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THE INDIC PERSPECTIVE

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Are Hindus Idolators

Are Hindus Idolators?. “We are being called idolators Acharya…

Are Hindus Idolators?. “We are being called idolators Acharya…

By Raghu AnanthanarayananAugust 14, 2024

On Chanting. A gist of a discourse on chanting by…

By Raghu AnanthanarayananJuly 15, 2024

Why is chanting important?. Today, I will share with you the answer…

Raghu Ananthanarayanan July 7, 2024

Living a life filled with dharma and joyousness

Raghu Ananthanarayanan July 1, 2024

Allopathic Mindfulness Vs Yogic dhyāna

Raghu Ananthanarayanan June 23, 2024

The ABCD of Self-Mastery

Raghu Ananthanarayanan June 23, 2024

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Are Hindus Idolators?. “We are being called idolators Acharya…

Raghu Ananthanarayanan August 14, 2024

On Chanting. A gist of a discourse on chanting by…

Raghu Ananthanarayanan July 15, 2024

Why is chanting important?. Today, I will share with you the answer…

Raghu Ananthanarayanan July 7, 2024

Living a life filled with dharma and joyousness

Raghu Ananthanarayanan July 1, 2024

Allopathic Mindfulness Vs Yogic dhyāna

Raghu Ananthanarayanan June 23, 2024

The ABCD of Self-Mastery

Raghu Ananthanarayanan June 23, 2024

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Vastu – Demystifying Myths

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Kaipa’s Pyramid as Yantra: A Tensegrity Mandala

Life Space Enquiry – My Indian Identity

India at an Inflexion Point

Organization Identity Profiles – Old & New Economy Indian Organization Profiles Through the Grave – SD Lens

DhyAna is not Mindfulness

The DhIra – The Inner Journey of the Hero

Antaranga Yoga – The Yoga of Inner Transformation

Seven Practices of a Yogi Manager

A Voyage Into Our Inner Realms With Yoga Sutra

What is Indian?

Yoga for Peace – NFSI 2019 Conference

Listen In Voice Out (LIVO)

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Anoop Ratnaker Rao

Anoop is a student of Yoga, an entrepreneur, a coach and a father of two young boys. He has led successful leadership stints in both the corporate and non-for-profit sectors. On encountering the country’s water/farmer crises at close quarters, he decided to pause and examine the impact various ‘isms’ – capitalism, colonialism, etc., were having on us as individuals, families, the society and the environment at large. This quest led him to formally engage with traditional Indic knowledge systems while also learning from the latest advances in science – about our physical and mental wellbeing, importance of body and mind work in healing trauma and the urgent need for a conscious rebuilding of family / work / social structures if we have to thrive individually and collectively. Insights, frameworks and processes gleaned from these on-going studies, an anchorage in his own personal practice and his wide-ranging experiences is what Anoop brings to facilitation/coaching spaces in Ritambhara and his various professional engagements.

Hariprasad Varma

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 Nagesh

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 Ranjith

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 Gupta Jalan

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 Balasubramanian

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.

Mamatha Talluri

Mamatha Talluri, born in India went to USA for higher studies. She did her Masters in Computer Science and was also a CPA before moving back to India to raise her 2 daughters.

After working with her husband for 8 years, Mamatha experienced the healing power of Yoga and became a yoga practitioner and later yoga teacher and a therapist. Later, over the past few years, studying and doing process work with Sri Raghu Anantanarayan, she understood the range of possibilities for a mind without fear. She organically became a member of Ritambhara in order to be a part of, to learn and contribute in any small way possible

Padmaja Bandreddi

Padmaja got introduced to Yoga for healing herself at the age of 15 yrs and continued to practice and became a yoga teacher and a therapist. She did her therapy training under the guidance of Mrs. Saraswati Vasudevan and has been teaching for the past 12 years in the Sri Krishnamacharya tradition, strongly founded in the teachings of Patanjali. Furthermore, Padmaja is trained in Vedic healing chants from KYM. She also studied Inner Work through Yoga Sutras with Raghu Ananthanarayanan. She is a teaching faculty in Yogavahini and is actively involved in Yoga teacher training programs, conducts group yoga classes, individual sessions, chanting group classes to help build the Yoga community. She shuttles between New York and Hyderabad.

Padmaja believes “All life is Yoga” and draws her strength from the teachings of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo.

