Pranayama and Freedom form Stress Workshops at Sri Aurobindo Center, Berlin

The more I travel in Germany, the more I am realizing how false the commonly held notion is – the notion that Indians are spiritual. The underlying notion is that “others are not spiritual’.  Isa, who runs the Sri Aurobindo Center at Berlin, worked in the Foreign Affairs Ministry and served in Russia, Portugal, Brazil and Luxemburg.  From that kind of background, I feel surprised and inspired to have glimpse of who she is . She started  the Center and is now devoting herself to facilitate people learning the message of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo.  She began her spiritual journey when she was 8!. I experience Peace and Love radiating from her.
She showed me around Berlin on two days . What a privilege it was to learn about this extraordinary city from Isa. It was an immersive experience - the culture, history, architecture, people, green environment, discipline, beauty, civic sense and the spirit of freedom and Unity. There is vibrancy in this city with an underlying spirit of freedom with responsibility. And all the while, I had the gentle and affectionate guide who kept educating me on the aspects of Berlin that are not visible and not discernible to a casual observer.


Georg works in the Foreign office and stays in the same building that the Center is located in. Isa and Georg are like two pillars brought together by the Mother to spread IY in Germany. Georg has been catapulted into the spiritual world by a chance incident that put him in touch with “Secret of the Veda”. It is amazing to see how much energy he gives to the Center. He is young but he is also a scholar of the teachings of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. I was overwhelmed by the affection and loving attention I got from him and he took me to “Check Point Charlie” – a symbol of the manifesting Human Unity.
The Center is a vibrant place with at least three programs per week: Study Circle, Savitri Reading and other programs.  Dirk comes from 70 Km to participate in them! It is very heartening to see the flowering of the consciousness of Integral Yoga. Almost everyone I met here has been to Pondicherry  at least once and they are very rooted in the practice of Integral Yoga with a sincerity and aspiration that is splendorous!

 Originally, we planned Freedom from Stress workshop only but just a couple of days before my arrival here, Isa created an opportunity for me to share Pranayama as well. I thoroughly enjoyed both workshops and delighted to get to know the extraordinary people in Berlin. Their participation was fabulous and they gave 100% of their attention and listening so generously. I am on Cloud Nine.
I am feeling sad to leave Berlin and look forward to the next opportunity to be here. I am so grateful to Isa and Georg for the love and caring they gave me so abundantly. I am just beginning to experience the power and magic of AVI and the Family of Integral Yoga. It is a privilege to be part of this and I am lucky to be welcomed with open arms and abundant love.

Pranayama Workshop at Rodenberg, Germany

Rodenberg is a small charming town in Germany.My connection with this beautiful place is through Ilka. She attended one of the workshops in Auroville. One day, we met near the Matri Mandir entrance and she invited me to her place. I enjoyed the meeting and was very happy. When I was planning the trip to Germany, this was not in existence for me.

I was pleasantly surprised to get a mail from her about a month  ago, inviting me to Rodenberg. She came to know about my planned workshop at the Sri Aurobindo Center at Berlin and decided to  send me a email, with a delightful invitation. I was more than happy to accept it and Ilka has arranged the workshop  in her wonderful studio with skylights and such positive energy.  Ilka offers week-end retreats with opportunity to relax, relieve and restore in her beautiful home-cum-studio in Rodenberg with individual and personalized coaching, meditation and counseling. I am inspired by the way she is touching so many lives.

The town itself was picture perfect and a place of extraordinary beauty, tranquility and charm. The pictures say it all. I was touched by the  kind hospitality  of Ilka and Klaus, her husband. Ingo, Ilka's brother, who livl es in London was also passing by and I was fortunate to meet him as well. Those few hours were the first opportunity for me to be with a German family and it was very touchig and moving for me to see the love, affection and harmony. 
The workshop itself was great! The studio was full and everyone came in time, with lots of interest and enthusiasm. The participation was extraordinarily satisfying and fulfilling for me. I was also very happy with the questions. All in all, the session deepened my respect for Germans. I am in awe that Germans are practicing Yoga and seek ing spiritual progress with great aspiration.
I feel so happy and grateful to Ilka for giving me this opportunity. I requested her to consider following up with a few practice sessions to help the practice to take roots in their lives.
I am also getting to have glimpses of the power and magic of Auroville&AVI network and a  sense of the extended family of Integral Yoga of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. I feel blessed to receive such affection, kindness and experience a sense of belonging and being part of this Divine family.

