Ashok Bedi , M.D.

B.J. Jakala, PH.D.

From February 7th through 18th, a group of soul seekers will travel in India to experience the land of Mahatma Gandhi through Jungian lens of Analytical Psychology. This experience is sponsored by the New York Jung Foundation. For the next several days, the faculty member of the group, Jungian Analyst Ashok Bedi and a Depth Psychotherapist Dr. Robert J. Jakala will compose a daily blog of their reflections about the experience. Other group participants have been invited to contribute to the blog and may join us from time to time. We are glad to share our experiences and reflections. Enjoy!

 
By B.J.Jakala

Nalsarowar is a migratory bird sanctuary outside of Ahmedabad. In the photo below a group of Flamingos reflect the communal and transitory aspects of life  

This was the first night of the tour group together/to gather. Our group of participants convened for a meal at a rooftop restaurant–open to the sky. We were served traditional local food while India provided her evening sensory ambiance as an engagement party arrived in spectacular eveningwear. Side by side, our parties celebrated an engagement of different yet similar kind. Each promotes an interior and exterior engagement–to ourselves and to the outer world.

 

I flew in, much like the migratory birds seeking more than their homeland provides. In a similar way, I feel a need to migrate to be nourished in a foreign yet familiar climate. I hope to engage a deeper India as she engages a deeper me.  

Nalsarowar is a migratory bird sanctuary outside of Ahmedabad. In the photo below a group of Flamingos reflect the communal and transitory aspects of life.

 


 
 

This was the first night of the tour group together/to gather. Our group of participants convened for a meal at a rooftop restaurant–open to the sky. We were served traditional local food while India provided her evening sensory ambiance as an engagement party arrived in spectacular eveningwear. Side by side, our parties celebrated an engagement of different yet similar kind. Each promotes an interior and exterior engagement–to ourselves and to the outer world.  

 I flew in, much like the migratory birds seeking more than their homeland provides. In a similar way, I  feel a need to migrate to be nourished in a foreign yet familiar climate. I hope to engage a deeper India as she engages a deeper me.

 

Reflections by Ashok Bedi:

I have led this group, “A Jungian Encounter with the Soul of India” for nine years with our organizer Regine Oesch-Aiyer and my wife and cultural consultant Usha Bedi. These study trips are sponsored by the New York Jung Foundation.

Participants join this group for various personal and professional reasons. Often, the real motivation for participation is not clear to the participants themselves. They may be aware of the manifest reason but India reveals the latent motivation for this journey.

It has been my observation that for most, India symbolizes the lost continent of their soul. If they are open, India becomes a looking mirror for a glimpse into their soul. They start out as tourists and leave as pilgrims: not to India but to their own soul journey. The British colonizers started as India’s rulers, exploiting its material wealth but ended up rediscovering their soul via their sense of justice, due process and respect for a worthy adversary in Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi started out as the political adversary of the British Raj but ended up an Alchemist of their transformation while securing India’s freedom from the British and its own shadow of untouchability and subjugation of the rights of minorities and women. So is the mystery of an Alchemical vessel!

Join us often to share in our experiences and images as we engage the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi’s India with our Jungian peers.

NAMASTE


 

Ashok Bedi is a Diplomat Jungian psychoanalyst and a board certified psychiatrist. He is a member of the Royal College of psychiatrists of Great Britain, a Diplomat in Psychological Medicine at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of England, and a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.

He has been a Psychiatrist in Milwaukee since 1976 and now practices Adult Psychotherapy and Jungian Psychoanalysis (www.tulawellnessllc.com).  He is a Honorary Psychiatrist at the Aurora Psychiatric Hospital and the Aurora Health Care Network. He has been a psychiatric consultant to several agencies in Metro Milwaukee. Presently he is the consultant for the Sexual Assault treatment center at the Aurora Sinai Samaritan Hospital, Dewey Center at the Aurora Psychiatric Hospital for treatment of Addictions and the Pastoral Counseling Services of Greater Milwaukee.

Trained in India, Great Britain and the US, he is interested in the emerging frontiers of Spirituality and Healing and the synapses of the Mind, Body, Soul and Spirit. He is author of several books including- Crossing the Healing Zone: From Illness to Wellness, Nicholas Hayes Inc. 2013, Path to the Soul, Weiser Books, 2000, Awaken the Slumbering Goddess: The Latent Code of the Hindu Goddess Archetypes, Booksurge Publishers, 2007, and the coauthor of Retire Your Family Karma, Nicholas-Hays, Inc. 2003, These and his other upcoming presentations can be previewed at his website www.pathtothesoul.com

 

He is the liaison person for the International Association of the Analytical Psychologists for developing Jungian training programs in India (www.iaap.org). He travels annually to India to teach, train the consult with the Jungian Centers that he led in establishing at several cities in India including Ahmedabad, Mumbai & Bangalore. He leads the annual “A Jungian Encounter with the Soul of India” study group to India under the auspices of the New York Jung Foundation.

He is the Co-Founder of the USA India Jung Foundation (www.uijf.org). The USA India Jung Foundation promotes educational and clinical activities in India and USA based on the principals of Carl Jung’s analytical psychology and Eastern spiritual and healing wisdom and traditions. It fosters clinical, medical, and educational exchange between professionals of the United States and India. These activities include educational activities directed both to professional and lay organizations in both countries to promote mental health education and prevention activities based on principals of analytical psychology and Eastern Spirituality. To support this  A 501(c)(3) Foundation and its charitable activities, kindly make your tax deductible contribution via the website: www.uijf.org