A Week long sanyas in the himalayas - to celebrate life !

I do realize that life is what it is, it ensures an adventurous experience for one and all. While it has beautiful peaks and mountains, it also has deep valleys because it is quite natural that one cannot exist without the other. A mountain peak can only be defined as such if there is a valley next to it, else won't it be called a plain or a plateau? Without the ups and downs of life won't life be called death? Probably that's why when we are not too happy with life, we tend to say our life is dead or has plateaued! In today's age though life is nothing less than a bumpy ride, I am delighted that even youngsters are talking about understanding and accepting this reality of life. Humanity through the ages has become more courageous, conscious and strong yet we are still in discomfort at times, we still want clarity, we still want something.....So what's that something we want? What's that something which keeps us unsettled and anxious at times? Well I guess what we really want or need is a state of mental Joy...a state of true happiness! I say 'mental joy' and not just joy because people confuse it with life situations. I am not talking about joyful outer experiences but a state of deep 'mental joy'...irrespective of outer circumstances. Life is bound to be full of ups and downs but if we can maintain our mental balance we can really be a very happy lot. "We will become like rivers, flowing as gracefully through the mountains as through the plains and valleys." And then a truly happy person always overflows and spreads joy all around. A Joyful person is like a lit charcoal, it helps light up all the other charcoals around. Therefore since last approximately 23 years, I have always believed in honing up my skills to be able to live like a Sanyasi / ascetic wherever and in any condition I live. By a Sanyasi, I mean a person who lives in the world, celebrates life, goes about doing everything needed to be done but keeps a complete mental balance! So an ascetic as per me lives exactly the way everybody else lives in the world but just alters his/her mental attitude. A Sanyasi, as per me, neither gets perturbed with difficult situations or people nor gets too excited with success or heavenly experiences. So, is being in a calm, joyful and balanced state a matter of some one-off course or certification or some eureka experience?...May be not! Life is all about learning each moment how to achieve this state of 'permanent and ever new joy'...as the ancient yogi's say "Sat-Chitt-Anand". I was extremely lucky that by the grace of my gurus and masters I was able to understand this fact quite early in life.... Well, but was I able to manage this balanced state, a