‘Ya Drishti Sa Shrishti’: The World Is As You See It
Retreat and Intensive, October 7-11
 

The five day retreat was a time for people for all around Australia to come together and experience living ashram life. The ashram was charged with purpose. Everything was dedicated to upliftment and transformation.

In the evenings Swamiji focused the evening Satsangs on the Shiva Sutras, the ancient texts of the philosophy of Kashmir Shaivism. When we transform our understanding, or the way we look at a situation, then the world transforms.

After a busy morning of seva and ashram work, we met with Devi Ma each midday. She taught Self Inquiry, both to use individually and group Self Inquiry, which as she said it were planned as, ‘a chance to get to know ourselves.’ On Saturday we had a Mantra repetition session with Swami Atmananda. He said that mantra repetition was a method to use when our minds complicated ourselves too much.

In the Intensive - an all day Satsang - Swamiji spoke about the mind, and urged us to, ‘always know what you are thinking and feeling each minute.’ We were also lucky to observe a video of Swami Muktananda, Swamiji’s Guru. It was a blissful day in the mandap. After all the chants were over, after we had said goodbye to Swamiji for the last time, our minds and hearts were uplifted and strengthened.