AUM 2010: Manifesting the Spiritual Destiny of America, July 8–11, 2010

AUM 2010: Manifesting the Spiritual Destiny of America, July 8–11, 2010

Menla Mountain Retreat and Conference Center, Phoenicia, NY

Hosted by Matagiri Center for the Evolution of Consciousness

From the ancient spiritual beginnings of our Native American heritage to the latest technological developments where consciousness and science meet on a cutting edge, this conference will explore various aspects of the American experience in relation to the Integral Yoga and the future of humanity.

Presentations and workshops

• Search for the soul of America
  A vision quest for the U.S. Pavilion in Auroville
• Awareness through the body
  Awakening the deeper sensitivity of the physical consciousness
• Matagiri, Mother’s Mountain
  Joining hearts and hands to manifest a “New Creation” 
• Sacred Earth
  Finding the Divine in the tremendous beauty of nature: America’s sacred heritage
• The Transcendentalists
  Voices of the early American mystics
• Conscious evolution
  Integral Yoga in the 21st Century

Presenters (tentative):

• Eric Hughes, cofounder of Matagiri
• John Robert Cornell, AVI USA and Sri Aurobindo Association
• Aloka and Ashaman, Awareness through the Body
• Julian Lines, Matagiri board and Auroville International Advisory Council
• Lynda Lester, Sri Aurobindo Association
• Mita Radhakrishnan, Tomatis Method
• Narad Eggenberger, Om Choir and Horticulturalist
• Judy Abbott, Native American historian
• Richard Geldard, Emerson Scholar
• Richard Hartz, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Archives
• Robert Lawlor, founder of Forecomers, sacred geometer

The Sri Aurobindo Association (SAA) is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization whose purpose is to assist groups and individuals devoted to the realization of the spiritual vision of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. 

About the Sri Aurobindo Association Current officers

Lynda Lester, president

Lynda Lester edited the Integral Yoga journal Collaboration for 11 years, helped organize the 1988 and 2008 All USA Meeting (AUM), and is a member of the AUM Continuity Committee. She is a returning member of the Sri Aurobindo Association, having served on the board from 1996 to 2004, and a past board member of Auroville International USA. She has given many presentations on yoga to groups and centers around the U.S. After 16 years at a national research laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, where she managed print and web communications on scientific computing, Lynda recently moved to Lodi, California. There she pursues various writing projects and participates in the extended Integral Yoga community of Lodi and the Bay Area.

            Vishnu Eschner, vice president

Vishnu Eschner lived for nearly 20 years in Lodi, California, at Sri Aurobindo Sadhana Peetham (SASP), a residence dedicated to the practice of Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga. As director of SASP and a past president of the Sri Aurobindo Association, he has assisted with the editing, publication, and distribution of Collaboration and helped organize several AUM meetings of the global Sri Aurobindo community. Recently returned from a work-stint in the Matrimandir Gardens of Auroville, Vishnu currently lives in San Francisco, where he works as a private currency investor, does freelance writing and editing, and composes music for meditation.

            John Robert Cornell, secretary

John Robert Cornell found Home when he met Sri Aurobindo and Mother in 1980 by the grace of a spiritual teacher named Elena DeJoya in California. He made his first pilgrimage to Pondicherry in 1994 with his wife Karen. During later trips he fell in love with Auroville and spent two years living there (2006–2008). He is haunted by light and by the veil of the Divine in the American landscape. His compelling interests are writing, Integral Yoga, and the search for the American soul and the American yoga. He and Karen make their residence in a small town in the California foothills.

            Kalpana Patel, treasurer

Kalpana Patel went to school at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education in Pondicherry, India, and has been an active board member of the Sri Aurobindo Association since 1998. She helped organize AUM 1998 in Aptos, California, and was a principal organizer of AUM 2001 in Redwood City, California. She has also hosted a weekly Sri Aurobindo study group and been a regular participant in monthly retreats at Sri Aurobindo Sadhana Peetham. Kalpana lives in San Jose, where she works as office manager at Tata Elxsi Limited.

            Chandresh Patel, Auroville liaison

Chandresh Patel was a student at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education in Pondicherry, India. Over the past decade he been actively involved with Integral Yoga–related activities in California. He is a board member of Auroville International and a past board member of AVI USA. Although he works in the field of information technology, his main work is to help realize the vision of Auroville as put forth by the Mother. Contact us Collaboration journal  online subscription form AUM (All USA Meeting) Writings Auroville Land  Centers Integral Yoga site