Talking to people about their perceptions of the world, about their personal experiences, about their beliefs, their interpretations of the Truth, their failures and triumphs, in other words about their subjective world is never easy. Listening to and understanding a narrative requires not just your interest and curiosity but a genuine respect and openness from your side. It is an art that comes only with great practice and time and even then, often, words and language are never really enough.<\/p>\n
I am only a beginner.<\/p>\n
My interest lies in understanding the role of the Guru in a disciple\u2019s life and I have undertaken 16 interviews with spiritual practitioners of 4 different Ashrams. They have all been associated with their respective Ashrams at least for 25 to 30 years.<\/p>\n
Talking to people about their Gurus and their spiritual journeys has been immensely inspiring and rewarding. My participants have opened up my world in a way that I could have never thought possible especially while pursuing a so called \u201cresearch project.\u201d I feel a simple and sincere connection with most of them. Somehow they easily found a way into my heart and I think they will remain there for a long, long time.<\/p>\n
I encountered many setbacks, fears, doubts, and made many mistakes while conducting the interviews. Some of these were easy to resolve, with others I am still struggling. Sometimes I was quick to learn from my mistakes whereas at other times I was not even aware that I was erring. Conducting a good, narrative interview is tough and it can never really be perfect.<\/p>\n
Listed below are some of the confusions I went through while pursuing the interviews. They are taken out form the field notes I wrote during my stay at the different Ashrams.<\/p>\n
Here is an extract from the field notes that I wrote after my second interview. It shows clearly how manipulative I was, and how I was trying to get the \u201cright\u201d answers, and then I realized how futile that turned out to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want certain answers in a certain way \u2014\u00a0I re-ask the question and try my best to bring out the answers in the shape and tone I want them in. I have a certain map already made in my head and I want to fit everything into it. What I should do instead is to be ready and open to make a new map every time…\u00a0The language and background is often very different of the respondent and myself. We try and bring a balance and try and understand each other but in doing this (trying to make a somewhat readable map) the depth of the sharing takes a back seat.<\/p>\n
In order to really understand the other \u2014\u00a0I must be silent from within. Deep thoughts, experiences, feelings can only be understood in a respectful Silence. Language is incapable of getting the essence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here is another extract after the 5th<\/sup>\u00a0interview (I think I had already learnt some of the lessons):<\/p>\n “Some of them completely did not answer some of the questions. I did not push them, did not try to force them into replying. I did not put words into their mouth, did not try to interpret immediately and translate into my language and understanding. I just let it flow\u2026. ”<\/p>\n To sum up and illustrate the sheer difficulty of conducting a good qualitative interview here is an incident that took place in the Ramana Maharshi Ashram.\u00a0\u00a0I had been gently pestering a 90 year old sadhak to grant me an interview. He kept telling me \u201cCome tomorrow.\u201d On the day I was leaving he saw me and said,<\/p>\n \u201cAh, your interview! Ok, I am ready but remember, \u2018That Self which is in you; that Self which is in me; that Self which is in all \u2014\u00a0feel that Self and then ask your questions.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n What could I ask then? Nothing!<\/p>\n Talking to people about their perceptions of the world, about their personal experiences, about their beliefs, their interpretations of the Truth, their failures and triumphs, in other words about their subjective world is never easy. Listening to and understanding a narrative requires not just your interest and curiosity but a genuine respect and openness from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0},"categories":[9,7],"tags":[48],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ipi.org.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ipi.org.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ipi.org.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ipi.org.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ipi.org.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ipi.org.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":218,"href":"https:\/\/www.ipi.org.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216\/revisions\/218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ipi.org.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ipi.org.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ipi.org.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}