If you join a spiritual education with Enlightened Master IKYA, then you will have the option to join an IKYA Ganapati study team. Your team consists of fellow IKYA students, each walking their unique spiritual path, side by side. Personally as a student of IKYA for more than 15 years, I can tell you this work in our IKYA Ganapati study teams has truly been a gamechanger. If spiritual work in general is like having a gym membership, I’d say that working with IKYA and then joining an IKYA Ganapati study team is like engaging a personal trainer and getting your own exclusive group to train with.
Your community and "training buddies"
First of all, most people do not engage in this type of deep spiritual work at all. Your IKYA community – and then even more intimately, your Ganapati team – is a way to take part in a group of like-minded people that wants to lift and encourage you, rather than look at you funny for getting up early and “going to the gym.”
As you engage in working with Spiritual Teacher IKYA, your spiritual life transforms and is no longer separate from your day to day life. Your spiritual life IS your life. I’m not gonna lie; it will feel tough at times. What is actually happening is that Life (aka your personal trainer) is adding weights to the exercises so you can build more strength and resilience. So, when you feel overwhelmed, confused, or as if just everything hurts, it is in fact your most important and hard-as-heck work to get you stronger. Your Ganapati team and work within it, provide the structure and the space to lift your understanding of what is actually truly going on.
But hey – it ain’t all hard! You also need someone to share your progress and successes with, because they will surely come, too! This aspect of your Ganapati team is just as important. Your fellow Ganapati team members are on a similar road to you and can mirror your successes back to you like no one else can.
A structured way to work
Aside from the companionship of your IKYA Ganapati team, you get worksheets + a study journal with extracts from the teachings and related questions to reflect on. What matters most here, is to make the teachings as concrete as possible for ourselves as we optimize our spiritual growth. The worksheet and study journal are a great way to help you simplify and understand what is actually going on, and how this or the other principle is playing out in your life. In my experience, we often lack the language for this observation and understanding, which in turn makes it harder to put those great insights into practice.
The study journal is also a great way to expand your vocabulary. This work will not only make it easier for your brain to translate the principles, but describing your journey and your understanding helps you to get a sense of overview – and to realize that, “Hey! My whole life is in fact a spiritual arena!”
Tracking progress of spiritual growth
Spiritual studies are never a straight road. As anyone who’s worked out knows, tracking your exercises and how far you have come is essential for continued progress in a productive direction. The Ganapati worksheet serves as your “training diary” and helps you focus, and on days with less motivation? Well, you’ll know what to do! Once you start looking back, you’ll also see that you’ve made progress – true and measurable progress.
To get the most out of your study journal, you’re encouraged to work on it just after your meditation or mantra singing. When in that heightened aware state, it’s easier to push through emotions or the mental blabber that’s usually holding us back. Working with the reflections from this opened state, it’s like visiting your best self. So take notes! They’ll be great to look back on at a later point, especially if you find yourself lost or confused. You have your growth in print!
To sum it up, working with the IKYA Ganapati study team program helps you to truly shift your mindset – from a perspective that life is happening to you, to life being your arena where you study, grow and connect deeper. Personally as a spiritual seeker and student with IKYA for many years – one who’s also struggled with making things concrete and building a practice – this addition to IKYA's spiritual education has truly changed everything. With increased focus, great progress will come, and sometimes faster than you’d think.
It’s a free addition to join an IKYA Ganapati team as part of a spiritual education in IKYA Crystal or IKYA Mantra with Enlightened Master IKYA. I highly recommend both of these paths of study – plus IKYA Ganapati – to take your spiritual work to the next level.
Thank you, Elisabeth. Very insightful about the power of the IKYA Ganapati program! <3