RASA BHĀVA IMMERSION

Yoga, Āyurveda, Temples, Palaces, Forts, Taj Mahal…

To learn more about Rasa Bhāva, CLICK HERE

or just keep reading…past the retreat details.

 Rasa Bhāva, the art of rejuvenating the emotional body, is an ongoing practice. Like developing an unused muscle, it takes time, persistence and consistency.

This retreat is to both take it deeper, and to add dimensions to it that cannot be added in a workshop. 

Plus…the flavor of India, its very rasa, adds a delicious secret spice to the recipe!

We begin in Kerala. At a beautiful Ayurvedic Retreat Center. Here we spend 5 full days immersed in the study of the Rasa Bhāva experience. To understand and manage our emotional body. Physically, mentally, psychically and spiritually, we will learn to occupy our own persona and move beyond our life long trainings in fear, anger and grief, and to occupy and remember our own original creativity, innocence and joy. As you will see below, this can be a pretty joyous experience.

And then we will take it out on the road! To see if we can be fully present, alive and positive to our surroundings, the beauty of ancient India: its palaces, forts, temples, colors, sights, sounds, aromas and tastes. We will of course visit the Taj Mahal, but also a magnificent Jain Temple. We will take a camel ride, stay in luxury tents, visit old royal villas, wander through ancient forts and living palaces. Having first nurtured with specific yogic and āyurvedic practices, we should now be ready to have a grand experience indeed!

The retreat is limited in space.

REGISTRATION AND INFO: ADRETREATS@GMAIL.COM

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RETREAT ITINERARY:

  Rasa Bhāva & Royal Tour India Retreat 2018!

September 26 – October 10

WE BEGIN AT THE SOMATHEERAM AYURVEDIC BEACH RESORT, KERALA:

Sept 26: Arrive early morning. Settle in and after lunch, orientation and puja, followed by a gentle afternoon practice ending with yoga nidra. Early evening luxuriate in full Āyurvedic treatments and let go of it all!

Sept 27/28/29/30: Early mornings 3-hr Rasa Bhāva practices. Afternoons: Rasa Bhāva lectures. Evenings: Rasa Bhāva Āyurvedic treatments including abhyanga and shirodhara.

The Somatheeram resort is spread lushly over 15 acres of greenery on a hilltop overlooking Chowara Beach, south of Kovalam and a short drive away from Trivandrum. The gently sloping grounds are sprinkled with traditional thatched cottages and Kerala style wooden bungalows, nestled among native medicinal plants and coconut groves. We will stay in the Garden Cottages; independent thatched huts rooming two people.

Climbing up the hill you arrive at the Rejuvenation Center with a full staff of Ayurvedic Doctors, where you will receive your daily treatments…Kerala style!

The resort has a thatched restaurant with a panoramic view of the ocean, and delicious Ayurvedically prepared meals (3 vegetarian, dosha specific meals a day are included).

Oct 1: Morning practice, brunch and then on to our next adventure.

MOVE ON TO NORTH INDIA FOR THE ROYAL TOUR:

Arrive Delhi late evening and layover for the night.

Oct 2: Early morning drive to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal and the Agra Fort. If you have never seen the Taj, it is spectacular and if you have, each visit is a little more special!

Oct 3/4: Drive to Jaipur, the Pink City. The very heart of this magical land called Rajasthan. A land known for its nobility, its hard desert fortitude and incredible grace. It’s where the homes are often villas of old (we will stay in one) and where the palaces and temples are beautifully colorful and the forts sit on formidable mountain tops, seeming impregnable.

Oct 4: Amber Fort, City Palace, and Jantar Mantar. Amber Fort is magnificently set on the top of a hill. We will take the rampart all the way by elephant (with luck), visit the courtyard and enter the inner palace. City Palace is still active as home to the current Maharaja. It is a spectacular setting with powerful museums and history. Jantar Mantar is the magic of 19 astronomical instruments including precise sun dials from the 1700’s!

Then on to:

Oct 5/6: After our morning practice, drive to Pushkar! Stay in luxury tents. Ride on camels. Visit the famous Brahma Temple and shop around the lake for all kinds of amazing gifts (maybe even some for others).

Oct 7: After a morning practice, drive to Ranakpur. Some say the Jain Temple here is the most incredible of all. I fell in love with it when I was 19! Over 1400 carved pillars inside, none alike!

After a late lunch continue to Udaipur. The Lake City.

Oct 8: Visit our last most amazing Palace. Have a beautiful lunch at the Palace Restaurant! Afterwards, visit a powerful Vishnu Temple.

Oct 9: After our final morning practice, and brunch, take a flight back to Delhi.

Oct 10: Delhi. Our last day is dedicated to shopping. We will sightsee and shop, rest up and late at night (early Oct 11 morning), those who choose, fly home full of memories and also with full bags, to remind us of the magic of India.

The Retreat officially ends and India awaits any fearless explorers who wish to do more. YogaRasayana’s trusted travel agents are available to help with this!

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REGISTRATION AND INFO: ADRETREATS@GMAIL.COM

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PRICING DETAILS:

Early Bird Special (ends June 15): $3300

Regular Price (after June 15): $3700

Late Registration (after July 30/space available): $4100

Deposit of $500 per person will hold your space and price. Final payments must be completed by July 30 to maintain your Early Bird Price. After July 30 your deposit will continue to apply but will apply to the next tier: Regular Price $3700.  If final payment is not received by August 30, your deposit can only apply to Late Registration Tier and becomes subject to space availability.  Early Bird Deposits are 50% refundable for one month after initial deposit is received. After that they become nonrefundable.

