Monday, May 5, 2014

Silent Arunachala Yoga Retreat with Mansoor


Silent Yoga Retreat with Mansoor at Nannagaru Ashram, Tiruvannamalai, South India 
Tuesday 30th December 2014 - Tuesday 6th January 2015 



This Retreat offers the opportunity for yoga students to recognize awareness, to enter more deliberately into their Yoga and Meditation practice, and to sharpen the capacity to understand Indian philosophy through the study of selected sacred texts. 


Mansoor and Clarissa

Previous Retreat Group


We will be observing Silence, whenever possible, for the full period of the Retreat. This will help the whole group to go deeper into the Yoga and Meditation practices, and will enable one to understand the subtler aspects of the scriptures we will be studying. 

 
Lunch at Ashram


The Retreat is being held at Nannagaru Ashram looking onto Arunachala, the holy mountain at Tiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu. Over centuries many sages and saints have been drawn to this area and most famous is Ramana Maharishi whose ashram is also close by. We are very fortunate to be able to hold a Retreat in this sacred space. 



Yoga on Roof

Roof facing Arunachala Darshan


Arunachala Darshan

Mansoor has been teaching Yoga internationally for the last 20 years and is able to share and communicate his understanding in a remarkable and revealing way, creating a bridge between all the different traditions, East and West, ancient and modern and expose the underlying ever-present Truth. 


Clarissa is assisting with the retreat please contact her clarissa@mandalayoga.ch or for further information please see:

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Mahashivaratri Retreat 2014


Torsten Brugge and Padma Woolf have been bringing pilgrim groups from Europe to Tiruvannamalai over the course of the last 10 years. For each of their visits, the venue for their Retreat is the peace-filled Sri Nannagaru Ashram. 

In 2014 the Brugge—Woolf Retreat was scheduled for February 22nd – March 8th and for the first time during their regular Arunachala Pilgrimage, their group was at Arunachala during the sacred time of Mahashivaratri (February 28, 2014). 

As well as their usual programme of satsang, guided meditations, talks and meetings, during their 2014 Retreat there was also a special programme in connection with the Mahashivaratri Festival which included an escorted group giripradakshina of Arunachala late in the evening of February 28. I hope to soon be posting photographs, narratives and reports from participants of the Brugge—Woolf 2014 Arunachala Retreat. 

“Torsten and Padma offer self-enquiry in the tradition of Sri Ramana Maharshi and in the lineage of Sri Poonjaji, Gangaji and Eli Jaxon-Bear. The focus of the retreat will be to make Sri Ramana Maharshi’s profound self-enquiry and the silent power of Arunachala accessible to participants. Torsten and Padma offer daily Satsang-meetings on the roof-terrace of Sri Nannagaru Ashram. The group will also visit different abodes of Sri Ramana Maharshi on the mountain for silent meditation. 




In their dialogues with participants Torsten and Padma support spiritual seekers through traditional as well as modern approaches of self-enquiry to awaken to the inner freedom of our true nature and ground ourselves in that. To that end they also make their experience in Enneagram-work, Buddhist meditation, transpersonal psychology and other approaches available. 

The main transmission, however, consists in the message of Sri Ramana Maharshi: ‘We already are the formless, silent Awareness before, during and after all transient appearances. When we rediscover that, our limited sense of I dissolves and the natural bliss of our true nature shines forth.’” 

To watch a video of Torsten and Padma’s response to the question, “Sri Ramana Maharshi said that Self-enquiry is the most direct route to realising the Self. What do you say about Self-enquiry? How to conduct Self-enquiry? Go to this video link here

The next Torsten Brugge and Padma Woolf Arunachala Retreat will last for 2 weeks and start on March 1, 2015 and be held at the venue of Sri Nannagaru Ashram. For more information you can get in touch direct at the email link top left of this page. 

