This exciting new program, Yoga from the Himalayas, is taught by Anand Mehrotra, an internationally respected teacher of this integrated, holistic approach to life who will bring you wisdom straight from the Himalayas to the comfort of your home.
Yoga from the Himalayas with Anand Mehrotra
Anand’s approach to yoga honors its primordial roots — stretching back over 5,000 years — while balancing it all with modern realities like global Internet, high-tech wizardry and complex lives.
Anand recognizes that yoga and life are not separate realities, but expressions of one unified consciousness — and shows us the way to light up our entire life as an expression of yoga.
Anand was recognized as a spiritual teacher at a young age. He built an ashram on the Ganges River at the meeting point of mountain and plain and has dedicated his life to helping others integrate unity consciousness with daily life through yoga.
He is deeply rooted in the ancient knowledge of yoga but quite non-traditional with his approach, which is simple and accessible yet profoundly transformative.
If you’re ready to go beyond just “practicing†yoga to fully experiencing yoga — and the spiritual invitation it holds — there’s no better place to seek guidance than the Himalayas, the birthplace of yoga.
Where All Branches Join Together
All of the many paths and limbs of yoga — from raja to bhakti to jnana to tantra and kriya — are all branches of one great river of union, which we can see symbolized in the timeless flow of the Ganges, carrying forward ancient wisdom into modern times.
Anand can take you into the depths of yoga through an inner pilgrimage that is far easier and more productive than trekking around the world to the actual Himalayas. Through Anand, you can harvest the most profound insights of ancient rishis and the more free-spirited modern values of a contemporary yogi-of-the-world.
Anand will take you deep into the philosophy and practice of yoga, going beyond formulas and poses into the essence, meaning and purpose of life.
You’ll come to a deep recognition that yoga is about far more than loosening your muscles and relaxing your body; it’s ultimately about living in full communion with the divine Self that is your truest nature.
It’s about shifting your identity from someone who may be feeling lost, confused and small to the One that is vast, wise and filled with love — the hidden presence behind your surface stories.
In the course of 7 weeks, you’ll explore key teachings and discover how to apply them in your life, such as:
Making yoga a holistic, evolutionary 24/7 practice that truly touches every aspect of your life
Understanding the purpose of manifest reality and how to live more purposefully
Discovering how to balance the sword and the lotus, stillness and dynamism, masculine and feminine — and how to activate each of them when needed
Expanding your understanding of Self and the nature of Reality
Balancing between time-bound expressions and ego and the timeless state of God Consciousness
Unifying love and wisdom and seeing them as reflections of a single source
Discovering how to create sacred relationships and a sacred family
Appreciating how to have a healthy teacher-student relationship in our modern context
Exploring how to experience radical aliveness — liberation from fear, guilt and worry
What You’ll Discover in These 7 Weeks
Course sessions are on Tuesdays at 5:30pm Pacific.
In this 7-week transformational intensive, Anand will guide you through the fundamental spiritual skills and competencies you’ll need to successfully experience deeper relationship to self, deeper relationships with others, and natural connection with the Divine through understanding of subtler aspects of yogic teachings.
Each weekly, LIVE contemplation and training session will build harmoniously upon the next so that you’ll develop a complete, holistic understanding of the practices, tools and principles you’ll need to sustain your developing yoga practice.
Module 1: Nature of Self
Understanding & Mastering of Self (July 19)
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
Module 2: Nature & Purpose of
Manifest Reality (July 26)
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
Module 3: Wisdom, Love, Stillness & Radical Action
The Unity of Paths (August 2)
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
Module 4: Balancing Shiva & Shakti
The Unity of Polarities (August 9)
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
Module 5: Moving from Karma to Dharma Ever-evolving, Evolutionary Action
(August 16)
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
Module 6: Discovering the Guru, the Sangha & the Rebel Within & Without (August 23)
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
Module 7: The Continuity of Awareness Uniting the State, the Practice, the Experience of Yoga (August 30)
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 “nowâ€
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 roomâ€
Explore how to experience radical aliveness — liberation from fear, guilt and worry
Realize that the goal and the path are one
