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Nityananda Rasa Yatra Pilgrimage 2027
India is the birthplace of yoga, the land of incredible mystery with thousands of years of sacred heritage. For seekers on the path of sadhana, the path of liberation, it has been a place of pilgrimage for millennia. Our India Sacred Pilgrimage Retreat is designed to offer seekers an intensive experience of India and Indian culture along with a profoundly deep spiritual practice immersion. This year we are focusing on the the sacred places of Bhagavan Nityananda.
We'll be traveling to and practicing in places where he lived and visiting the sites associated with him and his closest disciples.
We're not new to this.
Harshada and Ramya have led numerous trips to India. Harshada has been traveling to India since 1997 and has been leading group retreats to India since 2005. He has a vast network of connections there and an outstanding local team assisting with the pilgrimage. Traveling with groups in India is Ramya's full time career. They have brought hundreds of seekers over the course of nearly 30 years and have honed their retreats into extraordinary, one-of-a-kind offerings.
This is not a tourist trip.
We travel in a small, deeply oriented group - usually less than 15 people - and we avoid typical tourist destinations. Ramya and Harshada provide plenty of in-depth cultural orientation and an in-depth training for all participants so everyone knows how to be in synch with Indian culture and experience the “real India”, instead of the India that is put together for tourists. Typically, once we leave Mumbai, we don’t even see many other Westerners until we return to Mumbai.
It's a trip, but it's also a retreat and it's also a training program.
Before India, we will do several weeks of preparation together, and more after the trip. This offering is really an immersive training experience in traditional Mahayoga. In India we follow a retreat schedule, rising early in the morning for tea and meditation, then engaging in the daily activities of visiting temples, practicing in traditional “power spots”, and immersing ourselves in the sacred culture of Nityananda's India. We don’t do shopping, or site seeing, or go on any “tours”. We’re there on pilgrimage, on retreat, with silent mornings and evenings and a LOT of practice. We meditate every day, we do a lot of namasankirtana (chanting) practice, and are with the retreat teachers the whole time learning, asking questions, and going deep into our process of awakening.
Meet Your Guides
Harshada
Harshada Wagner has been traveling to India since 1997 and leading group pilgrimage retreats there since 2006. He has been teaching yoga and meditation in the lineage of Bhagavan Nityananda for more than 30 years.
Harshada loves bringing people to India and has a unique talent of holding space, managing impeccable logistics, teaching the highest teachings and also keeping the experience fun and easy. You can read Harshada's full bio here.
He is the founder and director of Fakiri Institute and the author of On the Field of Dharma – based on the yogas of the Bhagavad Gita.
Ramya
Ramya LLuvia was born in Oaxaca Mexico and currently lives in Ganeshpuri India. She has been teaching philosophy, Hatha Yoga, and meditation for more than twenty years in the lineage of Bhagavan Nityananda.
She speaks five languages and has worked as a translator and interpreter for various spiritual teachers and philosophers during their visits to Mexico and India.
She is the co-founder of the online yoga platform Yoga Cloud, and co-director of Ramya & Tariq Spiritual Tours where she guides people from all over on spiritual pilgrimages and travel experiences that promote personal growth.
Ramya and Harshada have known each other since 1997.
Ramya brings a vast knowledge of yoga, music, mystical philosophy, and Indian culture and many years of experience leading travel experiences in India.
You can learn more about Ramya here.
Getting There
You’ll book your flight into Mumbai arriving on the evening of January 12th. We’ll pick you up from the airport and bring you to our hotel in Mumbai. We begin the retreat on the morning of the 13th. Don’t worry, Harshada, Ramya and the team know how to get you ready and take care of your body and mind. They will provide guidance on avoiding jet lag and we'll have a light schedule for the 13th. On the 14th, we load up in the van and head into the adventure.
Our van is a simple but comfortable air conditioned van with a first class, highly experienced professional driver.
Being There
We stay at a variety of Indian style hotels, retreat sites, and dharmashallas (pilgrim guest accommodations) with a range of western-standard comfort levels. We begin the trip in Mumbai at a comfortable 4 star hotel, but also stay in very simple accommodations in Ganeshpuri. Everywhere we go has electricity, running water, and hot water on demand. Everywhere we stay has western, commode-style toilets.
