The Culmination of Enstasy

Jan 13th, 2016 ~ Our last day of Enstasy and together as a group…

We started the day with another beautiful 90-minute yoga asana practice in stunning Kumarakom. Following breakfast we gathered with Dandapani for morning class. On the first day of Enstasy Dandapani focused on the importance of getting clear with one’s philosophy. On the second day he focused on understanding how the mind works and developing key qualities that help one control and direct the mind. On this, the last day of Enstasy, the focus was on meditation. After establishing a clear and solid foundation, Dandapani dove into teaching the group a systematic step-by-step approach to meditation.

One of the key points that Dandapani emphasized was that every meditation practice should have a process and a goal. He then led us through a guided meditation practice so that we could actually experience the method, rather than only learning about it in theory.

After Dandapani’s class we enjoyed our last kirtan session with Lynda. Her deep devotion and enthusiasm, expressed through her music, is contagious and she took us to the devotional realms in a matter of minutes. We were also surprised by guest musician, Deobrat Mishra, leading us in a final kirtan number, Benares style (a style from his hometown of Varanasi). His voice and music were a direct channel for the Divine and went straight to our hearts. Most of us were in tears by the end of the devotional song to Siva.

Following the kirtan session, we took a short lunch break. We then all took time to dress beautifully in traditional Indian clothing for a group photo. The uplifting spirits and love of our group can be felt strongly in this photo.

We then joined Sri Janahan for our final puja (worship) class with him. The culmination of our days of learning puja, was a special homa, a sacred Hindu fire ceremony, that Dandapani had organized for us. We each carried our our kumbha (pot), holding our individual intentions with us as we paraded to the main resort lawn led by Janahan and two Indian temple musicians. On the lawn waiting for us were four priests from the goddess Meenakshi temple in the city of Madurai who were leading the homa.

The next hour and a half was truly a special experience as the priests chanted in Sanskrit and invoked the blessings of God and the inner world beings through this fire ceremony. In Hinduism the fire ceremony connects all three worlds allowing God, angels and great angels to bless all those that are present. We each placed our kumbha by the fire so that the water within the pot could absorb the positive energies from the ceremony. At the end of the ceremony the priests blessed each person with the water from their kumbha.

We concluded our evening and the four days of Enstasy with a formal dinner. All of the ladies dressed up in beautiful saris and the men in traditional Indian outfits. Everyone looked and felt fabulous. We held our special, finale dinner by the pool overlooking the lake. Following dinner was a very special performance by classical Indian musicians Deobrat and Prashant Mishra. Flown in from Varanasi in North India, these two talented musicians captivated our hearts with the sitar and tabla under a starry night sky. It was the perfect culmination of our 4-day gathering of Enstasy.

Class with Dandapani

Two traditional temple musicians lead the parade to the sacred fire ceremony.

Each participant offers their kumbha (pot) to be placed by the sacred fire for blessings.

Priests perform a homa, a sacred Hindu fire ceremony.

The final act of the ceremony is to offer the remnants of the water from the kumbha to the lake.

Everyone is dressed up beautifully for our final night dinner.

Listening to Deobrat and Prashant Mishra perform

Enjoy our gallery of photos below from the last day of Enstasy. Click on the small circles at the bottom of the image to see the next one or just on the right of the current image to scroll forward.

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