Start date: September 19, 2025
End date: September 20, 2025
Venue: Freedom Land, Doddaballapura, Karnataka
BhāratShakti team was invited by the Creative School co-founders and trustees of The Healing Circle, Ms. Jayashree Ashok and Mr. B. Ashok to curate and conduct an intensive workshop for about 75 teachers and administrators on the theme: ‘Insights from Integral Yoga and Indian Spiritual Tradition on Love and Relationships’. The workshop conducted over a period of two days (September 19-20, 2025) and was a part of a longer series of teacher-education initiatives under the title ‘Sanskriti च Svādhyāya‘.
This 2-day workshop, a sequel to the workshops conducted over last two years on Insights from Itihasas, Puranas and Upanishads (2024) and Indian Culture and Self-development (2023), was organised at the beautiful and serene residential campus in rural Karnataka about 1.5 hours’ drive from the city. Situated near the hills, Freedom Land is growing as a conscious community space dedicated to inner freedom and outer productivity through collaborative work. This provided a very wholesome environment and the right kind of ambience to delve into topics related to love, human relationships and how to integrate them with one’s aspiration for spiritual growth and inner quest.
Teachers from The Creative School, Bengaluru as well as those staying and working at Freedom Land and a few other members of the Prajna Wisdom Center and The Healing Circle also participated in the course. The workshop opened with a brief concentration invoking the Divine Presence. Dr. Beloo Mehra, Director, BhāratShakti, gave a brief overview of the workshop schedule.
For the opening activity, Dr. Mehra asked all the participants to write in silence a few words about what the word Love means to them. The idea was to do this in a spontaneous manner without too much of the mentalising of this word. As the soft music played in the background, each of the participants after finishing the writing pasted their writeups on the back wall of the hall. This heart-centered activity set the right tone for the workshop.
The first topical session titled “Love as a Universal Force” was taken up by Dr. Mehra. She spoke about how the Love of the Supreme Divine prompted it to take a plunge into the Inconscience to carry out the work of evolution of consciousness. She shared the Mother’s insights on how love is a great universal forces which exists by itself and its movement is free and independent of the objects in which and through which it manifests. In fact, everything in the universe is an expression of the Divine Love.
Dr. Mehra highlighted that it is important that we prepare ourselves as a receptacle for the force of love. But before that we must recognise how human egoism and our lower vital nature and instincts and impulses distort and corrupt this force of love. Sadhana of love requires that we keep purifying our vital nature so that the distorting influence of our lower vital nature on this force of love begins to recede.
The next session was facilitated by Mr. Narendra Murty, Research Associate, BhāratShakti on the theme “From Human Love to Divine Love”. The various forms of love starting from Physical, Vital and Mental Love to Psychic Love and Divine Love were presented giving illustrations from the writings of Tagore, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. The “Rungs of Love” as described by the Mother had a strong impact on the participants. The central point of emphasis was that in Psychic and Divine Love, there is no place for the ego.
This was followed by a Group Activity on “Human Relationships as Field for Inner Progress” where the teachers were divided into 5 groups. Each group was given some selected passages from the writings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. The teams were asked to read the passages, discuss among themselves and find 2 to 3 key points which they found most intriguing and inspiring.
A representative from each of the teams then shared the insights they found most engaging – especially with regard to the insights that caught their attention in the passages. This session lasted a couple of hours, giving the participants sufficient time to go deeper with their understanding and share with the larger group their key reflections.
In the post lunch session another Group Activity on the theme – Human Relations and Ego – was taken up where the teachers were divided into two groups. Each participant was asked to pick up a card which contained a short quote from Sri Aurobindo or the Mother on the subtle ways in which ego and egoism distort love and impact our ordinary experience of human relationships.
The teachers were asked to reflect and speak on the quote – what they felt and gathered from it. The level of involvement and participation in both these group activities was remarkable and the teachers displayed tremendous enthusiasm which stretched the activities beyond the allotted time.