Languages teaches yoga in Telugu, Hindi, and English languages. You can reach her at padmaja.bandreddi@gmail.com

Kartik Shastri

Kartik came to Ritambhara in search of purpose and after an entrepreneurial career in San Francisco. He immediately fell in love with the rasAtmic approach to self-exploration — particularly, working with the Mahabharata to discover the different characters within. This approach, combining theater, yoga, and dialogue, felt so rich and expressive.

Kartik now works with people to reverse their GI issues and chronic pain through remedypain.co. He plays guitar with the Emotionally Vulnerable Brown Men and is most expressed on stage.

He aspires towards Sri Krishnamacharya’s statement that a mature human is one who is able to experience the appropriate rasa fully and return without residue.

Ramya Iyengar

A Yoga Therapist cum Software Engineer, Ramya’s search for holistic well being brought her to yoga in the tradition of Sri T. Krishnamacharya. She was drawn to Ritambhara’s way of enabling Antaranga Yoga in a seeker’s life and along with her partner, has been fortunate to be a part of the Ritambhara Sangha since its inception, to live a dhArmic and wholesome life. As a student and a facilitator at Ritambhara, she continues her abhyāsam in the company of other seekers and mentors who lead by example. In her leisure time, she loves to sing, compose rhymes and stories from everyday life for her toddler, enjoys playing/watching sports and reading fiction. She can be reached at https://www.algorithmofyoga.com

Ankit Chhabra

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.

Anuradha Ramesh

Anuradha Ramesh a.k.a Usha is the founder of ‘Usha Pink Mist Retreat’, a centre of well-being and healing in Hyderabad, India. She is also the co-founder of Mischkat, a center for well-being and healing in Dubai, UAE.

Anu stewards the ‘Svashakti Vriksham’ in Ritambhara Ashram. She has dedicated herself to the Consciousness Science and is anchored in the conviction that all of existence is inside-out. She offers her services as a personal consultant, teacher, trainer, coach, and facilitator of individual and group process work.

Anu being the creator of the Self-Mastery Project, a year-long system of inner work is widely known for her Transgenerational Healing Workshops. She has been offering workshops and personal sessions in several countries across four continents.

Ajay Visvanath

A Bharatanatyam dancer of the Mysore bani, Ajay has over 2 decades’ experience in behavioural skills facilitation for individuals and group. Ajay is pursuing Internship in Process Work with Sumedhas and his interest in inner work has been nurtured at Ritambhara. Ajay currently anchors the RamāyaNa Exploration under the PuraNam vriskhsam and Facilitation Dialogues for the Ritambhara Mandala.

Ajay finds great joy in working with body-knowledge to help individuals explore their own latent potential. Deepening his studies of Yoga Sutra, Ajay is working on models to integrate the practices into Leadership Coaching.

Venky Ramachandran

Venky Ramachandran is a writer, executive coach, and independent consultant, working in the domains of culture and agriculture. He is the co-founder of Mandram Indic Talks Foundation, a nonprofit organization that curates innovative ideas, insights, and concepts in native languages through inclusive public discourse. He runs a boutique consulting firm, Gigyasa Consulting, that helps startup founders working in the intersection of agriculture and technology leverage digital technologies to address challenging problems in Indian Agriculture. He writes two newsletters, Dharma and Dharmasankata, Agribusiness Matters, to share his ongoing learnings in the domains of Indic culture and agriculture.

Venky was introduced to Yoga when he joined a summer camp in Ramakrishna Mutt at the age of 10 and has been practising ever since. In the first two decades of his life, he ran behind several gurus, and sooner than later, ran away from them, when he realized that his quest was something else. He and his life partner, Ramya, joined the Ritambhara Sangha during its inception in 2017. Mandram Indic Talks Foundation was born when he was having painful and honest conversations with the Rithambhara Sangha about being Macaulay’s grandchildren and slowly losing our relationship with our roots. The Rasathmic journey with Ritambhara Sangha has been a transformative journey for Venky, and his life partner, Ramya, in discovering the joys of being a householder, in pursuing Yoga as a way of life, beyond binaries of work and life, materiality and spirituality, journey and destination.