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

SATSANG

Let me ask you a question. What is the purpose for your coming to satsang? Why do you come here? If it’s to listen to a lecture, you came for the wrong reason. If it’s for entertainment purposes, you came for the wrong reason. If it’s to compare the speaker with other speakers, you came for the wrong reason. There’s really no reason to come to satsang at all, unless you have an open heart! If you came to satsang with an open heart, Reality will be yours. Not my reality or your reality, but Reality, the Reality, what people call the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God. You are already That, but you have so many concepts you cover it up. You have so many feelings and dogmas and attitudes that you cover up the Godliness. So you have to open your heart and let your reality shine through. 

How do you do this? By keeping silent, by not being judgmental, be leaving the world alone. There will always be something in this world to correct, either in yourself or in your family or in the world or people. You have learned from experience that you cannot do this. The correction is always made within yourself. It is yourself with a small “s” that is the problem. But if you try to resolve the problem outside of you, it will never be resolved. It’s resolving yourself, knowing the Truth, understanding who you are the, that brings you peace and realisation. 

Always remember that is is satsang. It is not a lecture or a sermon or a speech. It is Consciousness speaking to Consciousness. And since there is only one Consciousness, you are actually speaking what I am speaking. You are feeling what I am feeling. There is only Oneness, Absolute Reality and you are That. 

Try to remember this. There is Consciousness. What you think you are, male or female, whatever your name may be forget about that for a while. Think of yourself as Omnipresence. All-Pervading. 

Do not question it. Do not analyze it. Just allow it to take over. The Presence, the Power. It starts within your heart, and begins to spread all thorough your body, encompassing your body. Your body merges with it, and it continues to spread until all of us in this room have become it. We’re no longer human. We have become it. It keeps on expanding and expanding until the entire world is it. It keeps on expanding, expanding until all the galaxies, planets, stars and solar systems are it. It keeps on expanding, expanding until the entire Universe it is. There is no longer anything that is separate from it. Everything is it. 

We may call it Consciousness, the Self, Absolute Reality. This is it. This is your real nature. 

What are you feeling? Try to let go of all your emotions, your preconceived ideas. All of your dogmatic beliefs, all about your body, or about others. Allow your mind to remain empty. 

Feel that I am It, Pure Awareness. I have always been It. There never was a time when I was not It. The appearance of the body cannot fool me any longer. The world and all its manifestations cannot fool me any longer. The Universe with its planets and galaxies and solar systems cannot fool me any longer. I can see through these things to the Source. I can feel the Source became I am the Source. I have always been the Source. There never was a time when I was not. 

As far as thoughts are concerned, they do not exist. They can no longer bother me or make my life miserable. As far as others are concerned, there are no others. There is only the Source. I can no longer be deceived. 

There is no thing that has ever transpired in my life that can hurt me. I forgive everyone and everything, and especially myself. 

I am the power and the presence and the glory. If I am That, so is everybody else. So is everything else. All is well. 

[By Robert Adams]

Welcome to Arunachala Satsang

Underneath the Blog title, Arunachala Satsang, there is the Blog description, “Be aware of the ‘I’.” This sentence was uttered to me by Professor Kasturi, a famed devotee and biographer of Sri Sathya Sai Baba. It was on the occasion that I went to Professor Kasturi with a book that he had written entitled, “Loving God,” that I remarked to him that the title of his book was very apt, as God is indeed loving to all of his creation. 

Professor Kasturi


Professor Kasturi quickly interrupted stating, “No! I did not use the word, ‘Loving,’ as an adjective, it is an adverb and refers to the devotees’ requirement of loving their God. Professor Kasturi then took his book, “Loving God,” from my hands and with the usual inspired word-play, for which he was famous, inscribed the book flyleaf with, “Be aware of the ‘I’,” referring not only to the witness resident in each of our hearts, but also to the all pervading Paramatma who ever has his “eyes,” upon us. 

It could be said that on the day nearly twenty-five years ago, that my initiation to the sadhana of self-enquiry occurred. 

This Blog Arunachala Satsang has been created specifically to let readers know about various Retreats and Satsang programmes that will be occurring at Arunachala. It will also have information and narratives from group participants about their Retreat and Satsang experiences at Arunachala.