An Invitation
The effects of colonisation are very much present in indigenous societies even today. It is embedded in social relationships, minds, and attitudes and is also held in collective trauma. This lab explores decolonisation and the difficulties humans we face in acting in ways to enliven the self, the other, and the context, which is, in short, termed Dharmic.
The lab explores the trauma of both the Colonised Mind and the Colonising Mind and examines the rage and shame and what is owned and disowned within our psyches. Through an Immersive, experiential process and embodied work, using Psychodrama and other tools, the participants work to bring awareness to their modalities of feeling, thinking, and acting.
The lab is a Manthan (churning) that gets stirred up, offering newer ways of role-taking, choice-making, and actions, enabling a broader sense of responsibility, and seeking growth and development that benefits oneself, others, and the planet.
The Difficulty of Being Dharmic
Through immersive, embodied exploration, we hope to discover the Dharmic Mind—a mind that does not extract, oppress, or manipulate but aims for is in harmony and alignment with the eternal flow of life. This mind seeks to enliven the self, the other, and the context simultaneously. We posit that as one explores the effects of colonisation, i.e. the need to avenge, self-preserve, or ignore, one discovers wholeness and the possibility of choosing an enlivening response to the big questions of life.
The guiding question for this process would be, “How does one reenvision oneself so that we build a future distinctly different from the colonised past and the colonising present?” This mind would focus on discovering the truth and dialoguing with others rather than co-opting or resisting them through questionable means. . The result would be a mind free from the dogma of organised religion and the limited worldview of reductive rationalism. A mind engaged in this enquiry would focus on discovering the truth and dialoguing with others rather than co-opting them through questionable means. Enabling a deep innate intelligence that is capable of glimpsing Swatantra and Sarvodaya.
Although our historical heritage is replete with this knowledge, each generation has to do the work to imagine and co-create its future. The times we live in are particularly challenging. It feels more demanding than ever to live a Dharmic life, a way of living life filled with compassion and enables an authentic unfolding of oneself. The process involves the participants engaging in inner work through a framework developed by Raghu Ananthnarayanan. We will explore our sense of belonging and the trauma of our shared past as it impinges on our psyches and manifests in our bodies.
Process of the Manthan
The process would include cultivating a safe space that allows us to surface our dilemmas, contradictions and polarities that cloud and colour our feelings and thoughts. We will use theatre methods to explore the trauma lodged in the body.
We will stay with the inquiry through process work and make the invisible visible, inarticulate articulate, own the disowned and act the withheld. The hope is to discover healing anchored in community and compassion that allows participants to find meaningful and choiceful ways of living.
Is This Immersion For You?
People from all walks of life, especially Diversity Inclusion Equity leaders, executives in corporate, government and social organizations, entrepreneurs and self-employed professionals.
About Ritambhara
Ritambhara is a community of seekers, engaged in the quest of rasatmik living. The members share a common concern for the current ecological, socio-cultural and political state of the world, and find deep wisdom and hope in the teachings and praxis of Yoga as a way forward from these crises. The activities of Ritambhara include active co-learning through inner work, group study and practice of the various aspects of Ashtanga Yoga, exploratory dialogues on the different facets of the Indian tradition, and facilitating learning spaces and opportunities for others on a similar quest.
Date & Venue
Dates: August 5-10, 2024
Location: Bangalore
Inaugural session: 2 pm on 5th August 2024 (Monday)
Closing: 4 pm on 10th August 2024 (Saturday)
Please note – some evenings may be a pre or post-dinner session. Please keep your calendar free of other external engagements to make your participation more meaningful.
Fees
Twin sharing: INR 30,000/-
Registration
To register, please fill this form: bit.ly/RitambharaDOBD
Registration is complete only when payments are processed.
Payment link: https://pages.razorpay.com/dharmicmind
Last date for registration and payment of fees – July 20, 2024
Last date for withdrawal – July 20, 2024
In cancellations past the last withdrawal date, 50% of the fees will be withheld as cancellation charges.
Program Management Office
Program Director: Naveen vasudevan ([email protected]); +91 9489527893)
Program Coordinator: Maragathavalli Inbamuthiah ([email protected]; +91 97408 25558)
If you would like to discuss the lab, please call any members between 10 am and 6 pm IST.
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.