After the tea break, Dr. Beloo Mehra took up the story of Chitrangada from the Mahabharata under the theme “Stories of Love from Indian Tradition”. She gave three very insightful perspectives – from Veda Vyasa, from Tagore and from Sri Aurobindo. She showed how the same character was viewed and portrayed differently by the three luminaries. The session was highly appreciated by all the participants.
In the late evening after dinner, the participants watched three short films on some of the themes that were discussed during the day. These films were carefully selected by Dr. Mehra to bring out subtly the insights from Indian tradition concerning Kama purushartha, necessity to control desire, changing societal perspectives on marriage and dharma, and more.
Early next morning before breakfast, there was a session by Dr. Beloo Mehra on “Relationships and New Consciousness”. The focus of the session was on family life and man-woman relationship, especially when one or both the individuals also aspire for a spiritual life. Dr. Mehra brought in several examples from Indian spiritual tradition placing them in the context of the varnashrama vyavashta and highlighted the role of grihastashrama as discussed in several Indian scriptures. She emphasised that it is important to remember that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother always pointed out that each case is different, and their guidance was directed to the specific context of each individual’s inner aspiration. Nonetheless, there are several nuggets of wisdom that are helpful to a vast number of aspirants.
Dr. Mehra also highlighted that according to Sri Aurobindo one of the aims in Integral Yoga — which looks at all life as yoga — is to purify and transform the usual egoistic human love into a purer love towards the Divine at all levels of the being. He explained that after one enters the spiritual life, the relationship with the Divine takes precedence over the ordinary social relations. Either the family relations naturally fall off or become the ground for karmayoga based on the soul’s need. This point was discussed through several examples during the interaction part of the session.
After breakfast, there was a second session on “Stories of Love” by Narendra Murty. He too presented three stories. The first story was The Gift of the Magi by O’ Henry. The second one was a Tagore poem titled Abhisar (Meeting the Lover), translated from the original Bengali by Mr. Murty, which narrated a poignant tale of love between Vasavadatta, a courtesan and a monk called Upagupta. The third was not exactly a story but a historical anecdote where Mirabai wrote a letter to Tulsidas seeking his counsel as to how to deal with near and dear ones who was causing her immense anguish due to her love for Krishna and her association with the other devotees. Tulsidas’s famous reply titled Je ke Priya Na Ram Vaidehi, which has now become a famous Tulsidas bhajan, was presented line by with its English translation.
After this, in the next session Dr. Mehra presented the topic “Three Forces with the Strongest Attraction for the Ego” where the three powerful forces of Wealth, Power and Sex and their strong hold on the human mind and personality was discussed in depth with some lively interaction from the participants as well. The topic of confusion between sex and love was also taken up, for which insights from Sri Aurobindo’s Letters on Yoga were used to explore the nature of this force which can be easily distorted by the hostile forces. Discussion that ensued following Dr. Mehra’s presentation focused around the need for inculcating this awareness in the youth, through grounded and frank conversations in families and educational contexts.
After a short break, few insights were shared by Dr. Mehra on “How to Love Better” where the obstacles on our way to develop loving and harmonious relationships were discussed.
To help expand the participants’ notion of Love, the post lunch session was focused on the theme – “From Family & Clan to Nation – Expanding the Circle of Love.” Dr. Mehra discussed a relevant passage from Sri Aurobindo which brings out the idea of what Love for the Nation means. She highlighted a few key insights from the passage and also placed it in its historical context while simultaneously pointing out its timeless relevance.
This was followed by inviting a group of 14 teachers to participate in a collective reading of Sri Aurobindo’s Hymn to Durga. Each teacher read one stanza from the hymn and lighted a diya with a personal prayer and an offering of the heart. They were also given a few moments to write their prayer for their later reflection.
A brief closing session was facilitated by Ms. Jayashree Ashok. She thanked the BharatShakti team and invited the participants to share some key take-aways from the workshop. Several teachers pointed out some specific insights they found most helpful for their own journeys. Many expressed deep words of gratitude for the BhāratShakti facilitators and Creative School Leadership for organizing this unique workshop.