Malika and Sidika tell all about the making of Sarita’s online video course on the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra – from orgasmic chocolate to chainsaws, it encompassed the whole of life!

We set off for Croydon Hall early on a crisp Tuesday morning, full of excitement for our day of filming. Myself, Sidika and Merlina; our wonderful camera woman and producer, made the 2 hour drive through the Bristol rush hour, out into the splendid Somerset scenery and finally to our studio for the day, the Zen Room at Croydon Hall.

Sarita with an off-camera smile

Trenna our scribe

Merlina our fabulous camera woman

This was a step into the unknown for all of us, another exciting adventure to embark on! We were joined by beautiful audience members throughout the day in the form of Trenna, Chaitanya and Sampurno, who also doubled up as extras for demos, helping find poems, taking pictures and generally being a wonderful help –  and what a great job they did.

As well as being part of the production/audience team, I was also lucky enough to be in one of the demos, eating chocolate (ah, its a hard life!) and entering into the bliss of the senses (“When eating or drinking, become the taste of food or drink, and be filled…..” – a sutra from the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra)

Sidika and Malika get ready for their close up!

As I was sitting there, worrying about the lighting, the sound, wondering whether Sarita’s luminance and playfulness would come across on film, it suddenly struck me how lucky I was to be getting a full day’s transmission from Sarita as part of my job! I allowed myself to really drink it in, and something deep inside me relaxed, and slipped into the flow,  knowing that whatever is, is. This experience certainly had a very deep and beautiful effect on me, something I feel profoundly grateful for. It is transforming the way I feel and am with work, so it is no longer separate from everything else I do, but one big beautiful whole life!

As we progressed throughout the day, this being a Tantric webinar, we had to change clothes, do our hair and add make-up to look our goddess best! (Check out me and Sidika doing our make-up above).

It was one long but wonderful day – we made it back to Bristol at 1.30am!! Though we were buzzing all the way home with what we’d captured on film. I feel so blessed to be part of this expansion of the School’s work. Soon, anyone in the world will be able to benefit from Sarita’s transmission of love and incomparable wisdom, and the joy that is Tantra.

With love,

Malika xxxx

……..and now some words (and lots of pics) from Sidika:

Despite our marathon filming spree above, we didn’t finish our 6 part series in one day (how ambitious was that?!), so the following week  Malika, Merlina and I found ourselves driving back to Croydon Hall to catch Sarita on her ‘day off’ between groups.

It was another glorious sunny day but freezing cold. We pulled up into the forecourt of Croydon Hall, barely registering a large van parked outside, and made our way over to Rinzai Hall (the main group room) for the day’s shooting.  I went to find Sarita – “Hello”, I said, “You look familiar!”  ”Aha!” she laughed. “You’ve been watching all the video footage from last week!”.

Technical support!

We set ourselves up for the day. We’d grown in professionalism since the previous week. This time we had a DIY computer autocue rather than a flipchart to remind Sarita of the sutras and poems.  See our tech wizard, Malika, keeping it all under control!

I was feeling quite smug – we were well away from the main house – no noises from vacuum cleaners or people delivering the vegetables this time to get picked up by the sensitive camera mic and cause us to stop and start again. The camera rolled and Sarita started presenting a beautiful meditation involving darkness and the void…silence…loosing yourself….then suddenly ZZZZZZZZZ! A dreadful noise from outside! On further investigation, this was found to be a chain saw!

Sarita checking out the chainsaw

The van outside belonged to a tree surgeon and his assistant who had been booked several weeks before to coincide with a gap between groups. Not only that, the neighbouring property also had a tree surgeon in for the day!

There was a bit of a lull so we thought we’d try again. Sarita was presenting beautifully when once again ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. “Cut!” went the tree surgeon. “Cut!” went our camera woman. OK change of tactics.

We decided to make some noise ourselves. Malika kindly volunteered to do the anger meditation. That’s her going for it down below. “OK, Malika. You can stop now!”

Malika going for it with pillows

Preparing the shot

Malika and Sampurno – love’s young dream!

Next we thought we’d do some shots where we wouldn’t need the sound.  Out in the grounds of Croydon Hall the sun was shining brilliantly, but there was still frost on the grass in the shade. We all dressed up warmly – all except Malika who bravely endured the cold in her flimsy silver dress. At least she had her co-star, Sampurno to cuddle up to! The Croydon Hall cat decided this looked like an interesting place to be and wandered onto the set and rolled around on the grass for the camera.

After a delicious lunch in the restaurant, we went back to Rinzai Hall, the tree surgeons having finally departed. We were joined by Chintan who had arrived in readiness for the following day when he would be co-facilitating the Sacred Sexuality singles group with Sarita. Now it was my turn to be in front of the camera, this time with Chintan – to illustrate a meditation on sex. All I’m going to say, is that it was all done ‘in the best possible taste’ but I couldn’t help wondering what my mother would think if she could see me now! This time it was Malika’s turn to say – “Hey Sidika, you can stop now!”  I had almost forgotten we were being filmed!

(Oops, sorry  no photo! You’ll have to subscribe to the series to see what went on!)

Clothes back on, and out into the garden again for some Zen meditation in the last rays of the setting sun.  At last we were finished. What a day! We bade a fond farewell to Sarita, but not before having arranged our next filming assignment with her at the beginning of next month! Back in Bristol the next day, we began the editing process. I was relieved to see my ‘sensual scene’ was actually very tasteful and beautifull!

Over the next week, our video project began to take shape.  Merlina assembled everything into order and we all debated the cutaways, fades, transitions, added some gorgeous music by Surahbhi…and …lo…the finished product emerged….. and looks fabulous! I cried when I watched it! We’re so excited – as I write this now, the Free Introductory video is just being uploaded in California all ready for you to watch, and we’ve just done a practice run with Sarita in the chat room so you can join us whenever you are ready.  See you soon……!!!

Love from

Sidika

You can find all the information about the course and how to subscribe here.

**Thanks to Chaitanya for the photo of Sidika and Malika**

Other photos by Sidika