This four-day workshop facilitated by Ankita was an impactful and beautiful experience for the participants. The collective field was receptive to the guided meditative experiences to open up to the subtler and richer depths of the body's possibilities. The meaningful practices over a period of four consecutive days helped the participants to build in their bodies, a window of growing trust to expand consciously and feel nourished by the Divine Presence exclusively.

On the first day of the session, Ankita set the intention for all of us to participate with authenticity so that the deeper truth within us can manifest itself and shift our frequency to bring to us all that is needed in our journey to transform our being. With this clear intention, we engaged in a guided meditation to experience the vastness of the body.

The essence of the meditation was to guide and help the participants to-

• Extend our awareness outward with our eyes closed, to this whole group, to a unique field inside us and in everyone.  As Sri Aurobindo says – Nothing happens by chance. Nothing is a coincidence.

• Take our awareness between our eyebrows and visualise an image of an inverted tree here with its branches coming from the sky and its leaves spreading across as well as outside our body. We probably can't even see where the branches begin. Nothing is untouched by this tree. Everything is part of this tree. Stay with this vision in our own way.
• The tree is spreading its roots across, not only vertically, even horizontally. Our breath, thoughts and body is all within the tree. The space around us, the whole room, the house, everything is contained in the tree. Nothing in this tree is separate from one another. All points are connected by a higher intelligence.
• Get in touch with this wideness which is nourishing this tree from high above. Turn each point in our body towards it because everything is already part of it. Gently nudge the parts which assumed some other identity, the parts which got trapped in some limitation, some narrowness, just gently turn that part towards this height.

After this beautiful practice, Ankita shared that this workshop is inspired by an experience of the possibility of this substance which is underneath everything both in the depth and in the height, it is the base for this creation. It's only when we go into the depth and realise the potential of our body to feel the vastness, that a new world opens up because now our body itself begins to perceive its divinity. This is the truth of the possibility which is already there inside of us. We just have to get in touch with that.

The second day of the workshop began with a meditation where the participants were led into a phase of inner purification to become detached from the surface level consciousness and aspire to arrive at this Divine Consciousness. The essence of the meditation was -

•  We come into our heart centre like our heart itself has developed an eye and is watching itself. Find a resting place at any point in the heart first and visualise the body of the Divine Mother/Krishna/ any other form of divinity, full of white or golden glow whatever is coming naturally. Bow down. to this Presence.
• Visualise this body of the Divine inside our heart during inhalation. As the heart expands with inhalation, the body of the Divine is in our heart. And as we exhale, we are in the heart of the Divine.
•  We allow the body to become transparent. Divine in you, you in the Divine. Our breath becomes the breath of the Divine. Breath of the Divine becomes our breath with our whole body participating in this movement. Nothing is untouched. Even the space outside of our body, is within the Divine. Inhalation, exhalation, all happen inside the body of the Divine. And we are situated inside the Divine.
• We rest in the substance of the Divine, which is plastic, luminous, cleansing, nourishing. Allow the body to remain transparent. 
• We communicate with the body to know which part needs healing which part has some difficulty or is simply asking for more nourishment? Without thinking from the mind, go to that point in the body. Become aware of this part. It could even be physical difficulty, or a lack of trust in some part of the body or a memory or an emotion or just a general fatigue. Simply watch it. Do not get entangled.
• We suggest to the parts, the cells of the body which may have some blackness, darkness, greyness, to let go when they feel ready and turn towards the Divine Presence as though we are showing the ‘Divine Presence’ which is still enveloping us, to that point.
• We go very minutely from point to point in the whole area sensing, feeling, seeing the Divine Presence. The cells within our body are capable of seeing, sensing and hearing. We only have to nudge them, “If you need time, that's fine too because the Divine will still be here”. 
• We remain aware of our breath within the Divine's body merging with the breath of the Divine, our heartbeat merging with the heartbeat of the Divine. With our body being transparent as much as it is being allowed by itself at this moment, make a prayer, a heartful prayer that's emerging at this moment.

