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Essay Competition for the Mahabharata Immersion Workshop

Indic Academy in association with Ritambhara Aashram announces an essay writing competition to win participation in the Mahabharata Immersion Workshop to be held between Jul 22nd 2018 to Jul 28th 2018 amidst the Shola forests of the Nilgiris, near Kotagiri. One successful applicant will win a fully paid entry to the Workshop including course fees, lodging and boarding. Applicants will have to make their own travel arrangements to the Workshop. The essays of successful winner will be published by Indic Today.

The main focus of Ritambhara’s work is to create facilitators who are anchored in the Indic understanding of self and psychological processes and who can

  • Run self-reflective/ introspective workshops for people from various age groups
  • Run leadership/ training Workshops in organizations
  • Coach people in the life coaching and leadership coaching stream

Information about the Workshop and the essay topics are presented below-

Part 1: The Philosophy

Being the best one can be…

The wisdom and traditions of India are a great resource for inner growth and transformation. They offer not only insights and perspectives into one’s psyche, they also offer practices that transform the mind and body. Most of us encounter problems in life, and seek solutions. However, lasting ‘solutions’ can be discovered only through an enquiry into two critical questions: firstly “in doing what I am doing what am I really doing?” and secondly, “how am I part of the problem, and how can be part of the solution?” A meaningful enquiry into these questions is greatly enhanced when appropriate lenses and frameworks are used for the introspection. The Mahabharata weaves together philosophy and pragmatics through its stories of familial conflict, personal betrayals, leadership dilemmas and stewardship of nations. We have discovered through many decades of working intimately with people and enabling their growth that the Mahabharata is a great way of enabling people delve within and discover their own philosophy and their own ways of making choices, dealing with paradoxes of life and discovering meaningful action.

Image result for mahabharata

We place the basic context of the coaching in the framework of the Mahabharata Heroes, the Pandavas. This framework provides a narrative context in which individual propensities are presented in exquisite detail. The play of these archetypes and their shadows, as well as the contexts in which they encounter dilemmas of choice making and action are presented in ways that mirror our own lives.  They therefore provide a very useful lens through which we can introspect and discover ourselves.

Part 2: The Pragmatics

The clients in leadership position are typically concerned with becoming more effective and successful in their careers. The client discusses difficulties in role shaping and role transitions. These conversations involve focus on the nature of organizations, understanding structural and systemic processes. We bring in a dimension of facilitating the clients exploration of his/ her dharma as a driver of his/ her choice making and leadership. The client therefore understands how to strategize one’s actions, mobilize one’s team and influence other stakeholders from an authentic core.

We believe that an ability to understand ones inner drama is the key to unlocking ones potentials. The dynamics of meaning making and choice making are profoundly influenced by this drama The persona we present to the world and the shadow figures that lurk within are revealed through having insights into our inner dynamics.

Part 3: Mahabharata Immersion

The Mahabharata Immersion (MI) is intended to enable the participant to engage with inner work. The design of the programme will enable the participant to engage with the itihAsa purANa from an “inside-out” location, enliven the archetypes and enact the primal drama that occurs at the various turning points in the saga. One wears the mask of the Heroes, and in playing out the archetypal drama, views oneself in the mirror of the emerging “here and now re-play” of the eternal motifs of life and of relationships with significant others.

This will therefore provide an opportunity for participants to:

  • Discover and foster one’s hidden heroic potential.
  • Introspect upon the relationship between outer expression and inner processes.
  • Develop a personal foundation of Role effectiveness, interpersonal ethics an intra-personal
  • Introspect upon the way one holds and gives meaning to one’s mission in life.

The MI is a 5.5 day residential laboratory learning module.

Essay Competition

The kind of people who will be best suited for the Mahabharata Immersion are:

  1. People in their mid-career, who have seen the limitations of the western approaches and are looking for alternatives
  2. People who have a had a successful career and are looking to offer back to society through counselling/ coaching/ training
  3. People teaching Yoga or spiritual ways wanting to expand their repertoire and become Yoga based coaches
  4. People who have completed a course in psychology and see the need for an Indic and a holistic approach to healing

Keeping the above in mind Indic Academy and Indic Today invites 2000-3000 worded essay on any of the topics below:

  1. Ethics in Corporate world vis a vis ethics in Mahabharata.
  2. Leadership Lessons for the Modern World by Mahabharata.
  3. Krishna, the First Coach.

Apart from the essay the participants are requested to submit their professional CV and in 500-600 words describe how this Workshop will assist them in their future goals.

Submissions should be sent to indictoday@gmail.com

Last date for submission is July 5th 2018. Winners will be announced on 8th July.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article belong to the author. Indic Today is neither responsible nor liable for the accuracy, completeness, suitability, or validity of any information in the article.

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