This 4-week workshop spread over 8 sessions conducted by Dr. Yogesh Mohan was an experiential and holistic attempt at leveraging Integral Yoga to achieve Integral Health. It was based on the premise that a vast majority of the illnesses of the body are psychosomatic in their origin. Even for those illnesses that may have other causes such as heredity or accidents, the healing process is influenced by the state of mind and emotions. In fact, much more than the mind and emotions, our consciousness and the divine Force that descends can have a very profound impact on our health and healing. Hence, it isn't sufficient to focus on to work on one particular disharmony or disease in isolation but we need to bring peace, harmony and the love and force of the divine Presence into each layer of the being – from the mind, emotions, life force, the will and finally into the body at a cellular level. That will bring harmony and strength to each layer and our illness or disease, which is often a symptom of some disharmony, would be healed as a result.
Dr. Yogesh set the expectations that the workshop would be very experiential and the participants would need an attitude of faith, aspiration, surrender, openness and receptivity to the higher spiritual Force that would do the work. In each session, this was attempted by invoking the Light, Presence and the Force of the Divine Mother to effect peace, harmony and healing in all parts of the being. All the 8 sessions were intuitively guided without a rigid step by step plan but they all came together in a cohesive manner with each session building on the previous session and leading into the next session.
This workshop was also a collective yoga where the aspirations, experiences and sharing of each participant helped the rest of the group. Dr. Yogesh enabled it nicely by having all the participants introduce themselves, share their aspirations for the programme and setting expectations to everyone about the overall methodology and nature of these sessions. After every experiential session, he would gently encourage participants to share their experiences and discuss their questions. This also made for an interactive experience, one in which all the participants felt comfortable with and opened up without inhibitions.
In the first session, the focus was on mental silence – silencing the mental chatter and ordinary movement of the surface mind. This was done by feeling the presence of a deep silence above the head and visualising a flame of light in between the eyebrows. The participants offered their thoughts and mental chatter into the flame; they felt a progressive dawning of mental peace and silence. Dr. Yogesh reiterated that the mind is an instrument of the Divine and belongs to the Divine. He guided the participants to offer their mind to the Divine and aspire for the will to be guided by the divine Will. The participants were asked to continue to maintain that state of mental peace until the next session.
In the second session on day 2, most participants reported being able to feel the mental silence from the previous day and the second session built on it further. Starting with the experience of silence from the previous session, the participants plunged deep into the inner being and some into the psychic realms and experienced a sense of vastness. Dr. Yogesh led a nuanced discussion around forming our identity based on the inner being and divine Presence as opposed to the external superficial personality and its occupation(s). The focus and theme of this session was inner vastness. The participants were told that the narrow surface being would be shaken by pulls and pushes of life but the inner being in its vastness would remain unaffected. The session ended with sharing of experience by participants.
In session 3, Dr. Yogesh guided everyone to feel the Mother’s Presence and infused the mind, heart, will and emotions with Her Presence. In the meditation everyone offered all parts of their being and their working to the Divine. It ended with a payer to bask in the beautiful, divine Presence the participants felt within. They were asked to just be with Her and maintain that intimate relationship with Her at all times. Dr. Yogesh advised them to “hide nothing from Her, present everything to Her and seek Her guidance and grace and surrender everything; Pray that She can work directly in us and through us. The session concluded with sharing of experience by participants and participants reported experiencing the presence of the Divine Mother in various ways.
In session 4, Dr. Yogesh discussed how to grow detached from external thoughts, emotions, relations and happenings. He led the participants through a meditation where letting go of the noise of external being, they dived into an inner vastness and the presence of the psychic being inside. In that state, the participants felt the body consciousness fade away and they were fully engulfed in the presence of the Divine Mother. They were encouraged to dissolve their separate existence into that of the Divine and guided to feel a golden light illuminating everywhere, every part of their being and every cell of the body. They were asked to stay in that state of silence and experience of light at a cellular level. Many participants shared their experiences in line with the meditations.
Session 5 commenced with a review and discussion of experiences and questions of participants till then as it was half way through the workshop. The discussion turned to understanding Integral Yoga. Dr. Yogesh explained that there are three transformations in this yoga: (i) Psychic transformation, (ii) Spiritual transformation and (iii) Supramental transformation. Of these, the psychic transformation is the first and foremost importance for the sadhak which makes the other two possible. That starts with handing over the control of life from ego to the inner divine Presence. In that process, it touches the mind and psychicises the thoughts and actions of the mind, it touches the vital and psychicises the life and the body gets free from the tyranny of the mind and vital. In the spiritual transformation, the actions of the various parts of the being are transformed by the descending light and power of the Spirit above. The cellular level transformation happens only with the supramental transformation of the body. Each of these transformations can take lifetimes and are brought together by the Divine Grace.
