At Riverview Retreat, a camp was organized for the 10th Standard, Art students of J.B Petit School, Mumbai, from 24th to the 28th of March 2016. Nineteen students accompanied by two teachers and five parents stayed at the Retreat for three and a half days.
The students attended the art workshop at a Panchgani based NGO, Devrai Art Village. They spent morning hours learning Yogasanas and and Pranayama at the Retreat. A special effort was made to emphasize the importance of inward journey, thus, along with Asanas and Pranayama there were exercises in Pratyahara and Dharana. These exercises were placed in the background of an introduction to Ashtanga Yoga. The narrative of Nachiketa’s quest and the significance of Trinachiketa-Agni were shared in the natural surroundings of Panchgani.
An introduction to the legends and the oral history of Mahabaleshwar became occasions for interesting dialogues with students and the accompanying parents and teachers. Separate Yogasana and Pranayama sessions were held for the accompanying mothers and at their request, a session was organized to share concerns of meditation from different perspectives.
Sri M’s audio C D sharing “Techniques of Meditation” answered some of the questions of the enquirers. Smt Karoona Neelkantha, trained in Yoga at Nityananda Ashram, was the earnest Yogasana and Pranayama teacher for all the participants. She took initiative to teach these to all the support staff at the Retreat as well, thus creating an atmosphere of Yoga teaching at the retreat all through the day.
Tejinder Walia provided the general orientation and introduced Ashtanga Yoga and Kathopanishad in the context of education of the young.