But, understand, this is not a "tour" or a "tourist" experience.
We will provide unlimited bottled drinking water and food of the highest quality and hygienic standards. We eat pure vegetarian (delicious) Indian food the whole time, breakfast, lunch and dinner. There is no meat, alcohol, or smoking for the entire retreat. You’ll have to sacrifice iced drinks and fancy coffees too, but in return you’ll get unlimited delicious fresh chai and the best Indian food you’ve every tasted.
Along with the cultural orientation, Harshada will also provide an in-depth health orientation created by a tropical disease specialist that will teach you how to avoid falling ill from food borne illness or other unique tropical ailments like typhoid or malaria. We also recommend inoculations against typhoid and hepatitis and also that participants take anti malarial medication.
Pilgrimage
Our journey to India, in Sanskrit, is called a yatra, meaning the spiritual practice of sacred pilgrimage. Unlike tourism, where the purpose of a trip is pleasure or entertainment, people go on yatra for the sake of spiritual goals. The yatrika, or pilgrim, journeys to a sacred place to practice in a particular energy field, or to have the darshana, or sacred viewing, of a holy place or deity or holy person. Yatra is an important practice for the faithful of nearly every religion.
In the Indian mystical tradition of yatra, comfort is not the main concern. Sometimes, there are deliberate austerities included. A yatrika might observe vows during the yatra such as fasting, celibacy, or silence. They might choose particularly austere forms of travel such as walking without shoes or even crawling on hands and knees to the sacred destination. These added austerities often times help to prepare the yatrika's mind and body to receive the blessing or insight or transformation they are seeking through the yatra.
We don’t observe any of these kinds of intense austerities on our yatra. We do observe a pure vegetarian diet, abstain from drugs and alcohol, stay off our phones, and practice periods of silence, but otherwise we travel in relative comfort. But there is an element of austerity. We have a great deal of comfort by Indian standards, but comfort is not our main concern. We are challenged. We’re challenged physically, mentally, culturally and spiritually. And we embrace the challenge as tapasya, sacred austerity.
As a group of westerners, we also avoid a great deal of unwanted attention by traveling as yatrikas. We wear Indian clothing and generally conduct ourselves as pilgrims as we move around. The contrast with typical western travelers is stark, and this way we avoid locals trying to constantly sell us knick-knacks, or camel rides, or take selfies with us. Locals know Harshada and Ramya in the places where we go and know what they and their groups are about. Many of the local people we interact with are old beloved friends. But even with strangers, when we approach the various places respectfully in the yatrika attitude, we are treated with great respect and love.
Destination: NITYALOKA
We are traveling to the realm of Nityananda. His shakti is beyond time and space and location, but the locations where he spent time are especially charged with his presence. We will be focusing on four main places: Mumbai, Mahul, Ganeshpuri and Kanhangad.
MUMBAI
Also known as Bombay, Mumbai is a city like no other. It is a humming, super fun, dynamic massive city on the coast of the Arabian Sea with people from all over India. Bhagavan Nityananda spent time in Mumbai and still has living disciples residing there.
We start the trip there enjoying the food and colors and using it’s unique energy to orient us into the vibration of India. On the first day, we make one purchasing trip to get some Indian clothes. And visiting sites sacred to Bhagavan. This will be our "base camp" for our ascent into the world of Bhagavan Nityananda.
MAHUL
Mahul is a small fishing village on the outskirts of Mumbai. This is where Shaligram Swami, also known as Dayananda, established a small ashram and Nityananda Temple. Shaligram Swami was a very close disciple of Bhagavan who took living samadhi a few months before Bhagavan's samadhi in 1961. In Mahul we will have the good fortune to have satsang with Dr. Gopalkrishna Shenoy. His family were close personal devotees of Bhagavan, he himself had Bhagavan's darshan as a yound child. Dr. Shenoy is a lifelong yogi and great respository of teachings and stories about Nityananda.
