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Shreyas, an Inner Challenges initiative, is a retreat for discerning
guests to step away from the hectic demands of modern life and spend
time in unwinding, reflection, rejuvenation and rediscovering the
simple pleasures of life.
Spread over 25 acres of landscaped
gardens, the architecture and interiors are a seamless confluence
of traditional and the modern styles.

Extract from Guests’
comments:
What a complete pleasure the last 7
days have been – I came to "get away"
and "just 'be" and I was so able to do
that. What made it such a treat was not
only the incredible setting but the
staff. Rarely do you find yourself
surrounded by so many people that show
such pride in what they are doing. The
ability to be attentive (& so attentive at
that) yet incredibly unintrusive is a gift –
and everyone here appears to have
exactly that. The introduction to Yoga –
perfect The food; every single meal –
divine The massages - heaven!
The accommodation – bliss
Thank you so much for sharing a wee bit
of your world with me.
Without question I leave here wanting to
tell the world what a complete treat
Shreyas is - & I will!
Ms. Allison Curle, New Zealand
(Currently in UK) September 2008
The
3rd edition of the Year-end retreat,
‘Spiritual Awakenings’
at Shreyas will be held in
December 2008 (18th to 24th)
Contact us for more details |
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Living the wisdom of the Bhagawad Gita
Pawan Malik,
Founder, Shreys
Retreat
Gita means "song"
and Bhagawad means "Divine". So the Bhagwad Gita is simply
the song of the Divine. Probably the most famous of Indian scriptures,
it is presented as a dialog between Lord Krishna and the great warrior
prince, Arjuna, on the eve of the epic Mahabharata war. The Bhagavad
Gita is considered to be the distilled essence of the highest knowledge
of reality contained within the Upanishads, the wisdom portion of
the sacred Indian scriptures.
The Bhagavad-Gita is preserved
in the Mahabharata, and is arguably the jewel in the crown. While
the date of the Mahabharata war is debated among scholars, tradition
says it occurred five thousand years ago and that the great sage
Vyasa put the Gita and the rest of the Mahabharata into written
form. The main focus of the Mahabharata involves courtly intrigue,
all centering on an important political family of the time. This
family consisted of the Kauravas and the Pandavas, two groups of
feuding cousins. King Dhritarastra, the father of the Kauravas,
was congenitally blind. Thus, the throne that would have been his
was instead given to his younger brother Pandu, father of the Pandavas.
Dhritarashtra resented Pandu for this and never quite got over this
disappointment. After Pandu’s early death, Dhritarashtra received
at his court Pandu’s five sons-Yudhisthira, Arjuna, Bhima, Nakula,
and Sahadev and out of duty, raised them with his own children.
Even when the Kauravas and
the Pandavas were young boys, rivalry grew between them. The Kauravas
were devious and the Pandavas virtuous. As they grew older, the
Kauravas used their military might for selfish purposes while the
Pandavas were greatly loved and spiritually-minded political leaders.
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Still, Dhritarastra naturally favoured his own boys, even though
it was clear that the Pandavas were better equipped to rule the
kingdom. Dhritarashtra’s blindness signifies ignorance and inability
to see right from wrong due to attachments to his own kin.
The sons of Pandu were eventually
given territory of their own, where they erected a great city, Indaprastha
(modern day Delhi). However, Duryodhana, the eldest son of Dhritarashtra
and leader of the Kauravas, was jealous and plotted to take the
territory of the Pandavas by dubious means. He “arranged” a game
of dice in which the eldest son of Pandu, Yudhishthira, was sure
to lose. The plot succeeded, Yudhisthira lost his kingdom, and the
Pandavas were sent into exile for thirteen years.
As true Kshatriyas (noble
warriors) of their day, the Pandavas honoured their (a lbeit rigged)
defeat and entered the forest for the allotted time of their prescribed
exile. Their understanding was that they would regain their kingdom
when the exile came to an end. However, after the thirteen years,
Duryodhana still denied them the kingdom that was rightfully theirs.
They then asked for five small villages, because, as Kshatriyas,
it was their inclination and duty to rule.
To be continued...

A pond at Shreyas
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