Saras Yoga Retreat

This deeply immersive retreat is a rare opportunity to work ‘within’ and learn from one of India’s great masters and my revered teacher this last decade, Saraswathi Vasuvedan who is visiting Australia from Chennai.

‘Giving and Receiving Prana”

The fundamental foundation for Ashtanga Yoga (eight-fold path of yoga) is our relationship with the world: the Yamas. Through these precepts, one learns to engage with the world in a way that is enlivening, nourishing and harmonious, creating a ripple effect touching lives in the most beautiful way. Cultivating the Yamas and creating conditions for their practice in our daily life is the real test for our Yoga practice. Yoga is not about living in a bubble of individuated existence but about reaching out from within to seamlessly connect, receive and offer love and strength. 
How to keep these channels of energy transfer pure and light, free of residues of pain and hurt? 
Do you want to learn and practice so that we can move from bondage to bonding? 

Yoga provides us with simple and profound practices, guidelines for strengthening wholesome response capabilities that will help us live within the family, society and world with greater happiness and harmony, within and without. 

This retreat will help you explore these practices and reflective methods for engaging with self and the other with greater compassion, joyful friendship, moving towards equanimity.

ENQUIRY / BROCHURE REQUEST
CUSTOM TOUR ENQUIRY

HIGHLIGHTS

• instruction from one of the most revered and beloved yoga masters
• accommodation in beautifully appointed houses set in gorgeous gardens in one of central Victoria’s most picturesque historic towns
• fully catered, nourishing vegetarian meals
• option of a private session with Saras who will design your personal practice; massages

AT A GLANCE

LENGTH: 3 Days | Nights
ACTIVITY LEVEL:  Moderate
Mind, body, soul expanding
TYPE: Yoga philosophy | discussion | practice | meditation | silence
START | FINISH: Trentham | Trentham

INCLUSIONS

All accommodation, yoga sessions, vegetarian meals, beverages, snacks

HOTEL STANDARD:

Deluxe

TRANSPORT:

drive | train | coach from Melbourne

TRAVEL DATES

19-22 November 2019

 2020 TBA

PRICING

from AUD $1330 twin/double share
Maximum 12 Students

ITINERARY OVERVIEW

  • DAY 1

    TRENTHAM PRE ARRIVAL

    For a small additional cost, students are welcome to arrive after 3.00pm on Monday 19 November.
    There are two adjoining beautifully restored, elegant houses, each with five extremely comfortable bedrooms, lounges, kitchen, open fireplaces and modern amenities on the doorstep of the very quaint township of Trentham which enjoys cafes, restaurants, boutiques and lovely walking trails. The houses are set in gorgeous landscaped gardens with many nooks and crannies for contemplation.
There is a separate large heated yoga barn with picture windows overlooking the gardens.
A limited number of singles are available, some with en-suites.

  • DAY 2

    TRENTHAM

    Registration 9.00am on Tuesday 20 November.
    Being in a supportive immersive residential retreat gives greater scope for svadhyaya (self reflection and study), relationship, and sangha (community).
    In our time together, we will walk, chant, practice asanas (postures), pranayama (breathing practices), silence, meditation and relaxation techniques, and simple mindfulness training exercises (such as mindful eating and mindful walking) that will help you develop awareness throughout the day – all techniques and practices that you will be able to take home and apply to your daily life and perhaps even share with your loved ones.

  • DAY 3

    TRENTHAM

    Morning sessions will commence 6.30/7.
 Fruit, tea and juice will be served after the morning session.
 A catered vegetarian Brunch will be served around 11.
 There will be some free time in the afternoons for massage, walks, quiet study etc.
There will be limited spaces to book a private session with Saras during which time Saras can design or refine your private personalised practice.
 There will be a long session in the afternoon followed by an early, catered vegetarian Dinner.
 Days will conclude with a yoga nidra after dinner.

  • DAY 4

    TRENTHAM

    Full day’s immersion in study, practice, discussion and silence

  • DAY 5

    TRENTHAM

    There will be a final early morning session.
    The retreat concludes after breakfast on Friday 23 November.
    There are charming boutiques and cafes to explore on your return to Melbourne, both in the village of Trentham and in neighbouring towns such as Daylesford and Kyneton.