The participants developed the understanding that the frequency of gratitude, love and safety are the first nourishment for the body and hence a good starting point. The subtle signs emerging in our day-to-day mundane life have all the clues about what the body is holding and what it needs to release for your healing. With the Divine Presence, the body starts to trust and heal. As our consciousness expands itself, we slowly and steadily aspire to arrive at this Divine consciousness.

Ankita shared that Mother and Sri Aurobindo’s whole work is about creating a Force which directly does the work, spontaneously and precisely, exactly the way it is supposed to happen. If we can connect with this Force in any part of our being, and surrender to this Force, then the sadhana is done for you. The Force which they have developed, itself works through each cell of the body. This Force carries in itself the knowledge, the action and the final manifestation.

     The following lines from sacred texts read by Ankita deeply sealed the aim and essence of the second day session.

Even the body shall remember God,

Nature shall draw back from mortality

And Spirit's fires shall guide the earth's blind force;

..........

The Spirit shall look out through Matter's gaze

And Matter shall reveal the Spirit's face,

..........

These senses of heavenly sense grow capable,

The flesh and nerves of a strange ethereal joy

And mortal bodies of immortality.

..........

Nature shall live to manifest secret God,

The Spirit shall take up the human play,

This earthly life become the life divine.

……..

The Light now distant shall grow native here,

The Strength that visits us our comrade power;

The Ineffable shall find a secret voice,

The Imperishable burn through Matter's screen

Making this mortal body godhead's robe 

-Savitri

Past and gone are three mortal generations: the fourth and last into the Sun will enter.

-Rig-Veda, VIII. 102. 14

“In the depths of our being, in the silence of contemplation, a luminous force  permeates our consciousness with a vast and luminous peace which prevails  over all petty reactions and prepares us for union with the Divine, the meaning of  individual existence.

Thus, the purpose and goal of life is not suffering and struggle but an all-powerful  and happy realization.”

 -Mother’s Agenda,February 7, 1972

“There is no ambiguity or vagueness in the movement, it is clear and strong and  definite. If a small human mind stands in front of the Divine Universal Mind and  clings to its separateness, it will remain what it is, a small bounded thing,  incapable of knowing the nature of the higher reality or even of coming in contact  with it. The two continue to stand apart and are, qualitatively as well as  quantitatively, quite different from each other. But if the little human mind  surrenders, it will be merged in the Divine Universal Mind; it will be one in quality  and quantity with it; losing nothing but its own limitations and deformations, it will  receive from it its vastness and luminous clearness. The small existence will  change its nature; it will put on the nature of the greater truth to which it  surrenders. But if it resists and fights, if it revolts against the Universal Mind, then  a conflict and pressure are inevitable in which what is weak and small cannot fail  to be drawn into that power and immensity. If it does not surrender, its only other  possible fate is absorption and extinction. A human being, who comes into  contact with the Divine Mind and surrenders, will find that his own mind begins at  once to be purified of its obscurities and to share in the power and the knowledge  of the Divine Universal Mind. If he stands in front, but separated, without any  contact, he will remain what he is, a little drop of water in the measureless  vastness.”

4 August 1929 (CWM-VOL3)

The third day of the workshop started with a meditative practice to help the participants connect with the frequency of Love, and Ananda. Ankita shared that Mother and Sri Aurobindo are always there, so tangibly and concretely, as if they're always watching over whoever has this little opening in any one part of the being and their help is immediate, precise, and concrete, exactly what is needed.  The essence of this meditation practice was to-

•  Invoke the Mother-Sri Aurobindo's Presence together or Krishna- Radha or Shiva-Shakti, whoever you feel connected to the most, the two together represent Love. The vibration of love has given birth to this universe, to all other vibrations, to all the light. This love is boundless, infinite in nature.
• The two have to be together in our consciousness. Let our consciousness enter into their subtle substance which is made of a subtle luminous, glowing substance which is plastic, malleable in nature and in texture.

