As announced in the International Yoga Day article we have a full report of the days events …
In Copenhagen we celebrated the auspicious event in our own center, Concordia in North Copenhagen. This year NATHA YOGA CENTER hosted the eventful and enlightening day that included: lectures, practical spiritual activities, meditation in spiral, a panel debate, a wonderful concert from the amazing band IBIS, culminating in the end with a meditation in unison connecting yogis around the world. This was the first time when this event was celebrated in Copenhagen and it was a great success. The organizing team from NATHA, heartily led by Arthur, managed to create attention around the event in the last moments.
Guests speakers from countries as far and wide as USA and as close as Christiania gave their contribution to the success of this event.
There were simultaneous events in unison with other schools in many other cities in Europe who too were marking the day of Yoga with special activities in order to not only promote the wondrous benefits of yoga but also to pay homage to this wonderful (transforming) way of life. You can see below few pictures from the celebration around the world of the yoga day.
Unity in Diversity The Theme of the Yoga Day
The theme of the yoga day is the idea of ‘Unity in Diversity’. We live in a world filled with a wondrous diversity of experiences, opinions, physical appearance, cultures, religion, etc. We have beliefs of many different kinds and yet there is One God that is the Creator of all that exists. Following apparently different paths we are united by our common origins and share One diversity 😉 .
One of the challenges of this age is to to find a way to live in harmony with all these differences, instead of fighting with them to even learn from them. And for this the solution is to harmonize the inner differences and conflicts. This is where Yoga becomes a great tool for assisting world peace and for progress of our civilization.
No matter what spiritual path or system we practice we are all united at the level of the heart, a level that is beyond all differences, and it is here that we meet in matters of life and spirituality (which is one and the same thing for me). I do not have any problem to feel communion with people who practice a spiritual method that is apparently opposing to what i practice or what i believe, as we meet above at the level of the consciousness where contradictions and problems do not exist. Separation appears only when we are not at that level and when people identify with the different opposing forces it causes fighting and disunity. Through practising any genuine form of Yoga we are raise our level of consciousness and we meet there where differences are just the features of Unity. Living in a world that emphasizes separation, difference, disunity, and destruction rather than the qualities of unity and the constructive energy (that represents an important element for sustaining human societies and even life,) it is our moral duty to contribute to the game of diversity by emphasizing on the tools that cure us from these separations. And what system can be more appropriate to celebrate today than the one that’s name means unity = yoga. The term ‘unity in diversity’ means to come together in our ‘oneness’, not in our ‘sameness’, as we are not the same and we will never be and we cannot be, as God created each being differently, from the level of the individual being, to the family, local neighborhood, country, continent, and as we will see the in the lecture later on even up to universal levels :-)…
International Yoga Day – in Copenhagen
A common thread running throughout the day was the idea of living a spiritual life in our modern day society.
This subject is very important today since people flock towards yoga – fitness clubs or other places in order to find a viable solution to their life problems (that does not depending to the exterior world that is in trouble.) The necessity of having a spiritual life becomes clearer today for many people but this cannot replace the needs and challenges from the daily life. Finding a solution becomes today one of the most important tasks for the spiritual seekers.
Sahajananda as our MC introduced the day and the first speaker – Oliver Esbirk from the Ujjaii tradition of yoga. Oliver has based his practice on the principles of Ujjaii breathing and various other forms of yoga he has learnt whilst traveling. Oliver shared with us his experiences and the benefits he has gained from practicing yoga. Oliver’s very optimistic outlook on life and his passion for yoga was clearly perceivable in his talk and in the practical session that he held with the participants who came for the ‘yoga experience’.
What impressed me very much about Oliver is his down to earth common sensed approach to life and his simple way of being. In the panel debate in the evening Oliver made some very good remarks on how yoga is a tool for improving ones life through consciousness and awareness (and through the consciousness of the body) and by bringing beneficial energies into the body we can expand and feel good on all the levels of the being.
Whilst the lectures and theoretical aspects of yoga were being discussed and debated in NATHA’s main yoga hall Ananda, simultaneously many yoga participants were able to choose between different forms of yoga practice: the open yoga session, ujjaii yoga, sun salutation and ‘healing through yoga’ workshop in the other yoga halls of Concordia building.
Celestine Andersen presented a lecture on “How to live a spiritual life in a modern society – a woman’s presentation of the Tantric attitude in life “. The lecture was a success and i hope that someone will take initiative to make all these events available on DVD for all the yoga students from different schools. Celestine is also the winner of the third place in the first contest of lectures and workshops (together with Martin Svenson) that took place in the International Yoga Congress 13-17 October Bucharest (there were more than 75 lectures and workshops!).
Sahajananda, our yoga-day MC and yoga/tantra teacher in NATHA, presented “The practice of Hatha Yoga: The body as a power-generator and resonance box”. The view and specific practice of NATHA and M.I.S.A. yoga school was revealed in a brief synthesis in this lecture, made accessible for all people interested to understand the deep spiritual view upon yoga that is practiced in our school.