Ankush Vij

Ankush Vij is Chartered Accountant by qualification. Ankush turned to yoga in 2016 to manage his auto-immune condition. What started as yoga therapy for physical well-being turned to a lifelong pursuit of making meaning of the self and the world. Thus began a series of explorations and immersion into yoga-sutras and mahabharata, guided by Yogavahini and Ritambhara sangha. The references to Indic psychology and wisdom found in Yoga-sutra, Mahabharata and the Upanishads made a deep impact on him and inspired him to do a deep study of these ancient Indian texts. In 2017, Ankush took a sabbatical to learn Vedanta (Prasthana Trayam) and Sanskrit vyakarana over 3 three years under guru shishya parampara at Arsha Vidya Gurukulam, Nagpur. He also continues to study the yoga-sutras under the tutelage of senior teachers of Ritambhara and Yogavahini who are direct students of Sri Krishnamacharya and Sri Desikachar.

Ankush has been associated with Ritambhara since 2017 and is working towards deepening his abhyasa of Yoga and Vedanta and its application in inner work for individual and organisation development. It is his strong belief that the gifts that he has received from the lineage of yoga have to be shared with the world at large. Now that he is back at his corporate consulting career, he is looking to integrate his new learnings into his work and bring about an alignment of his inner and outer purpose. He currently lives in Bangalore and also supports various program offerings and functions of Ritambhara Ashram. He can be reached at ankushvij@gmail.com.

Kavitha Elango

Kavitha is a mother of 2 grown up kids and lives in Gurgaon. Her search as a Yoga teacher took her to different traditions until she landed in Ritambhara ! Here both personal life as a mother & wife and professional life as a Yoga teacher took a 180 degree turn. She had finally found her path to her inner quest enriched by the teachings of her teachers and fellow seekers of the sangha! Her way of seeing herself, her relationships and the world has completely changed and the journey now is very enlivening! Through her intense passion and dedication towards her path, she brings a great deal of sensitivity, compassion and intuitive wisdom from her life experiences and her learnings to her students through Bahiranga and Antaranga Yoga.

She loves music, is a reiki practitioner, teaches Vedic Chanting and mentors people who aspire to become Yoga teachers. You can reach her at kavithaelango89@gmail.com

Naveen Vasudevan

Naveen is a student of Yoga. Over the last 18 years, he has been engaged with the questions: “What does it mean to live meaningfully in today’s times?” and “How may I offer the best of myself to the Whole?”. This ongoing journey has been richly rewarding and fulfilling. He is a co-founder of Ritambhara and the founder of pūrṇam. His interests include Evolutionary Leadership, Integral Psychology and Process Work. He is particularly keen on working with young changemakers and those interested in bridging spirituality and social change. He loves reading, good cinema and spending time in ‘nature’.

Rajeev Natarajan

Sometime in Jul 2012, a few of us who had been co-journeying on “what does it mean to live an ecologically sensitive life” met Raghu and Sashi to explore Yoga Sutras. We called ourselves Sacred Activists, as students of Eastern thought – some of us were feeling a little burnt out from all the work we were doing; many of us were embarking on a journey as householders.

That one year of study that ensued proved to be one of my most formative in my life – one that really helped establish a ground for working with quite a few very difficult spaces in many fronts: personally (emotional / financial), as a husband, a parent, and a son. I discovered an expanded question: “what does it mean to live a Dharmic life as a householder” and “how does one explore this as a sangha of fellow-seekers”.

So, when Raghu and Sashi proposed the idea of Ritambhara Sangha over a nice lunch at their place, it felt ‘right’ and a clear next step in the journey.

I’m currently a practitioner in the Ritambhara Gharana as a facilitator and a coach and I love working in group spaces – especially in tech organizations – to enable a process of discovering one’s dream and creating workspaces that are aligned, agile, and human.

I’m blessed to have Sangeetha, another student-practitioner of the Gharana, as my partner and we live in Auroville with our daughter.

Gowtham Balaji

Gowtham is a father of 2 daughters, husband to a loving wife who is a wellness specialist. His life journey has been filled with various experiences & flavors – IT, entrepreneurial, retail, food industry, building a minimalist natural farm from scratch etc. All through, there has been a flair & a search for what enables a meaningful and fulfilling engagement with oneself, one’s family & the world around.

This led to the discovery of yoga & the Krishnamacharya’s tradition. Since then, the journey with teachers like Raghu Anantanarayanan, Saraswati Vasudevan, Anuradha Ramesh & the co-seekers in the Ritambhara community has been such a life transforming journey that now enables him to have a wonderful life. Gowtham now practices teaching, healing & facilitation for individuals & groups. Gowtham can be reached at balajigowtham@gmail.com

Radhakrishnan

Radhakrishnan (Rkay), a Yoga Practitioner and Instructor from Yoga Vahini, lives in Thrissur in God’s own country. He is passionately pursuing inner work after over a 3-decade stint in global organizations in Corporate Leadership roles.

