’ll fall off the wagon. So, I’m going to be very intentional about introducing some of the practices in a slow way but in a way that stays with me, hopefully through the rest of my life.

When you are surrounded by the pause, when you think about a world where negativity or scarcity is present, you realize you can shift your perspective. These last three days have taught me that the same situation can be viewed differently. Instead of seeing scarcity, you can turn it into positivity. This place has shown me that there is ample everything—ample food, air, space, joy, and companionship. If we can carry this idea of abundance back into our world, it can change our mindset. There’s plenty of everything for everyone.

I came here looking for ways to get over grief. Specifically, I recently—or a year ago—lost my mother. I thought meditation might be a path out of grief or that there might be techniques to feel less sad, less lonely, and feel less of a sense of loss. What I realized in a session with one of the sisters was profound. She asked, “Are you grieving for yourself or for your mother?” This made me understand the difference between attachment and love. If you truly love someone, you don’t try to hold them back for your own needs. If you truly love, you want them to continue their journey, which is right for them.

This realization was a big moment for me. I came looking for coping techniques for grief but discovered that it’s about accepting the quality of the time we had together rather than the quantity of years. Her soul has gone on her journey, and I wish her well, peace, and love. Wherever her soul goes next, it’s about letting go and celebrating the relationship we had.

I’m smiling because I thought I was looking for a way not to be sad, but instead, I’ve found happiness. I’m happy and will be happy forever. This place has given so much, and it inspires me to take this generosity back to my world. I hope to create similar feelings of abundance and positivity with the people I interact with.

I’m so happy to now belong to this spiritual family. This has been a great experience for me.

Om Shanti and thank you.