• Open ourselves to receive the Delight, the Ananda in its purest form, from their pure union and and get suffused with it.
• Descend down our awareness into our body and take this loving gaze, awareness to the random points into the cells of our body. At each point invoke this Union, this substance.
• Following our own rhythm, in one moment we are aware of the self and in the next movement, we are aware of the Presence of Shiva-Shakti, Radha-Krishna. 
• Each cell must be reminded of its forgotten origin — Truth.  Let the subtle substance of their bodies flow into our organs, bones, blood vessels. Nothing should remain untouched. A part of the body may appear too silent, too uninvolved. Include that part, let it participate. We can even chant their names at each point, letting each point in our body be reminded of this original vibration of pure Love and Ananda.
• Taking our awareness at our feet and below the feet, gently allow this awareness of Love to enter into the space under our feet so that this Presence of Mother and Sri Aurobindo can infuse all the inconscient, subconscient with the Substance of Love. Let the shadows be touched by the Divine Presence and there be Love and Light in the darkest corners. You can chant their names there. Let there only be this substance of Love, Eternal Love of consciousness, the Power, the Shakti, the energy.

The meditation was further empowered by some impactful readings as shared below-

To live, to love are signs of infinite things,

Love is a glory from eternity’s spheres. 

Abased, disfigured, mocked by baser mights

That steal his name and shape and ecstasy,

He is still the Godhead by which all can change. 

A mystery wakes in our inconscient stuff,

A bliss is born that can remake our life.

……..

Rare is the cup fit for love’s nectar wine,

As rare the vessel that can hold God’s birth;

A soul made ready through a thousand years

Is the living mould of a supreme Descent.

- Savitri

“Love is, in its essence, the joy of identity; it finds its ultimate expression in the  bliss of union. Between the two lie all the phases of its universal manifestation.

At the beginning of this manifestation, in the purity of its origin, love is composed  of two movements, two complementary poles of the urge towards complete  oneness. On one hand there is the supreme power of attraction and on the other  the irresistible need for absolute self-giving. No other movement could have  better bridged the abyss that was created when in the individual being  consciousness was separated from its origin and became unconsciousness.”

“…..Of all the forces at work in the universe, love is the most powerful, the most  irresistible. Without love the world would fall back into the chaos of  inconscience.”

- The Mother, Bulletin, August 1953

The third day session also helped the participants to understand that in our earth journey, the horizontal as well as the vertical movements (the inward and the outward united by Love) are required for the evolutionary nature of life. This union is the Force of Mother and Sri Aurobindo at play. Something which was true yesterday doesn't necessarily have to be true today. When we accept and say that we don't know yet, that itself is a frequency shift because then you are creating space for something that knows. And that something is waiting for at least some of us to say that the past can now go finally and a shadow-less ‘New’ can come.

Ankita also spoke about the four personalities of the Divine Mother – Mahakali, Maheshwari, Mahasaraswati, and Mahalakshmi as described by Sri Aurobindo.  in the book — The Mother. Towards the end in the book, Sri Aurobindo shares that there are more personalities of the Divine Mother and they are needed for the Supramental manifestation but as of now in our evolution, they are hiding.

The session ended with an impactful reading as follows:

“There are other great Personalities of the Divine Mother, but they were more difficult to  bring down and have not stood out in front with so much prominence in the evolution of  the earth-spirit. There are among them Presences indispensable for the supramental  realisation, — most of all one who is her Personality of that mysterious and powerful  ecstasy and Ananda which flows from a supreme divine Love, the Ananda that alone  can heal the gulf between the highest heights of the supramental spirit and the lowest  abysses of Matter, the Ananda that holds the key of a wonderful divinest Life and even  now supports from its secrecies the work of all the other Powers of the universe.” 

-SRI AUROBINDO in the book, The Mother

Sweet Mother, what Personality is this and when will she manifest?

I have prepared my answer. I knew someone would ask me that, because of all things  this is the most interesting in this passage, and I have prepared my answer. I have  prepared my answer to this and my answer to another question also. But first I am going  to read this one.

You asked: “What personality is this and when will she come?” (Silence) And this is my  reply:

“She has come, bringing with her a splendour of power and love, an intensity of divine  joy unknown to the earth so far.

“The physical atmosphere was completely changed by it, saturated with new and  marvellous possibilities.

