The three-day workshop with Dr. Monica Gulati centered on the practice and principle of self-giving in Integral Yoga, drawing upon the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.
Day 1 opened with the example of Pavitra-da’s passing, highlighting how a lifetime of sincere offering can culminate in total merging with the Divine. Dr. Gulati stressed that self-giving is not partial but total — every thought, movement, and state belongs to the Divine. She explained that suffering arises from resistance to this law of offering. Participants reflected on common obstacles — pleasure/pain, gain/loss, respect/insult — which dissipate concentration. Practical meditations were introduced, including body-scanning and conscious offering of sensations, thoughts, and regrets upward like camphor smoke, cultivating immobility, peace, and quietude as conditions for receptivity.
Day 2 deepened the theme through the Mother’s story of Creation and Sri Aurobindo’s teaching that the universe itself is sacrifice. Dr. Gulati explained Agni as the Divine Will and inner priest of sacrifice — the flame that carries all movements upward for purification. She urged participants to recognize desires, impulses, or impurities and consciously offer them into this fire. Practices involved scanning the body, recognizing sensations, and offering them upward in flames. The emphasis was on repetition and sincerity — even laziness, distraction, or confusion can themselves be offered. Monica encouraged daily experimentation, even before sleep, to transform ordinary states into acts of offering.
Day 3 addressed reflections of participants and specific notes on the practice were also shared. Dr. Gulati reassured that this tension is itself a sign of progress and should be entrusted to the Mother’s guidance. She cautioned against passive surrender, which may foster tamas, and instead emphasized conscious self-giving with perseverance. Participants were encouraged to renounce attachment to “drama” and personal stories, and to treat thoughts and emotions as empty forms to be dissolved in offering. Meditative readings from Savitri helped anchor the practice in the lived experience of the psychic being. The workshop concluded with the central reminder: through all trials and stages of practice, the one necessity is to cling to the Mother; everything else is secondary.
In summary, the workshop progressively unfolded the path of self-giving — from understanding its necessity (Day 1), to engaging its inner mechanics through Agni (Day 2), to consolidating it as a lifelong orientation amidst life’s challenges (Day 3). Participants left with practical tools, inner insights, and a strengthened aspiration to make every moment an act of offering.
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