TESTIMONIALS

Dear Marieke and Saras,
Every time I attend one of these retreats I am amazed at their power. 
I am actually finding it difficult to put how I feel into words, as the transformation that has commenced is at such a subtle level, it feels like words are simply not enough.
I am still coming to terms with the transformative nature of both the content and practices. 
So much conditioning fell away in my relationship with myself, with my relationships and with my practice.
When I say fell away with my practice, I mean the expectations and many layers of dukham I had created for myself. It would take me far too long
to enunciate them all in detail except to say that the effect was profound. 
I feel incredibly blessed to have attended, working through issues that had been bothering me for a considerable time but which I never expected
to be highlighted and offered solutions for. Saras, are you clairvoyant J? It felt like it. Lydia

Thoughts about our time together with Saras are always close, I am happy to share some with you. Love Delyse –

In a lifetime of journeys the most significant I have embarked upon is the learning of self. Along the way I encountered a workshop led by Saraswathi Vasudevan’s supported by Marieke from Marieke’s Art of Living and shared by a group of inspiring women. The energy was powerful, the honesty humbling and the wisdom profound.  Twenty eight women in a room will always generate emotion and we shared across the spectrum: tears spilled, laughter flowed, we danced, and ideas blossomed.  Saras guided us to breathe with deep awareness and to seek clarity within each life brimming inhalation and exhalation – settled there in that unremarkable daily act I discovered remarkable truths. How blessed to find myself in that place, on these days, connected to the greater possibilities of my being, through the spiritual benevolence of Saras. Her teachings guide me daily and I will always be grateful for our encounter. D Graham March 2016

YOUR GUIDES

Your Teacher Saraswathi Vasudevan began her journey in the path of yoga and healing 25 years ago. She studied and trained in the tradition of Sri T Krishnamacharya that is strongly founded in the teachings of Patanjali and specializes in adapting yoga to the unique needs and abilities of each individual. She holds two Masters Degrees (in Nutrition and Psychology) and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Yoga.
In 2010, Saraswathi founded YogaVahini, dedicated to Specialised Yoga Training, Therapy & Research with centres in Chennai and Hyderabad. She runs regular training programs for lay practitioners, teachers and therapists. Her dream is to bring personalised yoga therapy into mainstream health care in India. Saras with her warmth and wisdom has touched the lives of hundreds of students both within India, here and abroad. Her training skills have also taken her to many countries for spreading the teachings of yoga as well as training serious yoga aspirants from all over the world. Saraswathi works by integrating the traditional wisdom of Yoga with modern facilitation skills. 
She is gifted with an innate capacity to establish deeply nurturing connections with her students that enables and empowers them to grow and heal from within.

Tour Retreat Host Marieke Brugman began her yoga journey sixteen years ago, as a healing response to a major health and life crisis. Beginning with Iyengar, then exploring Ashtanga under various teachers, she eventually completed her first teacher training in 2013. Marieke studied with Saras when she first came to Australia nearly 10 years ago, and subsequently undertook the first 10-day Foundation in Viniyoga course. Marieke has collaborated with Saras ever since – arranging workshops and retreats in Victoria, residential retreats in Bali and Darjeeling, and travelling retreats in South India. It is an honour to once again welcome students into Saras’ circle. “Saras is ‘the real deal’. Those of you who have previously studied with Saras will know that each time you return into her charismatic fold, she brings fresh perspectives that engender new pathways into your practice and understanding of yoga. Nothing ever stays the same. Greater clarity emerges”.

BOOKINGS & ENQUIRIES

For further details or to request a brochure on this tour please complete your details below.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

