Sadhana Mandir Ashram
Ramnagar, P.O. Pashulok
Rishikesh, U.P. 249 203
India
OR:
The Meditation Center
631 University Avenue NE
Minneapolis, MN 55413
USA
Telephone: 612 - 379 - 2386, Fax 612 - 379 - 2456
Dear Yoga Practitioner,
You are invited to a rare opportunity to advance your yoga practice, in India. International Yoga Week 1999, will occur on the banks of the Ganges River, in the holy city of Rishikesh, the gateway to the Himalayas and home to a hundred spiritual sanctuaries (or is it five hundred?).
The theme of this year's program is YOGA MEDITATIONAS SELF-THERAPY. Guided by Swami Veda Bharati, and other teachers from the Himalayan Yoga Tradition, you will:
- Experience dimensions of yoga meditation as taught by the Great Himalayan Sages;
- Learn the principles behind the practices;
- Explore how yoga is self-therapy;
- Practice Hatha-Yoga as primarily meditational;
- Encounter the people and culture of India.
In addition to yoga training, the highly specialized medical faculty of the nearby Himalayan Institute of Medical Sciences will share their expertise on the application of yoga postures, breathing, relaxation, and higher meditational exercises as applied to healing disease and enhancing health, from a medical point of view.
Yoga Week also features the option of a visit to Corbett National Park, a stunning wildlife sanctuary inhabited by elephants, tigers, leopards, and varieties of deer, OR an excursion to the sacred shrines in the mountains near Rishikesh. Even if you were not attending Yoga Week, these excursions alone would make your trip worthwhile.
For the second part of the seminar (February 8 - 13), we have built in additional time for a guided private retreat to practice meditation. This will be individually tailored by the resident preceptor, Dr. Swami Veda Bharati, to suit your individual needs. If you elect to extend your stay further (February 13 - on), you may also take classes in hatha-yoga, pranayama, meditation and yogic internal-dialogue, spend time in silence and introspection, and deepen your spiritual practice.
Please see further explanations in this packet about the Yoga Week program. We hope that you will join us for this unique confluence of the ancient and the modern and for a remarkable experience of spiritual discovery.
Yours in Service
The Organizing Committee at Sadhana Mandir Ashram
The yoga of prana and mind has continued to be taught in an unbroken tradition in the caves of the Himalayas for the past thousands of years. Very few disciples in the lower altitudes have access to this teaching. From the traditions thus passed on, numerous schools of meditation have developed in all parts of the world, but every now and then the various streams must be refreshed from the Himalayan fountainhead.
During the International Yoga Week you will experience:
- Some of the lesser-known methods in Shava-asana;
- Guided meditation sessions in mantra yoga, laya yoga and kundalini yoga;
- Methods of producing alpha and theta brainwaves on command;
- Theory and practice sessions on such topics as the symptoms of the opening of various chakras (for example, one whose first chakra is open becomes a master of silence as well as of effective speech), and the 360 points of concentration in the chakras.
- Training in Yoga nidra (yogic sleep), from preparatory to intermediate levels as the time and the participants' capacities permit. Yoga nidra enables the practitioner to obtrain deep rest while fully conscious and has other benefits that will be explained in the seminar.
- The view of yoga as self-therapy from neurosurgeons, cardiologists, master homeopaths, keepers of the Ayurveda tradition and other specialists affiliated with the Himalayan Institute of Medical Sciences who use meditational methods in prevention and treatment of diseases.
- After the conference, you may opt for a guided spiritual retreat at the Ashram (at additional cost).
January 30, 1999
Arrival in Rishikesh. Registration at Sadhana Mandir Ashram.
January 31 - February 5, 1999
Training sessions, Practicums, Cultural Events and Excursions:
Training in Himalayan Meditation System(s). Talks and training in the application of Yoga Meditation in Thepary, Healing, Prevention and Cure of Disease in combination with Tratitional and Modern Medical Systems. A visit to the Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust. Indian Classical Music and Dance performance, including devotional chanting. One day excursion trip up along the Ganges River.