GANESHPURI
From Mahul we make our way to the holy land of Ganeshpuri, seated in the Tanza River Valley. In Ganeshpuri we will enter into deep retreat, spending 4 days meditating, doing yoga, chanting, and soaking in the shakti of Nityananda and also in the magical hot spring baths of Ganeshpuri.
Bhagavan's samadhi shrine, as well as his ashram Kailas Nivas, along with the samadhi of Shaligram Swami, Gurudev Siddha Peeth, and the Devi Temples of Bhadrakali and Vrajeshwari are all nearby. Bhagavan's presence is VERY strong in Ganespuri, not just in his samadhi but everywhere.
KANHANGAD
Kanhangad, a small village in northern Kerala, is where Bhagavan Nityananda first settled an ashram. In the 1920's he oversaw the construction of 43 small meditation caves excavated from a single stone. We will visit the ashram daily and meditate in the caves and practice in the powerful temple. The Kanhangad ashram is also the site of Jananda Swami's samadhi shrine. Jananda Swami was a close disciple of Bhagavan and was the caretaker and resident guru of the Kanhangad ashram until his samadhi in 1982.
During our stay in Kanhandad, we will also visit Guruvanam, the cave in the wilderness where Bhagavan practiced in his early days.
Being with Him
Everywhere we go, we will have the luxury of focusing on our Beloved Bhagavan; his presence, his grace, his Murtis (sacred statues) and the places he inhabited. This retreat is a sadhana retreat. We will be practicing every day to keep our focus strong and keep increasing our capacity to recieve his blessings and grace. We will study his Chidakasha Gita and meditate on his form every day. We will chant together and sing his name and, as a group, we will be His.
Shopping Day!
To maintain the spiritual focus of the pilgrimage, we don't do any shopping during our journey. If you want to do some Indian Retail Therapy, we have a whole day for it! Participants can choose to stay an extra day in Mumbai which is dedicated for shopping and enjoyment. We visit the famous Chowpatti Beach the night before and spend the day romping in Mumbai. If you don't want to do Shopping Day, you can depart on the evening of 25th instead of the 24th.
Preparation
If your application is accepted, you will be registered in an in-depth online training program. Ramya and Harshada will meet with the group via zoom to learn about the culture of India, and understand the core teachings and practices we'll be working with in the retreat. There will be 4 to 6 sessions. All zoom sessions will be recorded for review. These sessions are mandatory for all participants. After the Pilgrimage, we will continue with classes through February to ensure deep integration and completion of the training process.
Literally it’s not for everybody because we only bring a small group. We limit the group to 8-10 participants and 3-4 retreat team members.
A small group allows us to be somewhat incognito and minimize the splash we make as go into the very authentic local restaurants, temples, and other sacred places. And the small group is with Ramya and Harshada the whole time. There are many formal teaching sessions, but lots of informal teaching and lots of care.
Also, this program is intense. By far, this is the most intense offering Harshada and Ramya have. Traveling in India is always intense to begin with, and in our case, it’s more intense because of the spiritual dimension. We follow a retreat discipline for the whole time with minimal chit-chat, no distractions from social media, and a lot of practice. Our awareness and sensitivity is heightened and everyone in the group is transforming. And remember - it's not just the 12 days in India. It's the four months of exploration, preparation and training.
More so than in any other offering, there is a deep surrender required for this program. We have an application process to help you get clear about the requirements and your readiness to join the retreat. Some people come to India with Harshada and Ramya again and again. Some people come just once but their life is never the same. For sure, if you are a sadhaka, a spiritual aspirant, the retreat is a deep initiation into the spiritual land where so many mystical traditions were born.
Not For Everybody, But Maybe For You!
How to Join
The first step is to fill out and submit our application. *Note: You may have to access the application on a computer, the phone version of this site doesn't work on all operating systems. The team will look at your application and arrange a time to speak on Zoom to finalize application approval.
After your application is accepted, you'll be required to make a non-refundable deposit to hold your space.
The early registration fee for the whole program: $7450 (USD)*.
Payment Plans are available on a case by case basis.
This includes pre and post-retreat training, all retreat activities, all local transportation, food and shared accommodation.
Semi-private rooms in some locations are available for additional fees.