I took part in the 4-Day – Intermediate to Advanced Amrita Yoga Retreat at Amritapuri from 27th to the 31st of January 2015. My experience was awesome. The classes were very good for many reasons. The experience of practicing yoga in the ashram in the presence of Amma, a living master, was very strong and powerful. Her energy flows extremely fast into our physical, emotional, energetic and spiritual bodies.
Furthermore, the classes were very good relating to asanas. The teacher always gave the group lessons of safety principles along with a spiritual tip in the posture, which, in my opinion, is extremely important, since it helps to understand the postures and to protect from injuries. This approach also intensifies the consciousness and the purpose of doing the practice during the practice itself.
Another special thing that called my attention was the way the teacher built the posture. Every day, she named a theme for the practice and a “final” reaching posture. In this way, she prepared our physical and energetic bodies to go into the final posture either doing warming asanas or doing preparatory postures. I loved this construction. I felt really prepared to reach the posture with safety and enough strength.
All those things were amazing, but there was one aspect that, for me, was the most special and that, for sure, I am taking with me in my backpack to Brazil. The teacher, Brahmacharini Shobhana, was reminding us during the whole class about the most important aspect of practicing yoga. Not only in the beginning and in the end of the classes, but all the time in between the postures, she called us to pause and to just remember the real intention for us to be there. She calls us to feel our breathing, to put the attention in our heart center, and to feel Amma’s presence or the Inner presence. In this way, she kept us all the time connected with Amma and that infinite cosmic energy.
Sometimes, I felt like flying in the physical body as in a kite, worried about reaching the perfect posture, and then Brahmacharini Shobhana simply pulled me, calling me back to the real important thing in practicing yoga. This, for me, was the most important and special aspect.
I have practicing yoga not for a long time and I have been teaching for almost two years in Brazil. I also talk to many people in the West about yoga and what I see is that, in the West, the Yoga is more focused in “Yogasanas”; that means, people are much more interested in the physical aspect of yoga, forgetting about the most important aspect of that wonderful path to spirituality.
Sometimes, teachers don’t even have space for that, or sometimes people are not very interested in it also. What I know is that, in addition to the physical, the mental, emotional and energetic bodies become more balanced with this combination. And, as a beginning teacher, I will certainly improve my own practice with these lessons I have had in Amrita Yoga.
I really enjoy the Amrita Yoga and I strongly recommend it for every person who wants to have a special experience in Amma’s ashram and with Amma. I feel my body alive and light, like it is breathing more purity!
Thank you very much for all that special experience together. Thanks, Brahmacharni Shobhana, Sophia our wonderful assistant and all the friends that were together in this journey and for our beloved Amma, sure!
Author: Alessandra Monteiro, Brazil
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