We started the New year 2021 by completing our 8 weeks journey with fellow co-travellers on Saptaswara:Path of a Karma Yogi on the 2nd January. SaptaSwara: the seven key values and practices that can provide the foundation for a beautiful, harmonious and meaningful life. This program was created by our mentors Sashikala Ananth and Raghu Ananthanarayanan over 20yrs ago and has undergone various iterations.
The seven key values-in-action that comprise SaptaSwara are:
- Maitrī [मैत्री] – Friendship
- Karma [कर्म] – Action
- Dharma [धर्म] – Responsibility
- Jñāna [ज्ञान] – Knowledge
- Ramya [रम्य] – Beauty
- Yoga [योग] – Mindfulness
- Abhyāsa [अभ्यास]- Practice
These seven are like the seven basic swarā-s [स्वराः], or the seven basic notes of music. When one becomes adept at acting in harmony with these values, one’s life will be beautiful, like an uplifting music. We therefore call them the “SaptaSwara: The seven keys to discover a life replete with beauty”.
Experiential format enables participants to explore their inner-world in order to find a rhythm that works for them using the seven swaras. Below are some of the testimonials from the participants of this batch.
Sudipta Shaw – Kolkata
The Saptaswara program delivers much more than it promises. The map of seven swaras (tones) are not only relevant in day to day life but also for a deeper journey towards ultimate meaning, purpose and fulfilment in life. Each swara is endowed with understanding, exploration and reflection of every aspects of life – friendship, action, knowledge, love and so on… At the end of the program, it just feels that the journey has just begun. Highly recommended for anyone who is a human being and alive on this planet.
Vidya Shaktivel – Coimbatore
Attending the Saptaswara had a definitive and tangible impact on how I related to myself and to the people around me and to the whole environment in which I live.It has helped me in making choices that are enlivening and harmonious.I feel as if I am walking on a path that shows me beauty and wonder at every moment…
Natasha Arnold – Norfolk Island
The learning has been very insightful and meaningful, especially having attended the training crossing over from one pivotal year into a new year of hope and growth. The program provided me with an alternate yet traditional and practical way to look at things and how to truly observe things (behaviours, attitudes, emotional responses, decisions made) from the centre of the self. So, I feel I can move forward knowing that I have a new and different set of knowledges in my pocked if ever I need to draw them out to help me in life.
Anoop is a student of Yoga, an entrepreneur, a coach and a father of two young boys. He has led successful leadership stints in both the corporate and non-for-profit sectors. On encountering the country’s water/farmer crises at close quarters, he decided to pause and examine the impact various ‘isms’ – capitalism, colonialism, etc., were having on us as individuals, families, the society and the environment at large. This quest led him to formally engage with traditional Indic knowledge systems while also learning from the latest advances in science – about our physical and mental wellbeing, importance of body and mind work in healing trauma and the urgent need for a conscious rebuilding of family / work / social structures if we have to thrive individually and collectively. Insights, frameworks and processes gleaned from these on-going studies, an anchorage in his own personal practice and his wide-ranging experiences is what Anoop brings to facilitation/coaching spaces in Ritambhara and his various professional engagements.
Priya is a Yoga therapist in the Krishnamacharya tradition. She adapts Reiki & energy work, Vedic chanting, life coaching & Ayurvedic practices in her healing spaces. She is committed to nurturing collectives that have the praxis of Yoga at their heart.
Anisha has been on an exploration to understand herself through yoga for the last 15years which led her to teaching yoga, yoga therapy and inner work through yoga.
Apoorva chanced upon Yoga in her early 20s. A spark was lit within and there was no turning back. Her exploration led her to the Krishnamacharya tradition more than a decade ago. Curious about human behaviour and what drives it, she was thrilled when her search ended (and also began) when she first came upon the Yoga Sutra, which illuminated a path towards answering many questions that had been held for a long time.
Anita is a yoga teacher and therapist in the tradition of Sri.T.Krishnamacarya and Sri T.K.V. Desikachar, a Reiki practitioner and a Life Coach. She is also the founder of Vishoka, a center for learning Indic and energy-based frameworks for living and healing. Her deep concern for human suffering and the problems of unsustainable living kept her on the path of seeking an integrated approach to looking at life, living, learning and healing.
Ankit is a seeker in the wisdom traditions of India. The core of his work includes creating dialogic spaces where people can look within and see the connection between their inner and outer lives. Inspired by the likes of Gandhi, Aurobindo, Vivekananda and Guru Gobind his experiments in service took him back to his roots in Punjab where he is creating a community-led model of higher education which is open, inclusive and accessible for all. Ritambhara for him is a space for engaging in a community which is committed to a DHramic life. He anchors his work of learning and leadership in the Antaranga Yoga Sadhana and the humanistic wisdom of Mahabharata.