Blog Post by Shweta Clarke | 18 Jun 2016
We have been holding 5-day spiritual workshops for the Maharshi University of Spirituality for about a year. The seekers conducting the workshops are truly grateful for the experience and the chance to meet seekers from all over the world on their spiritual journey. We have had seekers from 22 countries attend the workshops. In order to provide individualised attention to each seeker, we have deliberately kept the workshop groups small. This has enabled us to go beyond helping seekers merely at a superficial level but to also work on deeper issues that have been obstacles in their spiritual journey and clearing up misconceptions in Spirituality.
As seekers go through the workshop and learn the personality defect removal process and are exposed to the various aspects of Spirituality and the spiritual dimension, we have literally seen a shift in their consciousness happening before our eyes. Due to the high levels of spiritual purity in the Ashram and the presence of many Saints, the Divine consciousness (Chaitanya) that one can bathe in at the Ashram is like nowhere else.
The concepts discussed in the course curriculum help them gain clarity about life and all its influences seen and unseen. Seekers attending the workshop (apart from new learnings from the course curriculum) have had many spiritual experiences such as their Kundalini energy getting awakened spontaneously, experiencing spiritual emotion for the first time, hearing subtle sounds and other higher level spiritual experiences. Most of them have also felt a healing energy in the ashram. The intensity of spiritual focus during the 5 days along with the spiritually positive environment helps them gain a higher state of consciousness over the duration of the workshop.
There is old adage that says, “The face is the mirror of the mind, and eyes without speaking confess the secrets of the heart.”
In keeping with this adage, in a short period of 5 days many of our attendees have had changes appear on their faces that are quite evident, and this is due to internal positivity reflecting on their faces. In the past few courses, we have started to actually document the attendees’ faces before and after the workshop. In the slide show below with their permission, we have published just a few faces of our attendees – how they looked before and how they looked after the spiritual workshop.
Changes observed
- During the five days, we have noticed that the facial features of most workshop attendees soften and their eyes become more calm and brighten up.
- Their behaviour softens and their attitude and outlook towards life becomes more positive.
- The stress and strain of their earlier selves no more reflects on their faces.
- In the picture below, we have zoomed into one of the attendees eyes to emphasise the change in the eyes.
Compared to the first picture (i.e., before the workshop), the eyes in the second picture (i.e., after the workshop) have become more lively.
If 5 days of spiritual practice and a spiritual way of life can bring about such change, then just imagine what regular and focused spiritual practice over a year and beyond can achieve. Such change can be experienced by anyone undertaking regular spiritual practice, wherever they may be.