I look forward to more opportunities to be in this charming town, enjoy the hospitality of Ilka and Klaus and facilitate workshops.

Münster

I never knew about this wonderful town. This is my 100th blog post and I am making an exception to write this blog about a charming University town in Germany where I stayed for less than 24 hours. The reason why I am making this exception : it was a profound learning experience for me to be in this wonderful place, thanks to Raphaele. She is medical doctor with specialization in psychosomatic medicine and a deep interest in spirituality. She began her spiritual journey at the age of 6! She gave up her practice in her spiritual quest and studied Life Divine at SACAR (Sri Aurobindo Center for Advanced Research). She is the Founder  of Field Dynamics,  which unifies body-therapy on the level of the cells and tissues, with spiritual and evolutionary exploration and integration. For more, please see www.feld-dynamik.de
Raphaele and Brigitta attended a Pranayama workshop in Auroville. One day, I  happened to Raphaele at Matri Mandir after the workshop and she extended an invitation to Münster /Westf, her home town. When I was planning my Europe Trip, I got a pleasant surprise - a mail from Raphaele,  inviting me to Münster. She learned about my planned workshop at Berlin, when she went there to do a session on Field Dynamics. I was quite moved by her invitation and decided to accept it, even though, just for 20 hours. She said she will receive me at Münster but actually met me at Hannover, on her way back from Berlin. It was a beautiful drive and she took me around Münster, helping me to see this beautiful city through her eyes, sharing her experiences and her life. This was an unbelievable experience for me and left an indelible impression inside me. The next day, we had a fabulous breakfast at the lovely home of Brigitta and continued to explore  Münster for another 3 hours, after which Raphaele dropped me at Osnabrueck railway station.
Fast forward to  Dec 2013. Brigitta came to Pondy in November and was staying at Golconde, Pondicherry. Raphaele arrived on 3 Dec 2013 at Auroville. I could meet neither of them.  On 4 Dec 2013, my lap top was giving a problem and I had to go to Pondy and called Brigitta after I finished my work. She was free and we met at the Ashram and were walking towards a restaurant for tea, talking about how we could meet along with Raphaele some time in the second week of December. And we meet Raphaele, walking towards the Ashram! This is synchronicity! This meeting added further meaning to our friendship and I am sure all this was meant to be and I am blessed to experience this .  

The rest of this blog is a joint post by Raphaele and JV

Raphaele’s house
It is a typical bungalow from the sixties in the country-side, a 20-minutes bicycle ride from town and friend Brigitta.

Entrance to the home of Raphaele

The lovely living room is where you enter into the home

Living room and dining room to the right

Life Divine in pencil work painting by Jacques de Jong

Garden

Garden - another angle of view

A most vibrant green that was stunning in the golden sun

A big old farmhouse in the neighborhood:
Differently-abled live and work here together with others,
running a restaurant, a farm-shop, maintain stables etc

Raphaele's Münster

Parent's house

Annette-von-Droste-Hulshoff-Gymnasium - The high school
from which Raphaele, her mother and eldest daughter graduated 

Elementary School

Way to school along the Promenade.
the medieval fortification around the town
Now for pedestrians and bicycle riders only

Raphaele's office for Psychosomatic Medicine
from 1992-2005, right opposite to her parents home

Raphaele's apartment in an art nouveau house (from about 1900)
where she lived form 1999 to 2005

Town house of country nobility

Her youngest daughter's humanistic Gymnasium

(Latin & Greek High School) opposite to the apartment

Sculpture of a man who had been demonstrating
 in this place against many issues for decades and
wrote innumerable letters to the local newspapers

