The workshop aimed at helping aspirants become conscious participants in the exhilarating adventure of personal re-invention. For those who have received the clarion call for union with the Divine and self-consecration for His work here on earth, daily life changes completely. To become a suitable servitor of the Divine Consciousness requires a proactive and single-minded aspiration of evolving towards integral self- perfection. The terms ‘evolving’, ‘integral’ and ‘self-perfection’ have specific, and yet very comprehensive imports in the Integral Yoga lexicon that need to be appreciated, internalized and put into daily practice towards Siddhi. ‘Freedom from’ has to be complemented by a higher ‘Freedom to’, the practice of which has to be deployed both in inner and outer action, for spiritual and material perfection.
The facilitator for the programme, Neelesh Marik is an experimenter, questioner, student and explorer of the human potential space where behaviour, systems, culture and consciousness affect personal growth and creative novelty. He has three decades of experience in blue-chip corporations, like Coats Viyella, Andersen Consulting and Infosys Technologies as well as start-ups. These assignments covered a wide array of consumer and industrial products, management consulting and IT, in various countries and cultures. Over the last decade he has been engaged in multi- and trans-disciplinary research and study across philosophy, social sciences, psychology, complexity and spirituality, with a total immersion in Integral Yoga for the last few years. He has a B.Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and a PGDBM from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore.
The first session titled ‘Appreciating Integrality’ focused on understanding the import of Integrality and Integral Yoga towards self perfection. With the foundation of this understanding we have to embark upon the journey of Yoga of SelfPerfection to participate in the Divine Action and enjoy His progressive manifestation of the Life Divine on earth.
In ‘The Mechanics of Ascent and Descent’ – the second session of the series, Neelesh focused on cosmogenesis. He highlighted that once we understand how cosmogenesis is taking place, we can take a mirroring approach to retrace that path. If we aspire to do this, the Divine will do the work for us. All he asks from us is to aspire for it. This is Yoga. He does not offer it gratuitously, nor does he impose it on anybody.
The third session ‘Self Perfection of the Mental Man’ highlighted that we commence the journey of Integral Yoga stationed as the ‘mental man’. Self Perfection for the mental man is the recipe for what we can do as we aspire to move beyond the mental man. The Divine allows the mind, with its limitations, to be the experience of a large portion of humanity for a long period of time because He wants humanity to affirm itself in the ignorance before perfecting in the knowledge. Thus, for most people, the mind is the highest station, but for the Sadhakas of Integral Yoga it is at best the starting-point.
‘Mastering and Transcending the Guna’, the fourth session talked about the fact that working of the Gunas holds us back and till we have transcended this working, our surrender can not be complete and effective. In Yoga of Transformation, liberation is not an escape – not a ‘liberation from’ but a ‘liberation to’. This ‘freedom to’ effectuates only when the gunas have been transcended and mastered in a higher unity.
The final session titled ‘Perfect Consensus for Divine Action’ highlighted the role of spiritual equality and spiritual power in Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga of self Perfection.
The programme was very well managed by the Neelesh Marik with an intense interplay of discourse, practice and interaction. It was beautifully received by almost 20 attendees, who participated enthusiastically, sharing their insights and seeking answers to their various queries.
Feedback
“I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to Neelesh for the sessions with sio much clarity in the Presentations. My journey into Sri Aurobindo and the Mother has been very recent and I am filled with awe at the sheer volume of their bwritings and the work They have carried out.”
“The workshop has motivated me to come out of my comfort-zone and put in more personal effort.”
“Heartfelt thanks Neelesh today and the other days for the wonderful sessions.”