This discussion was followed by a meditation connecting consciousness with Mother Earth. Many participants felt a descending light and force into their various parts, regions and chakras and all negativity and unconsciousness flowed out of them through the Mother Earth below. Once again, the participants were reminded to stay in the inner silence and immersed in the presence of the Divine Mother and let it become their natural state.
By the time we came to session 6, it was felt that a certain level of inner immersion, openness and receptivity had been established in the mind, life force and body consciousness. With that, Dr. Yogesh focused on various means of healing the body using different Kriyas. We learnt that in this integral approach, we approach the work of body healing and body transformation through various facets using various tools, each one leading to a certain result. Dr. Yogesh guided the participants to use prana (life force) to energise one’s subtle body and drive the awareness into the spine and energise the spine and call for it to heal. This was followed by a process of energising water with consciousness and the mantra of the Mother (the sound ‘Ma’) and using the water to drive the consciousness and shakti of the mantra into inner organs of mouth, stomach and intestines and invoke them to heal themselves. Several participants felt their inner organs being receptive to the Mantra.
All of session 7 was an experiential exploration of the theme “All Life is Yoga”. Opening up all the parts of the being to the psychic means all aspects of life become an occasion of sadhana and yoga. Once we feel the presence of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo inside us and around us, our psychic-being starts to come forward. And we start submitting all the movements of our mind, life and body to the psychic or the divine Presence and strive to act in its light. Slowly the transformation happens and with it all of our life becomes yoga. The meditation took participants through a 360-degree exploration of life – eating, bodily movements and exercises, sleeping, attitude to money, relationships, household work, etc.
In each aspect, we dwelt on how to open it to the influence of the Divine Mother and act accordingly. This theme of moving away from a consciousness centred on the desire-self and ego to that of the psychic should pervade all activities. For example, instead of eating for taste or fancy, we prepare food as prasad and eat food consciously as an offering to the inner divine Presence. Once a certain level of spontaneous yoga is established in the waking state and consciousness is established deeper and higher, then working on yoga during sleep becomes easier and more natural. Dr. Yogesh emphasised that this approach should not be one of struggle but to grow in closeness to the divine Presence and offering all obstacles and difficulties to the divine Mother for them to be transformed.
The final day of the workshop, session 8, started with a heartful prayer to the Mother and continued as a meditation into all the aspects of Integral Yoga discussed hitherto. We prayed to Her: for Her Presence to become constant, for us to become Her instruments and children, to become completely free from ego and surface consciousness, to become established in the psychic and hand over the reins of our life to the psychic. We also prayed for all obstacles and lower movements to be dissolved in Her Light, Love and Grace. We aspired for total purification and transformation. We reviewed the trinity of aspiration, rejection and surrender.
The meditation ended with a prayer that the end of the workshop becomes a new beginning in life, where we are established in the psychic Presence and operate in day-to-day life with psychic alignment. We aspired for and resolved for our sadhana to pervade every moment of our life, both in wakefulness and in sleep. And we need to do it without shrinking from life. When we build and maintain an environment of divine Presence inside of us and around us and remain in communion with it at all times, it becomes possible to convert all of life into yoga.
The workshop concluded with gratefulness of participants and sharing of their experiences. Many had deep and transformational experiences and expressed a wish for more programmes to happen that would enable them to deepen and maintain the state reached in this workshop. Some reported healing experiences in their body. Many gained new deep insights into this Yoga and into themselves. After the sharing, Dr. Yogesh and James concluded the workshop with wishes for the participants to continue their inward living.
Feedback
“It was an experiential course, and what I learn, I am able to practice, at least bring the awareness during the day, and put in efforts to be in this state. I want to be in the trance and psychic connection always.”
“Living more and more in the vastness of inner world.”
“8 sessions over a period of 1 month had a beautiful influence on my inner being. Each session left its essence deep within in a subtle way.”
Take-homes
“Aspiration - Rejection - Surrender. Vigilance to reject everything undivine every moment. Faith and surrender. Communicating with the body with love and tenderness. Grounding meditation.”
“Learnt meditation in Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga & learnt the art & science of enhancing conscious awareness in every aspect of life & body by invoking The Mother’s presence.”
“It was deeply enlightening & meditative.”
“The first insight on how to communicate with the cells & incorporate health.”
Suggestions
“More widely spaced event that can go on for longer durations so that the progress can continue & growth consolidates.”
“Fantastic. Peace and Calmness.”
