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

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