This edition of the Ritambhara newsletter focus on the contemplative conversations that our team has been holding to engage with the new reality of lockdown following COVID-19 around the world. You can read the web version of the newsletter here.
You may download the May newsletter here.
Since his childhood days, Hari was deeply interested in exploring the civilisational heritage of Bhārat. His journey into Indic Knowledge Traditions began with study of Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads inspired by Swami Chinmayananda’s teachings. He was part of the Global Youth Wing of Chinmaya Mission during his school and college days, and organised numerous youth workshops and camps based on Indic wisdom.
Though he began a career in marketing with companies such as Google and Amazon, he soon discovered that his true calling lay in working with individuals and groups and discovering meaningful ways to bring alive the civilisational wisdom of Bhārat into his own life and sharing it with the world. It was at this threshold that he began his deeper study of yoga in 2015 with YogaVahini. He went on to be trained as a Yoga Therapist in the Sri T Krishnamacharya-Desikachar tradition. He is also a practitioner and teacher of Vedic Chanting.
Hari was introduced to Ritambhara Ashram through the SaptaSwara and Mahābhārata Immersion programs (2017) when he was at the threshold of transitioning into the path of yoga and coaching as a solopreneur. The practices he learnt at Ritambhara Ashram under the mentoring of Sri Raghu Ananthanarayanan and Smt. Sashikala Ananth enabled deep healing and transformation for him and played a critical role in helping him reimagine life and its possibilities. This inspired him to join the Ritambhara Āchārya Sangha to explore what does it mean to live a dharmic life in today’s context, along with a community of committed seekers. Over the past seven years, he has been a practitioner of the Ritambhara Gharāna of coaching and facilitation. He has anchored and co-facilitated Ritambhara offerings based on Yoga Sūtrās, Inner Work Through Yoga, SaptaSwara, Mahābhārata, and Rāmāyaṇa, along with Raghu and other members at Ritambhara.
Over the years, Hari has also been actively exploring other modalities of facilitation, arts, and theatre, and finds a lot of joy in creatively integrating self-reflective practices to diverse fields in an inter-disciplinary manner. This has enabled him to refine his craft as a Leadership Coach, LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Facilitator, and Yoga Therapist. He is the founder of Yogaśāla and Zensei™.
Priya is a Yoga therapist in the Krishnamacharya tradition. She adapts Reiki & energy work, Vedic chanting, life coaching & Ayurvedic practices in her healing spaces. She is committed to nurturing collectives that have the praxis of Yoga at their heart.
She greatly values a hearty shared meal with friends, exchanging songs and stories around the fire, and creative working together in daily tasks as meaningful ways of dialogue. Her deeper yearnings and search for herself find expression in poetry and play. She also works with alternative / meaningful educational processes & pedagogy, loves teaching and learning with children and being in Nature.
Anisha has been on an exploration to understand herself through yoga for the last 15years which led her to teaching yoga, yoga therapy and inner work through yoga.
It is in Ritambhara she found a framework to make sense of all the rich Indian culture in the current context which enhanced her self exploration. It is amongst the Sakhis of Ritambhara she found her voice and self expression which has transformed her life.
Apoorva chanced upon Yoga in her early 20s. A spark was lit within and there was no turning back. Her exploration led her to the Krishnamacharya tradition more than a decade ago. Curious about human behaviour and what drives it, she was thrilled when her search ended (and also began) when she first came upon the Yoga Sutra, which illuminated a path towards answering many questions that had been held for a long time.
Along with Yoga, her experience in energy work and transgenerational healing, led her through a journey has been one of deep transformation and growth in all aspects of her life. She now offers learning and healing spaces for others through one on one sessions and curated workshops.
She has been a part of the Ritambhara Sangha since the early years. What drew her to this community was to walk together with like-minded people, in pursuit of exploring themselves and discovering enlivening ways of living in today’s times.
Apoorva lives in Gurgaon with her family and when not in a session, enjoys cooking, learning music, and tending to her balcony garden.
Anita is a yoga teacher and therapist in the tradition of Sri.T.Krishnamacarya and Sri T.K.V. Desikachar, a Reiki practitioner and a Life Coach. She is also the founder of Vishoka, a center for learning Indic and energy-based frameworks for living and healing. Her deep concern for human suffering and the problems of unsustainable living kept her on the path of seeking an integrated approach to looking at life, living, learning and healing.
Her study with teachers at Ritambhara, YogaVahini, and Pink Mist Retreat has led her to learn, synthesize and use Yoga (philosophy and practice) and reiki as the basis for living life, parenthood, and her work. She enjoys and is drawn to hold space and create processes for moving inwards (antaraṅga sādhanā) using energy-based coaching and healing sessions, chanting, āsanā-prāṇāyāma, and life itself. She has also contributed to the book Antaranga Yoga: A foundation of Indian Psychology written by Raghu Ananthanarayanan.
She currently lives on a farm with her husband, 2 girls, 2 dogs, 5 hens, many trees and countless other living beings. She enjoys spending time with her children, and childrens books and movies. In her free time, she enjoys making recycle-craft projects, reading, singing, walking and just watching the sky.
Ankit is a seeker in the wisdom traditions of India. The core of his work includes creating dialogic spaces where people can look within and see the connection between their inner and outer lives. Inspired by the likes of Gandhi, Aurobindo, Vivekananda and Guru Gobind his experiments in service took him back to his roots in Punjab where he is creating a community-led model of higher education which is open, inclusive and accessible for all. Ritambhara for him is a space for engaging in a community which is committed to a DHramic life. He anchors his work of learning and leadership in the Antaranga Yoga Sadhana and the humanistic wisdom of Mahabharata.
Contemplative Conversations