The Power of Harmony

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother saw Mahalakshmi or the Power of Harmony as a dynamic force of unity in diversity, the natural law of a higher consciousness that is essential for both individual and collective spiritual progress. The power of harmony comes from inner balance, where the soul or psychic being integrates the ego and mind, which in turn allows for a more harmonious external life. Based on this understanding, we have developed this workshop with the following sessions:

• Conscious Sharing Circle on the spirit of Auroville: during this session we will focus on reflections over Auroville’s ideals and purpose of unity in diversity. For that, a basic concept by Sri Aurobindo is: “The secret of unity is within, the secret of brotherhood is within. There is no unity except by the soul, there is no real brotherhood except in the soul and by the soul.” As such, the Mother declared in the inauguration's ceremony: "Auroville wants to be a universal town where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities. The purpose of Auroville is to realise human unity." 

• Yoga of Inner Discovery on Dreams, Intent & Values: during this session we acknowledge what are the intimate motivations that brought us here and make this choice. We visualize our dream and open up to the mystery, the Center, the One that inglobes everything. It contains whatever we aspire for, whatever we love and the light that shines in our lives. And from that we work on the values that represent what we truly are in our life, our unique and individual essence, and not who we would like to be or who we think we should be.

• Integral Psychology on self-enquiry: during this session we’ll focus on a fundamental concept expressed by the Mother, who said that at “the center of every human being, there is a being free, vast, aware, all-knowing, who awaits our discovery and must become the effective center of our being. Thus, the first condition for progress is to need something other than the present world and human conditions. And to reach there, one has to descend deep down in oneself to find out what one is behind all these racial, hereditary, social, moral, and cultural appearances; basically, what one truly is. Then you become aware that constantly, in everything that happens, there is something to be learned, and that in the present state of matter, there is always a progress to be made.”

• Awareness Through the Body on attention, witness attitude and yoga nidra: during this session we’ll focus on the basic understanding that to live a fulfilling life, an individual needs to be present and consciously observing, which is what we call awareness, attention is the switch that activates awareness. Thus, we need to position our consciousness as an observer watching what is happening in us without judging, analysing or trying to understand. A great tool for that is Yoga Nidra, with which we turn the consciousness inward and as we systematically relax every part of our physical body and shift our awareness to the subtle layers, emotions, and deeper mind, we gain access to innate knowledge and wisdom.