News - The India Connection

by Life Positive

The-India-Connection - Harshada with meditators A popular meditation teacher in New York specialising in one-on-one meditation training, he also holds public programmes and small-group retreats. Founder of the New York-based Banyan Tree under whose auspices he conducts his meditative activities, in recent years he has also started a new organisation called Adhisthana (foundation) in India. The activities here include: teaching meditation, doing retreats and Self-knowledge workshops, designing playing and learning environments for city children; creating educational programmes for young people, and conducting medical, educational and self-empowerment programmes for Indian street children. A lover of India and its wisdom tradition, Wagner recently led a group of mostly western meditation students on a pilgrimage retreat to some of Maharashtra's sacred sites. Over ten days, the group, made up of seven western students and a few Indians, visited Nasik, Trymbakeshwar, Alandi and other "power spots" to meditate, and study ancient texts like Yoga Sutra and the Upanishads, and even perform a traditional Vedic yajna. Undaunted by the Mumbai terrorist attacks, he shares, "It was clear that the attack was meant to scare people exactly like us away – to keep us from spending money in the Indian economy. It felt important to not let such an ugliness step on such beauty and to not allow a change in our plans to be a "ripple" created by those dreadful acts.".