Anand Mehrotra – Yoga from the Himalayas

Description of Yoga from the Himalayas

Access your highest potential through ancient teachings and advanced practices from the birthplace of yoga and become freer, more awake and fully alive.

Yoga classes have been a godsend for so many of us, helping us find a relaxed, open radiant presence in the center of our hectic lives.

That’s part of why yoga has exploded in the West from a fringe curiosity explored by a few adventurous souls to a mainstream practice embraced by tens of millions that is now commonplace at schools, hospitals and countless more traditional settings.

One drawback of this great wave of popularization is that few of us are exposed to the real depths and ultimate promise of yoga. While the practice on our mats is helpful, most of what is taught resembles an exercise regimen more than a spiritual practice.

That’s not to negate the power of a physical yoga practice, which provides real benefits for our bodies and minds — producing better health, renewed energy and smoother emotions. But there’s a much deeper definition and powerful expression of yoga that taps the full spiritual power of this ancient tradition.

The ultimate goal of yoga is “union” with the Divine, which also means union with our bodies, our emotions, our hearts and our souls. Through the spiritual science of yoga, we are reuniting what has become separate, which includes our entire relationship with life (and each other).

When we understand yoga in this way, we move beyond thinking of yoga as something we do a few times a week to seeing yoga as something we do ALL the time.

With each breath, each step, each laugh and each smile, we can express the joy and love that come from true inner union.

When we exude the peace and kindness that come from a unified heart and enlightened mind, we become full-time yogis, enjoying the bliss and freedom of union throughout our days.

The beauty of experiencing this state of union as our baseline is that it actually makes us MORE productive, MORE effective and MORE magnetic — and with much less effort.

In short, we have greater mastery over life because we’re not stuck in negative spirals, moods and limited thinking.

So the real promise of yoga is not just to feel healthier in your body but to awaken your consciousness into the Infinite — and to express that realization in the form of more enlightened living.

That’s when your practice goes from being “on the mat” to a continual state of grace.

From the Himalayas to Your Home

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.

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.

Evolving a Holistic, Joyful Practice

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 Learn In Yoga from the Himalayas?

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 “now”
• 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 room”
• Explore how to experience radical aliveness — liberation from fear, guilt and worry
• Realize that the goal and the path are one

About Anand Mehrotra

Anand Mehrotra is a visionary master teacher, community and thought leader, and conscious entrepreneur. Born and raised in Rishikesh, India — the birthplace of yoga — Anand combines the ancient wisdom of his upbringing with a lighthearted rebelliousness committed to supporting the transcendence of the individual and the collective.

Anand is the founder and master teacher of Sattva Yoga, a radically holistic, ever-evolving, transformational practice. He teaches around the world, giving wisdom talks, offering satsangs and meditations, providing Vedic astrology readings, leading Sattva Yoga journeys, and guiding students through profound transformations in wisdom immersions, retreats and trainings.

Anand is the founder of the Sattva Yoga Academy for holistic learning, and the Sattva Retreat, a premier wellness destination situated in the Himalayas of Rishikesh, India.

Anand leads two nonprofits: The Khushi Charitable Society and the Sattva Foundation. He has launched several businesses based on sustainable practices and supporting the communities in which they participate. Anand is featured in the award-winning documentary, The Highest Pass, which is based on his teachings. He has also been featured in many international publications.

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