Rkay, a firm believer in being a ‘Student for Life’ is on a long journey in pursuit of learning Yajur Veda, in-depth studies of Yoga Sutra and other Indian scriptures. He is inspired by the deep reflective evocations arising from the Yoga Sutras and Indic scriptures such as Ramayana & Mahabharata and how these can be applied to the study of self and enable sustainable co-existence. He is a qualified expert in operational excellence through ‘Lean’ framework and is passionate about sharing his learning experiences through coaching, facilitating / anchoring workshops enabling people to touch their purpose and find their path. He loves singing, listening to Carnatic music, spiritual discourses & Sampradaya Bhajans, social networking and cricket.

Saraswathi Vasudevan

Saras studied and taught at Yoga Mandiram from 1990 to 2007. In 2010, she founded YogaVahini, along with her husband G Sundar, dedicated to sharing the teachings of Sri T Krishnamacharya and Sri TKV Desikachar through teacher training and therapy training programs, personalised yoga therapy, community outreach programs and research activity. Yogavahini Foundation is today a Public Charitable Trust with operations in Chennai & Hyderabad.

YogaVahini and Ritambhara communities work together in deepening and expanding the scope of yoga, particularly inner work, by bringing together and engaging serious aspirants to develop and sustain practice and self-enquiry towards better ways of living.

Sangeetha Sriram

Sangeetha’s interest and experience spread across areas like ecology, localisation, sustainable living and livelihoods, education and agriculture, which she has been exploring for over twenty years now.

In her quest for being a ‘Spiritual Activist’ to heal the wounds of our times, she stumbled upon the praxis of Yoga which synthesised many things for her. She is now deeply interested in healing her personal and the collective distorted understanding of ‘What is India?’ and its role in the birthing of the New World.

She is one of the co-founders of reStore, a collective in Chennai promoting sustainable living. She regularly writes about her explorations on her blog and other media.

Padmaja Bandreddi

Padmaja got introduced to Yoga for healing herself at the age of 15 and continued to practice Yoga and became a yoga teacher and a therapist. Padmaja holds a Master’s degree in English Literature.

She has studied and trained in the classical tradition of yoga that is strongly founded in the teachings of Patanjali and follows the Krishnamacharya School. Padmaja specializes in adapting yoga to the unique needs of individuals and groups. She is also trained in Ayurveda. She has been teaching Yoga for the last nine years for individuals of different age groups, conducts community yoga classes and also works with autistic children.

She feels grateful for the opportunity to make Yoga the centre of her life and is committed to learning as she is teaching. She is passionate about helping people transform from within. She enjoys Vedic chanting and is enthusiastic about spreading the message of Yoga. She draws her strength from the teachings of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo.

Parthasarathy Ramanujam

Partha is a yoga practitioner / teacher and software architect living in Chennai with his (yoga) family. He is interested in responsible living which includes and goes beyond ecological, social and spiritually sensitive living.

He is engaged in Yoga Abhyasa while also training oneself and others in the bahiranga (externally visible) and the self-discovering aspects of Yoga. Towards this, he is working towards co-creating / sustaining communities and contexts that can assist interested people in this process.

Sashikala Ananth

Sashikala’s life long passion has been the study of the Vaastu Shaastraas and adapting the profound insights of the ancient texts to contemporary living. Having studied the Vaastu texts extensively, assimilating traditional wisdom and exploring its field application, she now works on projects incorporating the wisdom of Vaastu in creative and harmonious ways with the modern lifestyle. She has designed temples for Gurus and has won wide acclaim for her work.

An architect by qualification and holding a Bachelors Degree in Architecture from the Madras School, Sashikala has researched the classical Indian science of Architecture – Vaastu, for over three decades. She was a student of Sri Ganapati Sthapati, a leading authority on the Vaastu Shaastras. Sashikala Ananth is considered to be one of the foremost experts in the field of Vaastu Shaastraas today. She also studied Yoga at the Krishnamaachaarya Yoga Mandiram.

A recipient of the Ashoka Foundation Scholarship for innovative contribution to the field of architecture, she was also part of a team which made the 1991 National award winning film ‘The Living Tradition, A Shilpi Speaks’ that explains the traditions of the sculptor.