Ramona presented her lecture “One Universe – One People”, an enlightening subject based on her knowledge about Steven Greer’s work with Extra Terrestrial’s (ET’s) . We may wonder at first glance what ET’s have to do with yoga :-), however if we recall the theme of the day ‘unity in diversity’, we will understand deeply the relevance of this topic…
She explained that there are elevated beings out there with very high levels of consciousness who come from other planets and solar system and they want us to open the communication with them about the universal aspects of consciousness, the essential ‘unity’ of it, and the fact that beings that have a different life form to us, from other planets, are one with us in spirit, no matter their intelligence and level of consciousness. When we can be in this state of consciousness, of non separation, we reach an eternal, immortal state, outside limits of time and space. Being established in this state, we can make steps towards establishing peace on our planet.It is through elevating and expanding our consciousness that we will have the possibility to contact these beings.
Then she went further and explained that the purpose of the contact is very important: the conscious effort to put people in contact with beneficial extraterrestrial beings in the purpose of spiritual evolution and to help our planet to evolve spiritually. Being human, in this state of consciousness, also involves to be who you truly are, to do the good, also love and forgiveness, that all come from a real lack of egoism. Dr. Steven Greer himself, being a pioneer of this, has been under tremendous pressure from the freemasons who not only want to keep us separate from one another but also to keep us separated from the rest of the universe.. and by keeping people in fear and ignorance, they cause huge barriers and prevent communication taking place.
Ramona’s lecture was well received by the audience, despite it being a lets say almost “taboo” subject, there were many intelligent inquisitive questions arising. I will continue more on this topic of unity, awareness and expanding the consciousness. Very soon i will post an article about Dr Stephen Greer and his pioneering work.
Yang Spiral Meditation: The State of Spiritual Unity in Diversity of Yogis All Over the World
M.I.S.A yoga school is unique in the world among others for the initiative of making meditation in spiral format. We have spirals with more than 4000 people in the spiritual camps that take place in Herculane and Costinesti. In this meditation the participants hold hands and are arranged according to the succession of the 12 astrological signs of the zodiac – from Aries to Piecses , man – woman, man – woman.. As a result of this arrangement, complex phenomena of resonance
take place both with the beneficial influx of yang energy and and the beneficial aspects of each of the 12 zodiac signs and of the subtle influx of their respective ruling planets. As a result, the subtle aura of each participant is charged with beneficial energy that balances and heals at a very deep level, accelerating in the same time the spiritual evolution of consciousness. The meditation we did on the occasion of the yoga day was done simultaneously with other schools in the world, enhancing the effects of the meditation and connecting to the subtle field of all the yogis who were meditating in the same time.
Panel Debate with Yoga Teachers…
In the evening i enjoyed a lively and interesting debate the subject being “the importance and effects of integrating yoga in the daily life, methods to do that with personal examples and experiences”. The audience were very open and put interesting questions. There was a common agreement between the panel members about the importance of living life in a harmonious and healthy way through the system of yoga. For me i view daily life as a very good field for validating my yoga practise. Yoga in the daily life motivates us to do things to solve problems. such as for example curing health issues through yoga i.e. we get back pain from working hunched over the computer all day, this can motivate us to do exercises in order to solve this problem. The idea that i was emphasizing upon was the importance of the daily life events in the validation process of our yoga practice results. It was a nice surprise to see that we have different opinions yet the same guiding principles and ultimately the same goals.
Concert of Music Spiritually Inspired by the Mahavidya Yoga Tradition: IBIS
The evening was culminating with the concert with IBIS MUSIC with their latest album “KALI”. The audience were enraptured by the inspired music that brought a clear resounding resonance with KALI. Their KALI concert in a new format was presented first in Amsterdam, at the European conference SEX and CONSCIOUSNESS.
IBIS are one of the most amazing projects that i have come across. The musicians Mariah and Hans are very talented artists, but above this, after many years of individual practice of yoga and Tantra they hold the knowledge of genuine spirituality. I hope they will show more in events like this.
Yoga Day in Other Locations Across the Globe!
Yoga day was celebrated in many cities across Europe.. Brasov, Bucharest, London, Malmo, I especially admired the teams from Bucharest and Brasov where 100s of yogis braved the cold to practise yoga asanas outside. See here this wonderful clip of the Brasov yogis, the spiral and the amazing music played by talented band Devas. And here are the pictures from Bucharest.
Ending Meditation and Conclusions….
We finished the yoga day in Copenhagen with a meditation for perceiving the unity of all the yogis around the world, it had the theme “The state of spiritual unity in diversity of yogis all over the world”
This was a great chance to attune with the spiritual field generated by all the yogis meditating in that moment, and as important to resonate with the beneficial spiritual field created in the last few thousands of years by all the yogis who dedicated their lives for spiritual accomplishment and for helping the others.
Following this we had the end of the day conclusions, where we all agreed that the yoga day was a spiritually fulfilling event, but that it could have been much longer!!! For the next year we proposed a yoga weekend… or maybe a yoga week.. year..or better still a yoga life 🙂
For the next year NATHA’s team promise to all that we will have a great platform for the International Yoga Day. And so we look forward 😉
The doors of our centre are always open, warmly welcoming all the guests and friends from other schools, countries and branches of yoga into our Heart, Concordia.
Door to the heart – picture taken by Attila Mayor