A successful and educative event
Report by Kathrine Sumati Brekke and MJ Glassman
The Ananda Marga Association of Yoga Educators (AMAYE) held a successful 2-day online conference on 26-27 February 2022, its first global conference for some time. AMAYE is a community of Ananda Marga Yoga Educators from around the world who share knowledge, research, and insights with each other to better share the beauty of Ananda Marga Tantra Yoga with ourselves and society at large.
Hosted by Acarya Kamaleshvar who was the conference’s primary organizer, it was a truly global conference with 74 registered participants from 23 different countries across all continents, repeated twice to facilitate participation from all timezones. Attendees of the Eastern World Session were from India, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, and other countries. Attendees of the Western World Session were from various countries in North America, Europe, Central and South America, and Africa.
The conference was kicked off with a welcoming address from Acarya Shambhushivananda Avadhuta, Chancellor of Ananda Marga Gurukula and one of the founding members of AMAYE in 2006.
The first day was full of interesting presentations on topics explaining and situating Ananda Marga’s biopsychology: chakras, shukra and its essential role in biopsychology, understanding the internal vayus, and the power of yoga education for children. The second day was an opportunity to meet (virtually) with other AMAYE members around the world and to shape the future development of AMAYE. AMAYE members and other conference participants got to learn about AMAYE’s strategic plan, give their input and ideas, and learn about ways to get involved and be active in the association.
The presentations on the first day began with a thorough presentation on “Cakras from a Medical Perspective”, demonstrating how cakras are ‘junction boxes’ of the different parts of the nervous system, organs, glands and muscles, by Acarya Dr. Pashupati Steve Landau, MD (USA). Then, Acarya Kamaleshvara from Italy gave an educative presentation on “Shukra, Its Essential Role in Biopsychology & Yoga Lifestyle” – what is this ‘super lymph’ substance called shukra, why do we need it, and how to maximize it. Rudramohan from Taiwan gave us a very clear presentation with his “Focus on Vayus” that outlined the five internal vayus and gave examples of how an awareness about their balance or imbalance can be used when teaching asanas.
Shravan from the USA gave an excellent scholarly account on “Situating P. R. Sarkar’s Biopsychology” historically, including which elements of Ananda Marga’s biopsychology and cakra system follow from previous elaborations of yoga and tantra, and which are new and unique contributions by Shrii P.R. Sarkar. And the day ended off with a beautiful presentation by Avadhutika Ananda Devapriya Acarya from Romania about “Yoga Education”, why yoga education is so much more than teaching children asanas, and inspiring examples of how to help children along on the spiritual journey that is life.
Recordings of the presentations, as well as answers to questions for speakers, were made available to all conference participants on AMAYE’s website: amaye.org/events/amaye-conference-2022 If you missed the conference, all AMAYE members will have access to the videos via the members-only Resources portion of the website. Join AMAYE here: www.amaye.org/about/membership
The second day of the conference gave new members the possibility to show their solidarity with the AMAYE global movement. There were many attendees at the Sunday AMAYE strategy planning sessions, both East and West, where participants shared yoga activities that are happening in their communities as well as AMAYE projects that are happening such as the AMAYE Voices newsletter, progress on the Ananda Marga Asana Manual, and the upcoming AMAYE Workshop series that began in March with a workshop by Dada Visvarupananda on Transforming Asana into a Spiritual Practice. Mrs. Radha Gusain also offered to assist with AMAYE projects.
Plans were drawn up for the coming months, and several new members were welcomed into the AMAYE team. Mahajyoti Glassman concluded the conference with vote of thanks to speakers and participants.