“But for her to be able to settle and act down here, she needed to meet with at least a  minimum of receptivity, to find at least one human being having the requisite qualities in  the vital and physical nature, a kind of super-Parsifal endowed with a spontaneous and  integral purity, but at the same time having a strong and balanced body in order to bear  the intensity of the Ananda she had brought without giving way.

“Till now she has not obtained what was necessary. Men obstinately remain men and  do not want to or cannot become supermen. They can only receive and express a love  cut to their measure — a human love! And the marvellous joy of the divine Ananda  escapes their perception.

“So, at times, she thinks of withdrawing, finding that the world is not ready to receive  her. And this would be a cruel loss. It is true that for the moment her presence is more  nominal than active, for she does not have the opportunity to manifest herself. But even  so, she is a powerful help in the Work. For, of all the aspects of the Mother, this is the  one which has the greatest power for the transformation of the body. Indeed, the cells  which are able to vibrate to the contact of divine joy, to receive and preserve it, are  regenerated cells on the way to becoming immortal. But the vibration of divine joy and  those of pleasure cannot lodge together in the same vital and physical system. So one  must have totally renounced experiencing all pleasure in order to be in a state to receive  the Ananda. But very few are those who can renounce pleasure without, by the very  fact, renouncing all participation in active life and plunging into a rigorous asceticism.  And among those who know that it is in active life that the transformation must take  place, some try to see pleasure as a more or less warped form of Ananda, and thus  justify in themselves the quest for personal satisfaction, creating in themselves an  almost insuperable obstacle to their own transformation.”

25 August 1954 (CWM-VOL6)

The last day of the workshop commenced with a beautiful meditation practice to help us go beyond our limited consciousness and experience the higher planes. The gist of this meditation practice was to:

• Bring a sense of gratitude in our bodies, our thoughts, emotions, mind as we humbly bow down to the beautiful Presence of the Divine Mother and Sri Aurobindo. We connect with our deepest aspiration and offer this at their feet.
• We allow this breath to bring equanimity. Plunge from the outer skin to go inward. Drop our breath in our forehead and see the growing emptiness and nothingness.
• We become aware of the space above our head and try to sense this area, concentrating on it.  Let this emptiness/nothingness consume us with peace. If a vision / color appears on its own, watch it, sense it, feel it and then roll it up. Our only agenda is to stay with nothingness. We lose touch with our head and fully arrive at this point of emptiness and become this point. Emptiness is watching emptiness. 

• Consciousness is all that there is now. Plunge deeper into this point and just stay as if there is this one vibration of Absolute Peace. Cling to this one Force.
• Consciousness has completely internalized itself, and this point is all that is left. The subtle prana is already merged with this point.
• We keep the body open in receptivity, surrendered to this point. Slowly, we come down from where our awareness was stationed and feel what's coming with us. We let it enter our body even if it's too subtle for us to understand. We let it reach each corner of our body and bathe us in. Let it enter and consume all our shadows and blind spots.
• At this stage, we have to remember to pray that may humility directed towards the Divine enter into each part of the being so that vanity, ego and lower vital doesn't hijack the divine nourishment. May this ‘Psychic Fire’ burn more intensely for greater peace, vastness and realization only because this is what the Divine wants, not for any other reason.
• We get in touch with this fire burning in the depth of our being and let this fire go higher and higher in aspiration to continuously purify the remnants of falsehood, vanity, arrogance, in-exactitude, ego, jealousy. Let this fire in our being identify with the cosmic fire.

The experience of this beautiful meditation was further enhanced as Ankita guided the participants to continue to remain in this state of aspiration while she read a prayer from the Divine Mother.

September 6, 1914  

Higher, ever higher! Let us never be satisfied with what is achieved, let us not stop  at any realisation, let us march always onwards, ceaselessly, energetically,  towards an ever completer manifestation, an ever higher and more total  consciousness.… Yesterday’s victory must be only a stepping-stone to the victory  of tomorrow, and the power of the day gone by a weakness beside the effectivity  to come. 