Sashikala Ananth is also a behavioural scientist. Her work as a behavioural scientist has been largely focused on helping NGO’s and Educational Institutions.

The thrust of the work:
To be able to envisage a coming together of both design concept and philosophy and to be able to apply this in the field effectively, she has been consolidating all the streams of learning and wisdom that have been part of her training. This includes yoga, behavioral work, fine arts, mythology, craft, Vaastu Shaastras, architectural training and human psychology. Sashikala has conducted several seminars across the world where she brings together this unique confluence of learning and experience. She and her husband Raghu Ananthanarayanan have been running a design and self-development centre called Vadivam for the last three decades.

Books By Sashikala:
The books she has written on Vaastu are considered definitive works in the field.

Penguin Books: ‘A Penguin Guide to Vaastu’
Penguin Books: ‘The pocket book of Vaastu’
Roli Books: ‘Vaastu – A Path to Harmonious Living’
Aurobindo Ashram Press: ‘Indian sculpture and Iconography – forms and measurements’

Sashi can be contacted at: sashi_ananth@yahoo.com

Raghu Ananthanarayanan

Raghu has been enquiring into three questions relentlessly in his life, these are how does one become the best that one can be? How do organizations and groups become the best that they can be? What does it mean to be an Indian?

This quest has led to more than a decade of intense study of Yoga with Yogaachaarya T Krishnamaachaarya and Desikachar. During this period he also had the opportunity to interact deeply with J.Krishnamurti and learn Process Work from Prof. Pulin K. Garg. Raghu’s work with people and organizations has been founded on the profound impact this period of study and introspection had on him. The Core of Raghu’s approach to teaching Yoga is based on the Krishnamaachaarya tradition, however, he has brought in aspects of experiential learning and introspection that make it contemporary and accessible. He obtained his Postgraduate Degree in Bio-Medical Engineering from IIT Madras during this time for which he studied the application of Yoga and Praanaayaama in curing back pain. He has published a very well received book “Learning Through Yoga”.

Raghu has also delved deeply into the Behavioural Sciences to develop a unique approach of personal unfolding and organizational transformation. He has devoted almost three decades to transforming the organizational culture across the spectrum from grass roots developmental organizations to modern industrial organizations. He has developed a unique methodology called “Totally Aligned Organization”, and a model called the “Tensegrity Mandala” that brings together his understanding of Organizational Processes and Yoga.

Raghu’s abiding interest in the question what is India was triggered by his years of contact with Dharampalji. He has been engaged with grass roots developmental work and has enabled the development of many craft groups and a Tamil theatre group called Koothu-p-Pattarai. He has pioneered an approach to process work that brings together the laboratory learning method with Yoga and theatre.

This juxtaposition of inner and outer exploration has been invaluable in making his personal spiritual journey meaningful and pragmatic. By working with a variety of groups across the spectrum: Dalit groups and developmental processes for the downtrodden, craft groups, traditional communities, groups focusing on the arts as well as with business organizations, he has developed an insight into human processes that cut across superficial categorizations on the one hand and processes that are circumscribed by the context on the other hand. Some of his pioneering designs for community mobilization like the ‘Koodam’ have been deployed in working with the Governance processes with great success.

Raghu Ananthanarayanan has co-founded Sumedhas Academy for Human context, The Barefoot Academy for Governance and FLAME TAO Knoware (Pvt. Ltd); He serves on the board of several companies. He is now engaged in mentoring a young group of “sacred activists” called Ritambhara, as well as co-creating a platform of Yoga Teachers from the Krishnamaachaarya Tradition called “Ananta Yoga”.

Publications: “Learning through Yoga” (Krishnamachaarya Yoga Mandiram, 2nd Edition 2002); “Totally Aligned Organization” (Productivity and Quality Publishers, 2nd Edition 2008), “Organization Development and Alignment” (Co-authored with Gagandeep Singh; Sage Response, 2013), a chapter titled: On Spirituality And Organized Religion: Conversations With Yogi Raghu Ananthanarayanan in the book Traversing the Heart – Journeys of the Inter-religious Imagination; Edited by Richard Kearney and Eileen Rizo-Patron as well as many papers in reputed Journals; Raghu is on the editorial Bureau of Integral Leadership Review (a journal that looks at a convergence of spirituality and management).