EXPLORE MORE TOURS & EXPERIENCES

  •
    small group tour
    14 DAYS
    Bhutan
    The Enchanted Kingdon
    Bhutan is a country like nowhere else and a still relatively unexplored destination. For centuries, Bhutan has remained shrouded in a veil of mist and very little about it was known to the outside ...
    READ ON
  •
    small group tour
    18 DAYS
    October
    SACRED PASSAGE TO INDIA
    an Odyssey - off the beaten path and no ordinary journey
    This is the ultimate Indophile’s journey of the subcontinent, designed for traveller’s who wish to explore a deeper experience and understanding of the sub-continent’s extraordinary culture, histor...
    READ ON
  •
    small group tour
    16 DAYS
    22 May - 6 June 2020
    Morocco the Magnificent
    mountains, medinas, marrakesh and more
    Typical of the style of Art of Living Tours, this captivating itinerary offers sublime and intimate riad and heritage accommodation, deep interaction with the local culture, authentic cuisine and a...
    READ ON
  •
    small group tour
    16 DAYS
    15-30 September 2019
    Womens Luxury Tour
    ‘a siren call to soul sisters’
    Mother India specially calls to women like a siren with her intoxicating colours, scents, sights, multiplicity of cultures and cuisines and ancient spiritual traditions.
This tour is ideal for wome...
    READ ON
  •
    3 Days/Nights
    19-22 November 2019
    Saras Yoga Retreat
    Yoga of Relationships
    This deeply immersive retreat is a rare opportunity to work ‘within’ and learn from one of India’s great masters and my revered teacher this last decade, Saraswathi Vasuvedan who is visiting Austra...
    READ ON
  •
    tailored journeys
    9 Days
    SPAIN
    A Gastronomic Pilgrimage in Catalonia, Basque Country + Rioja
    Spain is infectious if not downright contagious, remarkable for her astounding diversity and the distinctiveness of character, temperament and mood to be found in the 17 regional Autonomou...
    READ ON
  •
    past tours | suggested itineraries
    10 DAYS
    La Vie en Provence
    10-Day Culinary Odyssey
    This 10-Day Culinary Odyssey can be tailored for private groups of six to eight+ friends/guests. At least 6 months notice is required for Marieke to host the program. The first four nights are in a...
    READ ON
  •
    small group tour
    13 Days
    7-19 June 2019
    Sri Lanka:
    The Gems
    Sri Lanka, often described as a teardrop hanging off India’s southern coast and formerly colonised by the Portuguese, Dutch, and British, retains the staples of a colonial-era paradise—jungles, tea...
    READ ON
  •
    12 Days
    Mid May- Mid September
    Trekking in Paradise
    the Mystical Mountains of Kashmir
    This tour is an exuberant and rewarding journey that will nourish heart, mind, body, soul and all the senses.... It has been designed for confident walkers and adventurers wishing to escape all ves...
    READ ON
  •
    7 DAYS
    Kashmir
    The Enchanting Kingdom
    “If there is a paradise on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this”.  Persian poet Jami Kashmir has been romanticised by everyone from the 16th-century Mogul emperor Jahangir (who, when ...
    READ ON
  •
    small group tour
    18 DAYS
    23 April - 10 May 2020
    Viva La Mexico
    New Tour!
    This exciting new small group, guided Tour explores the confluence between pre-Columbian, colonial and modern day Mexico – such a fascinating and multi-layered country. In mythology Mexico was vari...
    READ ON
  •
    small group tour
    15 Days
    11-25 August 2019
    Pearls South India
    seductive south
    South India is a “soft-landing’ for first time visitors to the subcontinent. For travellers who have visited the more hectic north, you will be seduced by her languorous sensuousness. The landscape...
    READ ON
  •
    small group tour
    9 Days
    20-28 January 2020
    Jaipur Literary Salon
    Jaipur Literature Festival
    As the largest FREE literary festival on earth, the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival, directed by William Dalrymple brings together some of the greatest thinkers and writers from across South Asia an...
    READ ON
  •
    small group tour
    10 Days
    30 January – 8 February 2020
    Gujarat Tribals + Textiles
    off the beaten path’
    This is an exotic odyssey through Gujarat in Western India for adventurers, collectors and photographers. Art of Living has designed this tour for guests who will enjoy an imaginative itinerary, wi...
    READ ON
  •
    small group tour
    11 or 14 Days
    Exotic Cultural and Culinary Tour India
    Exclusive Bespoke Tour
    This exceptional and exclusive 11 or 14-day tour has been designed and conceived by Marieke Brugman, a renowned chef and teacher in her earlier career as co-proprietor of the Howqua Dale G...
    READ ON
  •
    small group tour
    3 Days/Nights
    10 - 13 February 2020
    Sacred Music Festival
    Music, Song and Dance
    The three days at Nagaur is private and restricted to two hundred privileged guests, housed in gorgeous, well-appointed royal tents, the same ones we use on our Royal Rajasthan Tour. The fifteen te...
    READ ON
  •
    small group tour
    13 Days
    10 - 23 JANUARY 2019
    Royal Rajasthan
    Royal Tents and Exotic Estates
    Rajasthan is where to fall in love with India. 
Welcome to mystery, to enchantment, to unsurpassable beauty. 
To ravishing colour and light. To timelessness. 
To a kaleidoscope of cultures, religio...
    READ ON
  •
    small group tour
    2 DAYS
    30 November - 1 December
    Sara's Peninsula Yoga Workshop
    the key to holistic well-being
    This two-day weekend workshop is a rare opportunity to work ‘within’ and learn from one of India’s great masters and my revered teacher this last decade, Saraswathi Vasuvedan who is blessi...
    READ ON
  •
    16 DAYS
    1-16 September 2019
    INDIA ILLUMINATED
    A Cultural and Holistic Wellness Program
    This journey has been curated so you will experience India in all its intoxicating extremities from seductive, colourful, cacophonous, chivalric Rajasthan to the soothing, sybaritic, other...
    READ ON

JOIN THE TRIBE

Subscribe and be first to know about new tours and experiences

“Travel does what good novelists also do to the life of everyday, placing it like a picture in its frame or a gem in its setting, so that the intrinsic qualities are made more clear. Travel does this with the very stuff that everyday life is made of, giving to it the sharp contour and meaning of art.” –Freya Stark

The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he’s always doing both. James A Michener

People say that what we are all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think this is what we’re really seeking. I think what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive. Joseph Campbell

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart. ~Helen Keller

As you journey through life, choose your destinations well, but do not hurry there. Avoid the shortcuts… wander the back roads… enjoy the scenery. And remember that the true worth of your travels lies not in the destination but in who you come to be along the way. Anon.

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page. Saint Augustine