O Mother Divine, Thy march is triumphal and uninterrupted. He who unites with  Thee in integral love journeys unceasingly towards ever vaster horizons, towards  an ever completer realisation, leaping from peak to peak in the splendour of Thy  light, to the conquest of the marvellous secrets of the Unknown and their integral  manifestation. 

Ankita shared that It's only when the psychic being comes not as just an influence, but as a complete presence, then ego starts to recede. Ego never goes away completely, but our psychic being immediately tells us about that wrong movement that the ego has taken, so we won't be in oblivion. So, it’s important to invoke the psychic fire and always be in connection with that.

The participants related to the little nuances of horizontal and vertical movement shared by Ankita. She explained that the inward, psychic movement is personal in nature. The vertical movement is impersonal in nature. There are planes of intuition, planes of vision, planes of spiritual illuminations, knowledge etc. which can open up for you depending on how receptive you remain to the higher force. She reminded the participants that it does not depend on our effort alone but also on what the Divine wants to give us when we have deep love for impersonal truth and genuinely care about Truth and Truth alone. Whatever comes, we allow our body to be in a passive sort of a state to soak in that Force which is a healing substance. She further added that the horizontal movement refers to the activities in the world. In Integral Yoga, this horizontal movement, the outward action is important in addition to the vertical movement alone. So when we interact with the world, we should remain connected to the higher planes from within. The future evolution demands that we receive the Force and then act on it in the physical world.

The last session ended with a reading of a passage from the Mother.

December 6, 1967, Mother’s Agenda

“There are those who found this, the vertical ascent to the heights, and who isolated  themselves from the world (they weren’t able to do that completely because they didn’t have the knowledge, but they tried). That’s not the solution. Then there are those who want to help, the generous ones who are like this (gesture of horizontal expansion),  and who catch everything, even the mental illnesses of all the people around them. The  truth is the two together: this, the passive, receptive state (vertical gesture), and that,  the active state of action and radiating influence (horizontal gesture). And the body has  become wholly conscious of the dual movement and is working to realize it in detail.

A great problem has been solved.

“And it’s interesting because those two attitudes can be almost simultaneous, but they  are … From the standpoint of vibration, of vibratory sensation, they are two opposites  that combine with each other: receptivity like this (gesture), towards the Consciousness,  the Force, Power, Light, all, that comes from above, and naturally Love (but about Love  I will speak later). And it comes (gesture of descent), it comes down and everything,  everything is ab-so-lute-ly passive and receptive (gesture of vertical opening): it absorbs  and absorbs and absorbs, like that, totally given, in the state of a sponge that absorbs  and absorbs and absorbs…. At the same time, there is the relationship with the world

(horizontal gesture) and the Power coming through and working, with the sense of the  Force, the Action, the Thing imposing itself. It’s magnificent. And in the SAME vibratory  radiance of … of “That.” Always the same all-powerful Perfection being absorbed and  acting (gesture of flowing through Mother over the world in a perpetual movement).

That seems to be the secret of all-powerfulness. There is no need at all to go through  mental knowledge — that diminishes, shrinks, hardens.

I”t’s an acute state of consciousness, that is, wholly awakened. In the cells of the body, it  dispels all darkness. Naturally, it’s a long and slow work, but it dispels, it’s a state that  dispels all darkness everywhere. And darkness is always the sign (sign or cause) of a  disorder. We know there is still plenty of it. It’s a slow work, a whole world! When you …  (how should I put it?) when you descend into (one can say descend or concentrate on)  this cellular constitution of the body, on the body’s scale, it’s an innumerable world! An  innumerable world. Everything is as though made up of innumerable tiny points, and  each point has to be awakened and flooded with consciousness and light — a long  work.”

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“Resting myself in Total Vastness”

“Being surrounded by THE MOTHER, and experiencing HER presence in myself at the same time.”

“All practices were very peaceful, satisfying. Felt a white glow deep in the center of my heart.”

“Peaceful and the guidance of Ms. Ankita Sharma was absolutely very informative and an amazing experience during each session.”

“It has made me helpful to progress one step further in realising my true consciousness.”

“Beautiful, deep experiences in meditation through Ankita's guidance.”

“All the practices were of great help”

“Filled with Divine Guidance.”