He can be contacted at : raghu@totallyalignedorganization.com

SOWMITHRI

Mr Sowmithri BT is a professional banker serving in a private sector bank in Bangalore where he resides with his wife and two children. Parallelly, he has been pursuing the study and research of various streams of Jyothishya and vAstu since a decade now. He has been conferred doctorate in Jyothishya by Omkareshwar Jyothish vishwa vidyapeeta with a specialization in Nadi Jyothisha and is currently pursuing research on Temple architecture and residential vAstu in Manushyalaya chandrika and other classics. He is proud to be associated with Ritambara ashram and Sashikala ma’am since 2018 and to be a part of the vAstu sangha.

MADHURA BHAVIN MODI

Madhura Bhavin Modi is a practising architect, primarily working on residential projects in Mumbai.
In search of health, happiness, healing and harmony, she has turned towards her roots. She is discovering that vAstu offers a way of life and scientific philosophy that is very beneficial to us.

One lamp lights another lamp;
that lamp consecutively lights many lamps;

Under the guidance of teacher Sashikala Ananth, Madhura is working closely with the Ritambhara vAstu sangha towards a common vision of connecting individuals with their living spaces, inculcating feelings in forms and blending modern with traditional architecture with an intention to offer something valuable to the larger community.

She is inclined towards healing buildings and their spaces by providing solutions to problems through vAstu (Chikitsa vAstu).

Her mantra is- ॐ सर्वे भवंतु सुखीन: । May all be happy !

SHIVANGI GADIA

The search of balance into the life and space, drew Shivangi to learn and commit to studying, practising and taking forward the Indian knowledge of Architecture- vAstu into her professional and personal work. She works as a researcher, facilitator and an Architect in the Ritambhara vAstu Sangha team. Born and brought up with the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, and studying Architecture attracted her to explore living in the township of Auroville. Now that has become her home, and journey towards Inner Exploration. With over 5 years of experience in Architecture, currently she is a practising Architect and founder of Studio Collective- Architecture & Design, working with the ideals of a collective practise, exploring Eco-friendly and cost effective Housing solutions.

RADHIKA SONI

After graduating from Sir J.J. College of Architecture, Radhika’s interests have been strongly developing in the areas of Indian philosophies and appropriate building materials. For sustainable development, she believes that there is a confluence where both of these meet, evolving into a holistic approach.

Since 2014, she has been part of the Auroville Earth Institute (UNESCO Chair Earthen Architecture), a non-profit organization which specializes in earthen building technologies.

Through the practice of vAstu, Sanskrit, Kalaripayattu and Bharatanatyam she is delving into ancient wisdom, aspiring to renew the Indian spirit.

CHANDANA REDDY

Chandana studied architecture in Chennai and was drawn to exploring community-centric and ground-up approaches to design and architecture through her work in Auroville, Chennai and Himachal. Her search for ‘what makes spaces alive? And how can we create them?’ further led her to vAstu and Ritambhara. In vAstu and knowledge held by the Vishwakarma craftsmen, she sees the rich convergence of Indian art, philosophy, architecture, yoga & inner work. With this foundation, she has been facilitating workshops aimed at understanding and designing ‘healthy spaces’ that promote well being and sustainable lifestyles. She believes the way forward lies in reclaiming our connection to the land, environment and the larger collective wisdom, simultaneously honouring our innate sense of creativity and ability to create beauty by working closely with nature.

ANAND UKIDVE

Ar. Anand Ukidve is a practicing Architect and a post graduate in Urban Housing. He is deeply interested in the study, research and resurrection of lost traditional wisdom. He firmly believes that the answers to the harmonious future lie in the cultural wealth that we inherit. Apart from an active practice, he is an academician at heart and presently heads one of the Architectural Schools in Pune. He is also an avid sketcher who loves to travel and explore places.

Amarendra Nammi

Amarendra Nammi is a Hyderabad based builder with a focus on sensible living and building solutions. It was this mindset coupled with the need to understand the wisdom of our forefathers that brought him to Ritambhara.

He builds homes that not only focus on aesthetics, but also on living standards that align with vAstu principles. He prefers to use local, environmentally friendly materials, to ensure balance and wellness in built spaces and its occupants.

As part of the Sangha and Brahmasutra (vAstu designing and consultation wing of Ritambhara) he has oversight of management and execution of its projects.

He enjoys long walks, hot filter coffee and good conversations.

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