Yoga from the Himalayas with Anand Mehrotra

Our conventional education system is based upon understanding the world. Yet the fundamental character in the whole play of life is the self. It is the experiencer who is primary, not the experience. Hence, the beginning of real spiritual life is understanding the self. As you reach this deeper level of self-realization, you reach a deeper realization of life.

In this module, you’ll:

• Discover the 3 distinct expressions of self from a yogic standpoint — Brahman (Higher Self), Jiva (Time bound Self) and Ahamkara (Ego)
• Become aware of the roles and interaction of these 3 expressions of Self
• Distinguish between the Ego and the Self
• Align the Self more clearly with the authentic power of the timeless Higher Self
• Align the Self with understanding how to anchor yourself in timelessness, yet exist in time

Exploring yogic teachings help us to understand the world around us in a much more coherent way. You’ll find out how to live in greater integration with natural intelligence and how to be in higher and higher potentiality in your earthly journey on this planet. You’ll also explore how to have access to infinite resourcefulness and how to be a positive impact in your daily life and in the world.

In this module, you’ll:

• Be introduced to yogic teachings on the nature of reality
• Understand the purpose of manifest reality and learn how to live purposefully
• Understand how our consciousness shapes reality and vice versa
• Investigate how our consciousness shapes reality and vice versa
• Discover how to integrate our lives with nature’s intelligence while ensuring that we don’t impose our limited mindset on nature
• Explore intuitive intelligence — the act of knowing without knowing
• Recognize how to get out of your own way
• Understand why you exist in time yet belong to eternity

Exploring fundamental yogic practices promotes well-rounded development. In our spiritual practice, we often give importance to one faculty over another, which results in an imbalance. We’ll speak of practice in a more holistic way so that you experience holistic growth on your spiritual path without ignoring any aspect of your being. You’ll understand how yoga can flood every dimension of your life with divine light, for there is nothing that is not yoga.

In this module, you’ll:

• Explore how yoga unites the paths of wisdom, love, stillness and radical action, and how to use these four paths to further your experience
• Gain clarity on the real meaning of yoga as practiced by the spiritualized beings living in the Himalayas
• Appreciate the role of yoga as an evolutionary practice in all dimensions of life and how it can infuse greater joy and clarity in our life
• Clarify any misconceptions about the separation between the paths of yoga
• Realize that for yoga to be relevant it must be inclusive of all paths

The human mind is conditioned to learn through comparison, which creates separation and limits. We tend to create a problem through the mind and then try to solve the problem through the mind, when there is no problem. We’ll explore how your psyche creates this trap. As you begin to step out of your mind, a natural observation begins happening and you understand the unity between the masculine and the feminine, between Shiva and Shakti. That which seems opposite from the point of view of the mind, really is complimentary, a part of the same. We’ll also explore the purpose and potential of Kundalini Shakti — the divine limitless being.

In this module, you’ll:

• Discover how to balance the sword and the lotus, stillness and dynamism, the masculine and feminine — and how to activate each of them when needed
• Understand the yogic perspective on the divine masculine and divine feminine
• Find out how to harmonize the sacred masculine and feminine within the psyche
• Integrate and use the sacred masculine and feminine in ways that help you realize their highest potential
• Recognize that the sacred masculine and feminine are not opposite, but complementary aspects within us
• Explore how to take spontaneous action — going beyond the script

Exploring the essential meaning of karma — and how the three levels of karmic conditioning limit us — will help us identify and go beyond karmic conditioning to more evolutionary living. Karma is action that leads us to bondage. Kriya is evolutionary action that leads us to expansion. Dharma is expansive living — living life with a sense of purpose, in tune with divine destiny. You’ll shift from karma (narrowness) to dharma (expansion).

Life in the grip of karma becomes an ever-repeating past. A true yogi moves from linear to vertical time, and moves from the positionality of living as an effect to living as cause. Understanding the nature and aspects of time (past, present and future) and how they interact with karma is a key aspect of yoga.

In this module, you’ll:

• Identify how fear keeps us logged into karma
• Understand the conditioning that binds us
• Explore how to move from karma through kriya to dharma
• Move from attachment/narrowness to expansiveness/purposeful living
• Understand the continuity of evolutionary practice
• Investigate every stage of consciousness and its associated shadows, and how to use kriya to transcend them

Much confusion surrounds the word “guru.” In the yogic path, finding a guru is an essential part of spiritual evolution. We’ll explore what the word guru means, the importance of a living guru, and how to connect with the formless guru — the teacher within and without.

We’ll explore how to build sacred relationships, how to heal the society at large, and how to move from cultural to spiritual sangha. It’s important to recognize your own radical responsibility and how the individual is the most important factor of the holy trinity. We must get in touch with the rebel inside if we wish to walk the spiritual path. All spiritual beings are ultimately rebellious.

In this module, you’ll:

• Shed light on the yogic understanding of the role and purpose of a guru

• Come to identify and unite with the guru within and without
• Discover how to create sacred relationships and a sacred family
• Understand radical individual responsibility
• Identify the pitfalls/traps of the mind and how to transcend them
• Master the art of aloneness in your role as a spiritual warrior

Our mind and ego tend to hijack our spiritual path and direct us to use our spiritual practices as mere diversions from our divine nature. We’ll explore the now — not the clock now — but the eternal now which includes all dimensions of time. A true yogi doesn’t strive for realization at some future time but is always fully present in the here and now.

People who come to the spiritual path often have great experiences in the beginning but then they hit a plateau or develop a “spiritual ego.” This waiting pattern must be avoided so our life can be a continuous expression of evolution. Individuals must continue to evolve like the universe, which is constantly expanding, for this is the nature of nature. And this is the experience of radical aliveness.

In this module, you’ll:

• Identify what you’re really seeking so you can move from seeker to discoverer
• Move from “then” to “now”
• Understand how to unite all the different aspects of a spiritual practice
• See why a spiritual practice should not be used as a decoy for waiting, and how you can “get out of the waiting room”
• Explore how to experience radical aliveness — liberation from fear, guilt and worry
• Realize that the goal and the path are one