December 2014
By Punya Srivatsava
Nourished by nature and healed by BK Chandrashekhar’s powerful workshop, Punya Srivastava returns from the Mother’s Riverfront retreat near Kullu, revived, refreshed and in touch with her divinity
Mountains are my manna. Period.
I boarded the bus with a weary mind and tired body, slumped in the back seat trying to switch off from all the exhaustion that had accumulated in every pore of my being in the past few weeks. The journey started on a very dicey note with my health trying to play spoilsport. We flagged off from Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Delhi in the evening of October 2, and the bus engine conked off in the middle of nowhere around Panipat, in Haryana, at two in the morning. It looked like the universe was pushing me to the edge of my patience. Somehow, we managed to get help and finally resumed our journey at 4 am.
I woke up with a start as the 5:30 am alarm set off on my phone. As I rubbed my eyes, scrubbed the window pane a little and peeked out, I felt the first rush of joy. Oh, the mountains! The frost-green mountains laden with misty clouds! I could feel the exhaustion, the pain, the frozen weariness thawing from me as I sat, drinking in the tranquillity and purity of the scene unfolding right before my eyes. The bus was snaking its way on the winding roads of Sundar Nagar, a municipal council in the Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh from where the hills start. It took us nearly five more hours to reach our destination – The Mother’s Riverfront, where we were to attend the workshop by BK Chandrashekhar organised by Life Positive Foundation.
Nestled in the quaint little village of Gushaini in Banjar, around 50 km from Kullu, this beautifully landscaped retreat centre situated on the banks of river Teerthan is run by Navin Bahri and his wife, followers of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo. The beautifully serene ambience made me want to sprawl on the lush green lawns dotted with rainbow flowers, and never get up. My reverie was broken with a clamour in the background for the single occupancy tents, even though a row of cosy cottages waited to be inhabited. I got lucky here and was given a tent right beside the huge boulders overlooking the gurgling waters.
Day I
After enjoying a sumptuous and satvik hot meal, we scattered across the property and busied ourselves – sprawling on the lawns, lounging on the boulders in the middle of the rushing waters, losing ourselves in the comfort of nature, and allowing it to take away all our weariness. The first phase of the workshop started in the evening with an introductory session followed by a brief summary on how Dr BK Chandrashekhar founded SIGFA Solutions. Dr Chandrashekhar is a Rajyogi and the founder of SIGFA Solutions apart from being a popular facilitator at the Life Positive expos. Amazingly, Dr Chandrashekhar got a second shot at life following a tryst with cancer and hepatitis C, after getting divine guidance in his hospital bed. This led to his founding the SIGFA solutions, a healing enterprise. He started the first day of the workshop with a scanning session for all. Dr Chandrashekhar uses a universal scanner that scans and measures the chakra energy and auric field of a person. Not surprisingly, all the chakras below my throat were blocked.
However, the place had started working its magic on me even before we started with SIGFA healing. By the end of the day, I had completely forgotten the past few weeks. Inhaling the deep, pine-laden crisp mountain air worked as the much-needed naturopathy. The light meals, achingly lovely greenery, and the ornately landscaped retreat centre had touched me at the right spot.
We started quite early the next morning, with a meditation session starting at five. The sight of giant hills outlined against the faint and receding moon-light lured me out of the meditation room to the river bank for some stretching exercises. I could feel the rushing waters of Teerthan coursing through my body as I breathed deeply and felt grateful for having been granted these moments.
The morning session started with Dr Chandrashekhar explaining the meaning behind SIGFA, which elaborates into Spiritual Incorporeal God Father Almighty, or simply the Divine. He then started with Psycho Neurobics, a process developed by him that helps one to get directly in touch with the Divine, harnessing the power of mind and then transmitting that power to the body through neurons. According to Dr Chandrashekhar, every human being is spiritual energy in light form. When this SELF functions through the physical human body, it replenishes itself by connecting to the only source in this universe – the Divine. Psycho Neurobics helps people harness this energy through a combination of sound, colour and mudras. Dr Chandrashekhar stressed upon the significance of meditation in transporting the mind to delta state, a state that connects the soul with the Supreme Being. This was followed by a guided meditation on Joyful Neurobics and Bliss Neurobics, corresponding to the ajana (third-eye) chakra and sahasrara (crown) chakra, respectively.
The session then broke for breakfast, followed by an arduous hike to a waterfall at a whopping altitude of 7,000 feet. For a city dweller, a foot journey that extends beyond the nearest supermarket is nothing short of a trek. However, the hike to the majestic waterfall through the steep path flanked by wilderness was worth every scratch, cut and blister. All the sweat and ache was forgotten after feeling the first spray of ice-cold water on tired bodies. Nature, they say, cures best! However, the walk back to the retreat was never-ending because of a pulled-muscle in my right leg. Also, most of us had run out of water, and hunger pangs were loudly clamouring for attention. The simple, satvik lunch prepared from organic items tasted nothing less than divine.