The above prices include the following:

• All group travel as stated. This includes all listed air and land travel during the Retreat. Any personally requested additional travel would be at your cost.
• Airport pick up and drop off.
• Lectures and all yoga sessions. Any personal consultations (with Arun) will be subject to time, availability and additional cost.
• Shared Double Occupancy Cottages at Somatheeram. (Single Room Occupancy prices will be higher and subject to availability.)
• Shared Double Occupancy at all hotels and villas we stay at outside of Somatheeram. (Single Room Occupancy prices may be significantly higher and subject to availability.)
• Morning and afternoon practices at Somatheeram.
• Morning practices when possible on the road. (Some days have the mornings set aside for this, other days including days of travel and early sightseeing, we may not be practicing.)
• Sangha sessions on the road when possible.
• Specific Ayurvedic treatments at Somatheeram. Additional treatments may be available for an extra fee.
• All meals (at Somatheeram).
• All breakfasts on the road.
• While at most lodging facilities, WiFi is included, be aware that we cannot guarantee its availability and quality.

What is NOT included:

• Airfare/travel not specifically included above, including to/from your own starting and ending destinations, whether in the Americas, Europe, India or elsewhere.
• Tipping. (We will pool tips for group tipping wherever applicable. We estimate this to work out to around $150 total per person.)
• Additional costs you may incur as a result of taking this trip including but not limited to passports, visas and other incidentals.
• Additional incidentals you may incur such as laundry, phone calls, internet, alcoholic beverages, any foods or drinks not specifically covered above, or any items of a personal nature that are not expressly mentioned above.
• All meals not expressly mentioned above. (Exclusions include lunches and dinners outside of Somatheeram.)
• Any transportation not expressly included above.
• Any additional expenditure not expressly covered above whether of an individual nature or voluntarily as part of a group.

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WHAT IS RASA BHĀVA?

EMOTIONS: LANGUAGE OF THE HEART

In the ancient vedic sciences, the heart is considered the root of the mind.

While we are quite aware of the power of instinct and its home in the enteric gut and brain stem; and equally aware of the power of rational intelligence and its home in the neocortex; by assigning the home of emotions to the limbic region we may be missing its root source and doing a great disservice to our most important organ.

It is from the heart that the “felt sense” arises and thus mediates between instinct and reason. The connection between wisdom and compassion that gives rise to ethics and sharing is the state of our emotional body.

In trauma, this state is under attack and our emotions of joy, creativity, and innocence curdle into grief, rage and fear. Learning to decouple from trauma is always possible and trauma is not always  clinical. It is not necessarily chronic or even acute. It can be that which simply interferes with compassion and wisdom in our day-to-day life. It forces us to contract into survival, into seeking perverse pleasures and often sinking into bouts of rage and frustration, into irrational cravings for control and domination, into a coldness of heart and even into fear of speaking our truth.

Combining the wisdom of yoga and Ayurveda and linking it with the language of somatic psychotherapies, we find that keys to healing trauma are the same keys that unlock us from fears, irrational tempers and grieving.  They deliver us safely into being grounded: allowing enjoyments, senses of purpose, openings of the heart and the ability to live our truths.

These teachings are clear and practical in the yoga path. Once combined with the basic teachings of Ayurveda, such as diet, lifestyle and the proper use of exercise, they become powerful therapeutic tools.

When we free the heart of its bondage to life trauma, we open to the salve of the higher emotional states and enter into our own lives as warriors of light and love.

When the heart is set free we find courage, fortitude, grace, selflessness and we find the emotions that are our birthright and our pathways to freedom from suffering.

In these ancient sciences, we call this “sattvavajaya cikitsa”: the victory of truth.

In what I have coined rasa bhāva, we learn to cultivate the essence of the heart.

HOW DO WE UNDERSTAND THE EMOTIONAL BODY?

The link between the mind and the different organs/systems of the body is  well researched and documented in Ayurveda. Now the progressive field of psychotherapy has related our instincts to our reptilian stem, our emotional to the limbic, and the rational to our neo-cortex.

In Āyurveda, however, the mind is not restricted to this structure, instead it begins in the heart, reaches downwards into the gut and upwards into the brain. The connections are easy to see as seats of instincts, feelings and sensation/thought. Therefore, all our instincts and our rational thinking revolve around the mediating emotional state.

When our emotional state is one of creativity, innocence and joy, we see beauty, feel compassion and instinctually open to universal waves of loving. However, when our emotions are dominated by fear, anger and grief, we become susceptible to the 6 enemies of the mind: lust, rage, greed, jealousy, envy and delusion. And our thinking and functionality begins to operate from these states. In Ayurveda, it is also said that if you wish to conquer these six enemies, there is no better pathway than that of yoga (sattvavajaya cikitsa).

After years of personal practice, study and teaching on the relationship of the emotional body to our health and our peace of mind, the results I have gained offer clear, succinct information on the use of these yogic tools. We will do actual practices to show their effectiveness in transforming fear, anger and grief into creativity, innocence and joy.

CURRICULUM:

May we always be friends in the light,