The Yoga of Love
Retreat Highlights
- Explore the heart’s role in spiritual transformation through key yogic texts
- Examine themes of purification, transcendence, and divine love from the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gītā, Bhāgavata Purāṇa, and Yoga Sūtra
- Deepen your understanding of sacred concepts like praṇidhāna, samādhi, and kaivalya
- Experience meditative sounds with harmonium and group reflections in each session
- Gain tools for sustaining higher consciousness in everyday life
About this Retreat
Your Guides
Details of this retreat
Sessions will focus on the purification and awakening of the heart, the divine call to transcendence through sacred love, and the role of yoga in sustaining higher consciousness in everyday life. Themes such as the capacity to "move deeply into the space within the heart" (praṇidhāna) and how to enter into the state of "total ecstatic absorption" (samādhi) in which one experiences the "all-embracing divine reality" (kaivalya) will be examined.
Together we will explore how the heart serves as the true seat of inner transformation and spiritual realization. Graham will be drawing from his new book, The Yoga of Love: Krishna and the Rāsa Līlā from the Bhāgavata Purāṇa (Oxford University Press, 2025). Each session will open and close with several minutes of tranquil meditational sounds of the voice and harmonium as well as group connecting and sharing throughout.
All levels of yoga practitioners most welcomed.
Description of each Session:
The human condition and the troubled heart: What are the things that trouble the heart? In this introductory session, we will explore this theme by drawing from specially illuminating passages in key Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gītā, and the Bhāgavata Purāṇa. It is commonly known that Yoga is about controlling the mind. But we will learn here that the mind is controlled only within the heart, according to the Gītā.
An awakening and purification of the heart: In this session, we will contemplate specific, very beautiful passages from Bhagavad Gītā and Patañjali's Yoga Sūtra for illuminating this session's theme. Here we will explore what Patañjali calls īśvara praṇidhāna, or how "the divine source of all reality is reached by moving deeply into the space within the heart," and learn about all that is contained therein.
When divinity calls our souls to dance: In this session, we will read from the Bhāgavata Purāṇa's five chapters on the "dance of divine love," in which the example of the supreme female yoginīs is offered. A reading of my translation of one of the most exquisite Sanskrit poetic works of the world reveal the highest meditation of what Patañjali calls kaivalya samādhi will take place in this session.
Yoga as the return embrace of the divine: In this final session, we will explore how we can return to our everyday lives and all the while also retain a transcendent state of consciousness. From the various sacred texts of Yoga, we will explore ways of sustaining higher consciousness in a very mixed and troubled world while allowing the energy of the heart to flow toward all persons and all beings.
Tentative Schedule
FRIDAY
3–5 pm
Registration
5-6:30
Mixed Level Hatha
5-5:45
Yoga Nidra
6-6:30
Meditation
6:30–7:15
Dinner
7:30–9
The human condition and the troubled heart
SATURDAY
6-7 am
Integral Yoga Meditation
7:10-8:40
Integral Yoga Hatha – Level 1
Integral Yoga Hatha – Level 2
Joint Freeing Series with Hope Mell
8–9:30
Breakfast
10-11:30
An awakening and purification of the heart
11:45
Van to
12–12:30 pm
Meditation at
12:45–1:30
Lunch
3–5
When divinity calls our souls to dance
5:30–6:15
Dinner
7:30-9
Satsang (gathering of the seekers of Truth)
Kirtan (Music & Chanting), Video of Swami Satchidananda
Speaker
SUNDAY
6-7 am
Integral Yoga Meditation
7:10–8:40
Integral Yoga Hatha – Level 1
Integral Yoga Hatha – Level 2
8–9:30
Breakfast
10–11:30
Yoga as the return embrace of the divine
12-12:30 pm
Meditation
12:45–1:30
Lunch
Getting Here
Directions
Accommodation
Availability of complimentary accommodations is determined by the order of booking.
Dormitory
The most popular accommodations we have are Dormitory Accommodations – shared room and shared bath. We have two dormitories, Vivekananda Vihar and Ramalinga Nilayam, which are centrally heated and air-conditioned and convenient to meals and programs.
Lotus Guest House (Private Room)
Each room in our six unit guest house is equipped with a small refrigerator, queen size bed and full bath. Each room in our nine unit guest house is equipped with a queen sized bed and full bath, and no refrigerator.
Tenting
Set off in a quiet, wooded area adjacent to the Lotus Guest Houses are twelve campsites. Campers have use of the bathroom, shower, and laundry facilities nearby Vivekananda Vihar dormitory. Camping is available from March 15th to December 1st.
Shared Dormitory: Bottom Bunk
Private Dormitory
LGH: Full Bed
LGH: 2 Twin beds
LGH: Queen Bed
Tent-Site
Venue & Amenities
Meals
Menu Types
What's Included
- Accomodations
- Meals
- Meditation Sessions
- Yoga Classes
What's Not Included
- Transportation
- Airfare