Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev will make his second visit to Vancouver this May and the city cannot wait to host him and experience the powerful technology by the Guru himself. With the practice of Shambhavi Mahamudra, an ancient kriya, you can experience greater emotional balance, concentration, focus, stability and better health. We speak to Parveen Juneja, Alicja Kielbik and Prasad Sristi, volunteers of Isha Foundation in Vancouver who account Sadhguru’s second visit to Vancouver nothing less than a blessing.
“As Sadhguru has said, 'if one percent of the population meditates, you can transform the world.' So, if we get one percent of Vancouver to meditate and if Sadhguru’s event can help and create that, we can really make Vancouver into a very vibrant city, which we already are but we can take it to the next level.” – Prasad.
Please tell me how long you have been associated with the Isha Foundation?
Alicja: I first heard of Sadhguru in 2009 and I took my Inner Engineering program in Toronto in 2011, so I have been a volunteer for the organization ever since. At the present moment I assist in facilitating our local Sathsangs designed to support those who have completed Inner Engineering. I have also been coordinating the last few programs that we had in Vancouver.
Parveen: I did my Inner Engineering program in June, 2016 and after that my whole life got transformed. I was going in a completely wrong direction I suppose and now I think I am going in the right direction. I do yoga yoga everyday, I lost 17 kilos. I stopped all kinds of intoxications. All the things that I was confused about since my childhood, is cleared now. Clarity is coming in all perspectives.
Prasad: I did my Inner Engineering program in August, 2016. It was actually interesting. I had been watching Sadhguru’s videos for a while. There was a program in June and I hadn’t registered for that. My wife did that program while I was watching YouTube videos. Then I developed an urgency to do the program, to really want to learn the meditation. I couldn’t wait for the next one so I flew to Tennessee to do the program and since then I have been practicing the techniques everyday. I haven’t even missed a single day despite a lot of travel and other work – it’s been an amazing experience. I have been trying to mediate for a long time, and I say ‘try’ because what I was doing before was not meditation. When you are initiated by a real yogi, you understand what real meditation is. It’s been more than eight months now and I have been volunteering for Isha ever since.
Why did you particularly approach Isha Foundation and Sadhguru?
Alicja: What Sadhguru is offering in the Inner Engineering programs is something called the Shambhavi Mahamudra Kriya. It is a very simple and very powerful practice. It works from the inside-out to make you naturally meditative. What this kriya does for you is it aligns your life energies with your emotions, your mind and your physical body in such a way that you become meditative by your own nature.
It has a lot of side benefits but that is the core of the program. What happens for a lot of people when they take this program like Parveen, they will take a program and suddenly they will experience a lot of benefits that come with these kind of inner alignments. I had chronic illness myself when I came into this program and it has improved since then. So definitely, the kriya works. If you go on the Inner Engineering website, you will see that a lot of research has been done on the effectiveness of the Shambhavi Mahamudra practice. Anywhere between 70 to 94% of the practitioners are reporting extreme significant changes in their lives.
So why get kriya from a yogi? The way that Isha Foundation works is that everything is done with a certain level of integrity and our teachers are trained by Sadhguru.
How are Inner Engineering and Shambhavi Mahamudra connected?
Alicja: The way that the program in May has been structured is that you come to the live portion on the weekend to learn the Shambhavi Mahamudra kriya. Before this live program with Sadhguru, you prepare by taking seven online sessions at home at your convenience. These sessions lay the intellectual foundation of yoga where you explore tools to manage your mind, body, and emotions. They are a prerequisite to attend and must be completed before coming to the weekend session. (The online sessions are included in the course package price when you register).
There are two other formats to take Inner Engineering, one is what Prasad did. He took the online program and then he went for the Inner Engineering Completion (learning the Shambhavi) which is offered in several locations including Isha’s national center in Tennessee. This is a teacher-led program.
The other format is to attend Inner Engineering Total which is what Parveen did. What happens with this program is it’s quite comprehensive and includes four days with a live teacher. So you attend Thursday and Friday evening and then Saturday and Sunday.
Typically, people pick an option that suits their time and their travel schedule.
How can attendees prepare themselves before coming to this event?
Alicja: There is nothing in particular. We encourage people to wear comfortable and relaxed clothing. Just come as you are.
How are you all looking forward to the event in May?
Prasad: It is really wonderful. First of all, Vancouver is one of the two places that Sadhguru will be offering this program this Spring. Not only that, Vancouver is one of the youngest city centres. We had our first Inner Engineering program only last year in June. The passion and enthusiasm that the volunteers have, has made it possible for hosting an event of this magnitude. As Sadhguru also said, if one percent of the population meditates, you can really transform the world. So, if we get one percent of Vancouver to meditate and if Sadhguru’s event can help and create that, we can really make Vancouver into a very vibrant city which we already are but we can take it to the next level.
Does a person need to have a spiritual mindset before attending these sessions?
Alicja: The program meets you wherever you are. So if you come to this program because you have a backache, it works for you, it works for your backache, your headache, it works for your diabetic symptoms. The technology just works by itself. It is a process that works for everybody, regardless of your background.
The Shambhavi Mahamudra session with Sadhguru will be held in Vancouver on May 27 & 28. For details, visit Isha Foundation site here.