The day’s session resumed in the evening with the graduation ceremony of around 12 students who completed their certificate and degree courses in Psycho Neurobics under the affiliation of Tamil Nadu Physical Education and Sports University. This was followed by the launch of Dr Chandrashekhar’s latest book, I Can Heal Myself in 7 Days, published by Life Positive Publications.
The evening then witnessed a practical session by Dr Chandrashekhar where he demonstrated examples of how energy gets blocked in the body, and how one can heal and recharge oneself by drinking charged water. His demonstrations were met with great excitement by the wonderstruck participants. Next moment, everyone wanted to learn to charge water. I was lucky enough to be chosen for a demo, using Dr Chandrashekhar’s Third Eye Healing album which is an outcome of his research in energy healing. I drank the charged water a couple of times before turning in for the night, along with practising the psycho neurobics, and giving healing energy to my pulled muscle that had begun to pain severely. The next morning, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the pain had vanished, leaving just a niggling sting behind.
Day III
The third day started with a morning session on seven chakra meditation, with extensive discussion on corresponding mudras and sound vibration for every chakra. Dr Chandrashekhar also discussed various chronic diseases and suggested various customised sound and mudra chakra meditations to the participants. The group then proceeded on a day trek to Jalori Pass, the highest point of Kullu, at an altitude of approximately 11,000 feet. The view from the top was straight out of a picture postcard – the entire verdant valley stretched out infinitely as far as the eyes could go, surrounded by towering giants in multi hues of green. Looking at the mist-enveloped hills, fading in and out of view, from a breathtaking height was nothing short of enchanting. The journey back was deeply relaxing as the SUVs snaked their way through winding roads, with a stop-over for a picnic lunch at Mr Bahri’s tastefully done private property, flanked by a tiny rivulet gushing in the backyard.
The evening session resumed with a talk on the importance of forgiveness for the expansion of the heart chakra and for successfully practising what Dr Chandrashekhar has named loveful neurobics. “Forgiving others is like cutting the emotional umbilical cord with them,” he said. He then explained how one can fill the anahata (heart) chakra with love by intentionally replacing random thoughts forming the anahata naad with deep gratitude towards the universe and forgiveness to all. Anahata naad is the very first thought one has after waking up in the morning. Dr Chandrashekhar then suggested a simple routine to start your day with, by thinking thoughts of gratitude and forgiveness, followed by drinking charged water and a 10-minute session each of enlightenment neurobics and bliss neurobics.
Day IV
The last day of the retreat started with a session of Neurobic Spa that cleanses and prepares the body-mind-spirit to connect with the Divine and get recharged. This was followed by a mass healing session where Dr Chandrashekhar invoked the Divine to heal all those gathered in the centre. The session, which lasted for around 30 minutes, was a deeply relaxing experience. I have always found it hard to meditate as I doze off within the first five minutes of any guided meditation. This time was no different but the experience was something unanticipated. All of a sudden I saw a flash of a brilliant bright white light, as if someone had switched on a thousand watt tubelight just millimetres away from my closed eyelids. I jerked out of my unconsciousness to see that I had missed out on a huge chunk of the guided meditation. Later, Dr Chandrashekhar explained that I indeed had had a glimpse of the Divine in its truest form, and that what I took as dozing off was not actually sleeping but going into the delta state where the mind completely shuts down and one directly connects to the Supreme. He then did a final energy scanning of all the participants, and to everyone’s amazement, everybody’s auric range had expanded beyond 3,000 feet. Indeed, the Divine itself had healed the entire lot!
With freshly energized body-mind-spirit, many people then proceeded to the river crossing expedition arranged by the centre, and frolicked in the cold but soothing waters of the Teerthan. Soon it was time to head back to Delhi, and the last one hour was spent in exchanging contact details. Participants had flocked to the retreat from all across the country, and it was heartening to see everyone forming new bonds and friendships amidst the unrestricted company of nature.
Mr Dharampal Ganwani from Mumbai hailed Life Positive’s efforts in organizing such workshops. “I am 73, and hugely inspired by this magazine to lead a life of holistic wellness. I make it a point to attend most of their workshops and expos since I have gained a lot from these expeditions. I am 100 per cent fit for my age, all thanks to Life Positive,” he added.
Dr Satish Pandey, a Gurgaon-based radiologist also shared how the articles published in the magazine inspire him to lead a holistic life, and adopt integrated healing.
As far as I am concerned, I am deeply grateful to the universe for persuading me to embark upon this journey. I came back with a heart full of joy!
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