If only you will remain resting in consciousness, seeing yourself as distinct from the body, then even now you will become happy, peaceful and free from bonds.
– Ashtavakra Gita
Take a moment to breathe. Breathe in. Breathe out. Listen to your awareness.
Now, ask yourself these questions:
Does my soul seek long-lasting healing?
How often do I feel the desire to just be and let go?
Is my heart carrying any pain or grudges?
Am I willing to break my norms and embrace the conscious rebel that I am?
Who am I?
What do I want? What do I need?
How do I serve?
If you seek the answers to any of the questions above, this experience is for you! This isn’t just any standard meditation retreat to India. This sacred experience is being planned for you with a lot of love, and with the sole intention of cultivating your own self-healing. This retreat is rooted in the traditional healing wisdom that you’d expect from India, but it also promises modern facilities that will make this experience accessible and easy to absorb.
Introduction: Meditation means to have a mental love link of the true self with the Supreme source of universal energy – ‘God’. Meditation is an ancient system of spiritual understanding. It enables us to return to a state of inner peace, personal power and self-worth through re-kindling the soul’s original qualities and virtues. It provides many answers to age-old questions relating to our identity and purpose and opens up a pathway to true peace of mind and natural state of happiness.
Meditation gives you a clear spiritual understanding of yourself, helps you rediscover and use the positive qualities already latent within you. It helps you to create new attitudes and develop new responses. Like any skill, this requires practice. By doing a little meditation every day, it soon becomes a natural and easy habit, which generously rewards you for the effort it involves.
Meditation is one of the most natural yet profoundly rewarding of all human activities. Meditation not only reduces stress but also improves physical and emotional well-being; it can help you be more focused, productive, and calm regardless of outer conditions. Meditation can help you directly experience the divine realities within – the peace, joy, and divine love that are your true nature. While its original and highest purpose is to help us awaken our spiritual nature, the benefits to body and mind are well established by medical research.
“The affairs of the world will go on forever. Do not delay the practice of meditation.” – Jetsun Milarepa
This ancient meditation practices harnesses your natural powers and trains your mind to be your friend. You are not your mind; you are not your body. You have a mind and you have a body. These ‘tools’ sometimes work well and at other times may need calm and exercise to get back to a healthy path.
We all make mistakes. We all waste resources. We waste our words, our energy and our time until we pause and think deeply about what matters in our life. When we hold on tight to our views, the mind shrinks and smothers any power to love. In that state, the soul can’t breathe new energy into a situation – and everyone loses.
But when we sit quietly, cancelling all mindsets, and allow ourselves to know the deep peace of the soul, miraculous changes can happen for the better. People will understand you clearly; new doors will open, friends will call and that stiff neck will relax!
Meditation teaches us to step back and observe life, take a calm breath, cool our reactions, and step forward in the way we choose – independent of others urging us to think or act as they wish. Meditation sets you free. Meditation releases the power to respond with love.
Learn to relax your body, calm and concentrate your mind, awaken intuition and experience greater joy, mental clarity and creativity in your daily life.
According to the course curriculum, you will learn, experience, and explore the Vedic wisdom of Yoga includes the following systems:
Kundalini yoga (About Kundalini Shakti awakening and Chakra)
Mantra Yoga – Also known as Japa Yoga.
Kriya Yoga – Purification of mind, self-study and practices and connecting to Divine.
Patanjali yoga – System which consists of eight stages: Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama,
Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi. The yoga of eight stages widely called Ashtanga Yoga.
Learn and practice techniques of Vinyasa flow and Ashtanga yoga asana and body alignment.
Pranayama – Breath Techniques. Basic understanding of Pranayama and its principle of related to Meditation practices. Different Pranayama Theory and Practices. Learn about Kriyas and practice techniques of the four Shatkarma (body cleansing techniques).
You will be introduced to chanting mantras in a more classical setting (start/end of the class) as well as a more joyous setting in a kirtan evening. You will be chanting some of the most important mantras and understand by experience how sound can positively charge oneself and the environment.
Daily practice and learning of Concentration and Dhyana (Meditation). Learn different techniques and tools of meditation to ground and focus the mind. (Meditation Presentation Class is Mandatory to Qualify for Certification). You will be introduced to meditation techniques like silent sitting, movement meditations, heart meditations, and Buddhist meditations. Also, every student can choose to have a day in silence. This day you will receive teachings and practices silently, allowing yourself to observe your beliefs and thoughts more closely.
Spiritual, yogic and healing hand gestures. In Hatha yoga, mudras are used in conjunction with pranayama. Unlike older tantric mudras, hatha yogic mudras are generally internal actions, involving the pelvic floor, diaphragm, throat, eyes, tongue, anus, genitals, abdomen, and other parts of the body. This course includes hatha and tantra hand mudras.
Gain more understanding of your own body with basic knowledge of Physiology and Anatomy. You will be taken through 4 to 5 body systems. In the yogic Anatomy section, you will be guided through the physical body, subtle body, and emotional body. Chakras, Nadis, and Bandhas will be covered in this section.
This section covers the history and philosophy of Yoga, Tantra Philosophy, the 8 Limbs of Yoga – Patanjali, Yoga Sutras, Raja Yoga, the Yogic explanation of traditional texts as well as Yogic discipline and Indian Vedic culture.
Alignment and adjustment of yoga poses will be covered to demonstrate the optimal correct postures and the usage of props. Limitations, restrictions, optional poses, and connected yoga poses will be taught to meet different students body needs.
Gain teaching skills and learn how to teach in a small group class. This will bring about a broad understanding of teaching skills and the creativity of series and classes. Learn optimal sequencing and how to create your own flow class.
“Meditation is a way for nourishing and blossoming the divinity within you.” – Amit Ray
The Yogic Meditation Retreat in Himachal Pradesh, India is designed based on the wider framework of meditations. Instead of exploring the outer world like other sciences, meditation is concerned with exploring the inner world and unleashing the power and knowledge contained within. It is the science of mental discipline and includes various methods of making the mind one-pointed.
Consider the negative traits in your personality that you wish would not play out: the thoughts of self-doubt, sabotage, low self-regard, guilt, worry, etc. At your will, they will never again be spoken by you or affect your relationships at home, at work or on the sports field.
Some might baulk at being so ‘in control’ of themselves. But if you really ‘get’ soul, you can ‘get in control’ of yourself. Just yourself. Other people’s lives and games are their own.
You are only responsible for yourself. Our moms and dads did what they did – sometimes well, sometimes not – but that time has passed, and you are now the independent soul, who can choose how to live.
With meditation you can throw off the old patterns of influence and recreate yourself to be how you want to be. That is the power of meditation.
Our Ashram is inspired by the pilgrimage powers and is located in the Himalaya Mountains (Jia Village, District Palampur, Himachal Pradesh). We welcome you heartily!