Ela Mandalista is the drawing, singing and breathing mother to her little daughter Leyla. She was born in Poland, but lived for more than 9 years in Ireland. After successfully graduating from the Dublin School of Cinema, she felt an urge to travel to India. She hit the road with a little to no money to see how life will treat her. Ela wanted to find a direct connection with life, thus she wanted to see if it was possible to trust it completely. Thus, she was in a faraway country of India, with such an unusual culture and without money. After landing in Delhi, almost immediately, the right place called her. Ela went to Madahavpur Ashram, where she spent the next 8 months: she studied ancient breathing techniques, meditations and worked. The breathing technique was taught by a direct student of Sri Tavariaghi, Baduh Sai (direct student of Sri Tavariagi, BaduhSigh). While living in the Ashram, Ela began to paint mandalas and yantras. It was a spontaneous act of Joy. Creativity has become her way. She draws intuitively, surrendering to the flow.
description of yantra painting workshop:
Creating a Yantra in a workshop setting is a great way to immerse yourself in this ancient spiritual practice. This peaceful process allows you to meditate while creating, and gives you, and your friends beautiful paintings to adorn your home, altar or office space with external environment. The colors and shapes that make up the yantra are like a container of this energy and by creating or meditating upon a yantra, you are invoking this energy, which can enhance qualities or aspects of your life. Despite their differences, all yantras have a centering effect that lead you back to the source and a feeling of contentment. When creating a yantra, you start at the top, drawing in the clockwise direction (creation), and always move from the outside in. This pattern mirrors the process of meditation taking the practitioner from the periphery to the core of your being. In modern society more emphasis is put on left brained activities and when we do use our right brain, it functions alternately from the left. Yantra creation is one of the few activities that simultaneously engages both hemispheres of the brain. Our practice of Sacred Art painting will start with a short meditation. Then you will be led into the creative process of Yantra drawing & painting. We will learn the meaning of the different parts that make up the Yantra. The construction (drawing and painting) of the yantra will take us deeper into the feeling of devotion, meditation and sacredness The word yantra in sanskrit means tool, machine or instrument. Yantras are usually geometric diagrams, made of a small dot (bindu) surrounded by circles, triangles, and squares, each having symbolic meaning. These shapes come together to form the pattern of the divine. A yantra is also a visual form of a mantra used to strengthen your focus in meditation.
