Working with Metaphor, Mantra, and Meditation

This 2.5 hour workshop explores how metaphor, mantra, and meditation function as living symbolic languages that shape contemplative experience. Through reflections on sacred imagery — such as the universal double-helix serpent motif representing subtle energy — and the devotional power of Bhakti poetry, participants will explore how symbols can orient attention, feeling, and embodiment. Together, these practices reveal how sound, image, and poetic language can become gateways into deeper states of awareness and devotion.

Recognize symbols as experiential tools, rather than abstract ideas.
Understand the "serpent motif" as a map of subtle energy and inner attunement.
Experience how metaphor can guide meditation and awareness.
Discover how mantra and sacred sound shift consciousness beyond ordinary language.
Appreciate Bhakti as a path of devotion, relationship, and heart-centered practice.
See how engaging with Bhakti poetry functions as a contemplative practice, not just literature.
Integrate symbol, sound, and poetry as complementary gateways to meditation.
Learn to engage spiritual language imaginatively rather than literally.
Experience how intellect and devotion can work together in contemplative practice.

Nataraj Chaitanya has led retreats, workshops, kirtans, and has directed yoga and meditation teacher training programs throughout the world for 20 years. After beginning a daily meditation and yoga practice at the age of 13, Nataraj immersed himself in the teachings of yoga and tantra and at the age of 16, began to share these nectarean teachings with his students. He has inspired countless seekers to take up a spiritual practice and has dedicated his life to bringing the wisdom of yoga to everyday life.His love of teaching is evident in the enthusiastic and devotional manner in which he leads his classes. He strives to create environments and experiences where people from all walks of life can directly contact the fullness of their own Being.

Mary Reilly Nichols has been sharing the joy of yoga, meditation and breath work for over four decades. Her teaching incorporates non-dual Tantric philosphy, Kashmiri Shaivism, and Vedanta as well as insights the world’s beloved mystical traditions. She speaks at international symposia and leads breath-based stress management programs in psychiatric settings. Mary holds a BA in anthropology from Harvard University and spent five years in residence in the ashrams of Swami Muktananda both in India and the US.