Sri Yaga – A New Year's Retreat (December 2024)

As we stand at the threshold of the second quarter of the 21st century, we must ascertain what future awaits us. During times as confusing and uncertain as ours today, the sages have advised, “Summon your willpower and write your own destiny; blind submission to the forces of change leads to a scary fate.” This New Year’s program is a step toward taking charge of our destiny.

The program opens with Sri Yaga, a time-tested tantric practice to invoke the forces of certainty and stability and boost our atma shakti, the power of all powers, which ensures that we succeed in our endeavors no matter what. This shakti is the force behind the experience of beauty and joy, thus it is called Sri Vidya. It is a valiant force and champions the army of compassion, thus it is known as Durga. The practice of Sri Yaga is to invoke this force within and without, thereby restoring the vibrancy of the human spirit and the natural world.

As part of this retreat, we’ll study the dynamics of Sri Yaga, how it relates to our personal practice of yoga and meditation, and how Sri Yaga serves as a doorway to other forms of group tantric practices, most notably Maha Sri Yaga. The most important feature of this study, however, will be to see how the sages in the past applied Sri Yaga to build a collective consciousness big and strong enough to guide the forces of change, thus passing on a system we can use to write our own destiny.