February 6 - 8, 1999
Depart for either Corbett National Park or the sacred shrines of the mountains near Rishikesh.
February 8 - 13, 1999
Continuation of yoga week seminar at Sadhana Mandir Ashram. Enjoy quiet time with additional instruction and meditation according to a program individually tailored for you.
February 13, 1999
You may make arrangements to extend your stay at the Ashram for a peaceful personal spiritual retreat, designed by the Ashram preceptor, Swami Veda Bharati.
The price of the seminar includes accomodation (January 30 - February 5 and February 8 - 13, 1999), vegetarian yogic diet, yoga consultation sessions, instruction, and demonstration of yoga technique and practice.
Transportation and excursion trips are not included in the price of the seminar.
Cost per person for the seminar package: US $ 600 (Reduced price for limited dormitory accomodations).
Excursion Fee (February 6 - 8, 1999) includes transportation, accomodations and meals. Cost per person is US $ 200.
For extended stay at the Ashram following the seminar (February 13 on) the price is US $ 20 per night. Accomodations during this time are dependent upon availability. To receive more information and to register for the seminar, please call or write to:
The Meditation Center
631 University Avenue NE
Minneapolis, MN 55413
USA
Attn.: Yoga Week Coordinator
Telephone: 612 - 379 - 2386, Fax 612 - 379 - 2456
Who is teaching the seminar?
Swami Veda Bharati (formerly Dr. Usharbudh Arya)
Born and raised in the five-thousand year old tradition of the Sanskrit speaking scholar-philosophers of India, and having studied and obtained advanced degrees from modern institutions of higher learning, Swami Veda Bharati combines the best of the ancient and the modern. A disciple of the great Himalayan sage Swami Rama, he is an inspired and loving teacher, a prolific author, ecstatic poet, and international lecturer. Swami Veda has been blessed by his Master with the ability to induce people into deeper states of consciousness through his guided meditations. He is a sought after spiritual guide and spiritual preceptor.
Swami Veda is the Spiritual Director of the Sadhana Mandir Ashram. He also serves as spiritual preceptor for numerous groups and centers in North America, Europe, Southeast Asia and elsewhere. He remains in residence at Sadhana Mandir Ashram for six months of each year.
Where is Rishikesh?
In the foothills of the Himalayas, where the sacred River Ganges descends into the plains, there is a town called Rishikesh, literally meaning "matted locks of sages." It is the gateway to the Himalayas and the seat of more than one hundred spiritual sanctuaries. The holy town of Rishikesh is in Uttar Pradesh, the largest state of India.
What is Sadhana Mandir Ashram?
A flower-filled island of peace, at the banks of the Holy Ganges, surrounded by the foothills of the Himalayas, the Ashram still vibrates with the energy bequeathed by its founder, Swami Rama of the Himalayas. It is now being served by Swami Veda bharati, on whom Swami Rama conferred one of the higher initiations in the Himalayan Tradition in 1970.
The Ashram is an international center for the study and practice of meditation, and its attendant sciences, texts and philosophies, as handed down in their traditional purity by the lineages of the Himalayan masters (about whom please read Swami Rama's LIVING WITH THE HIMALAYAN MASTERS).
What is the Himalayan Institute of Medical Sciences?
The Himalayan Institute of Medical Sciences is a 200-acre Medical City developed in the past four years in the Doon Valley in the foothills of the Himalayas. It provides both general and specialized medicine and surgery as a service to the populations of the Gahrwal Himalayas. It combines ancient Yoga methods with modern technology as well as such alternative methods as Homeopathy and Ayurveda.
Both the Medical City and the Ashram were established by the late Swami Rama of the Himalayas, author of the famous work Living with the Himalayan Masters and 45 other books, a master yogi, poet, social reformer, scientist and master of numerous sciences, both ancient and modern.
Do consider staying on at the Ashram after Yoga Week is over. Yoga Week is followed by a very special seminar on Sri Vidya, also taught by Swami Veda Bharati.
Copyright 1999 Museum of European Art