Fashion Observer Magazine Sept. 2014 | Page 114

Arrival at Ananda is an experience beyond words, as the Palace doors swing open the feeling is one of having arrived. A special welcome includes receiving a beautiful Radraksha mala necklace and your very own personal butler to escort you to the room. The resort is built around a Maharaja’s palace and features a restored Viceroy’s Palace, world-class Spa, 75 deluxe rooms and suites and 3 villas with breathtaking views of the Ganges River but the soul of this place is the wellness philosophy which they teach with such service and love and the people who make all of this possible but at the heart of this incredible retreat are the teachings and principles of the East and the West. The focus is on rediscovering happiness and self-contentment, something we’re all searching for everywhere else outside of ourselves instead of within. Ananda offers a plethora of treatments, activities, food choices, wellness techniques, detox cleansing practices and yogic teachings of Vedanta, where I learned that spirituality, Religion and God is possible within the material existence and that achieving success is not against God but can only be achieved with God. To create a life that is rich both spiritually and materialistically takes great skill. We must all strive for a better life in every way possible and through the Vedanta classes at Ananda, I finally rid myself of the guilt for wanting to live with the standards with which I do. Frugality is not for everyone, it is given to a Brahman, not everyone is here to live like a Gandhi, there are standards for us all and achieving that standard is what will bring us happiness, peace and contentment.