TOWN WALK

Art nouuveau-house form about 1900 at Promenade

Baroque castle of Arch-Bishop now used for
University  Administration (50,000 students) 

A nicely renovated fancy house at Promenade

Franz von Furstenberg, Founder of the University &
great Humanist of the early 18th Century

Town hall where the  "Westfalian Peace" 1648 was brought about
by delegates of Sweden, Netherlands, Spain etc
after 30 years of European War 

Principal market and Lamberti Church

Erbdrostenhof, Baroque house of another country-side nobility 

Map for the blind - so that they can 'see' through touch

Raphaele's elementary school

Another view of Raphaele's elementary school with children playing

VISIT TO Guardian of Lamberti church tower: 

In medieval tradition, the guardian on the church-steeple of Lamberti blows the horn during the night

JV freezing at this height but happy to experience a rare sight

Talking to the guardian, who is a philosopher.
He earlier had his office for  philosophical guidance in
Raphael's medical office at the Promenade

               View from the steeple onto cathedral

On the 301 steps to the tower, we see pictures of the
devastation caused by World War II

Copper engraving of the medieval town  

Looking up to where we have been 

Relaxing after the unique tour

WHIRLWIND TOUR OF SEVEN OF THE FAMOUS CHURCHES OF Münster 

in 90 minutes

Münster is known for its innumerable churches, dotting the skyline  and beautifying it in an unique way. I am sure that there is much more to see and experience in Münster than I could in the short trip.  Münster was major center of Catholic faith and this aspect seems to be on the decline in the last few decades with the ascent of materialism. I experienced a vibrant, yet peaceful and quiet atmosphere in this University town. 

Cathedral, the place of the Bishop and Clergy.
This was built on the place where Saint Ludger built a church &
school in 800 AC during the first wave of Christianization

Lamberti, the church of the citizens

Dominikaner, the church of the monks

Clemens: The Church of the nobility

Servati, the spiritual church of permanent adoration

Martini, used to be a classical parish church.
It is now church of the youth, with all classical objects removed.
Now, there is a plain table and movable chairs.
This is an experiment to have the youth to remain interested in Christianity
What I saw there is quite amazing to me, given the orthodox nature of Christianity.  

A picture of Petri, the University church is lacking because I ran out of battery,
clicking so many pictures of the wonders ad beautiful sights of Münster .
So, I am inserting here a recent painting of in the cathedral, showing (for the first time, as far as I know)
in a Catholic Church, the corpse of Christ being taken from the cross and transforming into Ananda!

Integral Being Workshop iat Dransfeld,Germany

 This workshop is the first first one for me in Europe and the first with translation.
All made possible by Kristine. She attended one of  my Workshops in Savitribhavan and in our conversation responded enthusiastically to the idea of a workshop. She is Qi Gong Teacher and she arranged it in her studio. Kristine visited India in 1974 for the first time and has been on the spiritual path since the age of 15. It is inspiring to know her and her multifaceted accomplishments in Ethnology,  journalism, Qi Gong, translator ..... She came to India and Auroville in 1974 for the first time in her spiritual quest. I met her in Auroville in Dec 2012 when she attended the Wellbeing workshop. I shared with her that I was planning to be in Europe and Germany in June 2013 and asked her if she could help me to do a workshop. And she did! She did with such wonderful, enthusiastic and positive energy. The biggest leanings and gains for me in the workshop is getting to know her, her friendship and a glimpse of spiritual journey.

We planned the workshop as two day event but finally had to settle down for 1 day. It was quite ambitious because it had three aspects : Pranayama. Freedom from Stress and Happiness and beyond - the three basic ingredients of Integral Being. When you add the time needed for translation, you get an idea of the degree of our ambitiousness.
I am happy and satisfied with the results - mainly because the participants were great and Krsitine did a great job in translating and being co-facilitator of the event. I was pleasantly surprised that the participants were very knowledgeable! It was privilege to  work with them and it was a wonderful first event for me in Europe.

One lesson for me: avoid compression and cramming of too many topics