Time flies! It’s already June 2025. AVA is focusing on student favorite videos, and in thinking about my favorites I got an idea!
Why not design a weekend retreat using material in the AVA collection?!? I couldn’t wait for my morning coffee break to look at the content with this in mind.
Opening my Student Dashboard with this idea, I saw all the content differently. Usually I go to AVA for a specific reason such as for a satsang, or a recipe, or information on how to grow tulsi. This time I had a completely different perspective on the content. Staring at it all, a general outline started forming.
I would start the mornings with a little movement, then a guided meditation, then a satsang, followed by some journaling. Then after lunch I could learn something. After that I would do a little more movement and then another guided practice. And possibly another satsang or learning exercise.
For Sunday, I would do something similar, but much less, leaving time to run errands to prepare for the week ahead.
Selecting An Art to Learn
Looking at all the things I could learn: gardening, Indian cooking, Malayalam, music, devotional art, etc…Wow! I have two little grandkids, five and two so I wanted a course on something I could do with them. A whole lot fit that intention!
Finally I settled on rangoli, a devotional art form. Rangoli is a beautiful art using colored powders, flowers, colored rocks, grains, or a combination of these to make mandalas or images. During traditional Indian festivals like Diwali (celebration of light over darkness) or Onam (the harvest festival), these designs are made, often at the threshold of people’s homes.
During the AVA course, the instructor, Bramacharini Lakshmiprabha made an absolutely beautiful Ganesha. The mini-course is only 30 minutes long, though obviously it would take longer to actually make something, even if it was simpler. I decided this was the one for me and went out to a local art store to purchase some colored powders and some easy-looking mandala patterns from coloring books. I decided to try a couple on my own and the following weekend together when I had the grandkids.
Selecting Some Sacred Movement
For the movement flow, I was initially drawn to Amrita Yoga’s Divine Love Flow, which is in the library of Guided practices. If you look at the Wellness selections, other options include myofascial stretching, Mindful Movement (based on QiGong), or Acupressure. I had done all of the incredible myofascial stretching routines before.
Tuning into Amma internally, I felt strongly that the Acupressure for digestion and the immune system was what I needed most but I would do it in the afternoon. The morning movement would be Mindful Movement.
Selecting a Meditation
For the meditation I looked through the library of guided practices, which has soooo many attractive items. I kept coming back to the series of the six guided manasa puja’s (mental visualization and offering) with Amma’s 108 names following the meditation.
I am regular with archana (as in, I do it most of the time) but I always skip the manasa puja. I’ve heard people describe how they’ve created their own manasa puja with their own special imagery but for me…well I just usually skip it because it is hard for me. But these guided ones, by Swami Atmananda Puri, are beautiful. He is one of my personal favorite swamis. I’ve taken some retreats with him in person and I adore him. I felt soft and sweet all through my insides when I did one, so I decided to make that the morning meditation both Saturday and Sunday, using a different version for each day.
Choosing a Satsang
For a satsang, I was almost stumped. The Amrita Gita course is one of my favorite offerings on the whole platform but I am pretty current with it. Then there’s the satsang library, which I’ve barely scratched the surface.
There are a LOT of choices that seem perfect for me right now. Gratitude! Mantra Japa! Gita in A Day! Eight Practices (Ashtasadhana)! Art of Prayer! Overcoming Fear! Regaining Our Innocence! And this isn’t all. I finally selected “Overcoming Fear”.
Once I was finished, my Saturday looked like this:
- Archana
- Mindful Movement
- Guided Manasa Puja #1 (there are 6 to choose from)
- Overcoming Fear: Satsang 1
- Lunchbreak
- Playing with Rangoli and Patterns
- Acupressure Techniques
- Guided Manasa Puja #2
Sunday looked similar but I made it shorter.
- Mindful Movement
2. Guided Manasa Puja #3 - Overcoming Fear: Satsang 2
I fiddled around a little with the art supplies and planned how to do it with the grandkids without making my house look like a rainbow of colored powders on the walls or floors.
I went to my favorite coffee house and wrote some notes about my experience and then took the rest of Sunday to do anything I wanted. In my case this was a hike in the woods with a friend, a little shopping, and preparing a simple meal.
I Want to Make it a Regular Thing!
I resolved to try to design my own retreat from AVA content at least once a quarter. It was rich, it felt empowering to select and find things with Amma’s internal guidance, and I felt sooooo good!
Amma recommends that we try to spend a day a week in silence and focused on spiritual practices. It is tough for many of us to do this when weekends are also the best time for errands, seeing friends and family, and just putting my mind in neutral with a Netflix show or something.
But what I found in this self-designed retreat was that it was actually nurturing and energizing. I felt much better on Monday than normal. The whole experience showed me how what I look for in my weekends through friends, family and other activities is much more available if I focus on spiritual time. I want and need weekends to be relaxing but also to give me a sense for forward motion. I often used to feel like I’m just living to work to pay bills but spending this time in retreat showed me how easy it is to really and truly live.
Finally, these are turbulent times. One of the reasons I selected the overcoming fear material was related to this. I am certain that when I am centered and joyful and focused on real meaning, that waves of this energy flow into the world and have an effect. In this way, the darshans I have received from Amma allow me to pass it on. It’s magical that doing something I need to do for myself, for making more meaning and love in my own life can affect the world in a positive way.
The idea that spiritual practices are dharmic—centered on right living—became firmer and more practical in this simple self-designed weekend retreat.
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Thanks to Kamala for sharing her inspiring experience with Amrita Virtual Academy.
We encourage you to try out building your own retreat, by visiting the AVA catalog here.
All the classes and satsangs in this blog article are part of the AVA Membership. As an Amrita Virtual Academy member, you have access to more than 80 different courses and retreats in different fields.
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