India goddess pilgrimage
Includes: A 2 month pre-retreat training, all retreat activities, all local transportation, food and shared accommodation
Harshada and Adriana have led numerous trips to India. Harshada has been traveling to India since 1997 and has been leading group retreats there since 2005. He has a vast network of connections there and an outstanding local team assisting with the pilgrimage. They have brought hundreds of seekers over the course of nearly 30 years and have honed the retreat into an extraordinary, one-of-a-kind offering.
This is not a tourist trip.
We travel in a small, deeply oriented group - usually less than 10 people - and we avoid typical tourist destinations. Adriana and Harshada provide plenty of in-depth cultural orientation and an in-depth training for all participants so everyone knows how to be in synch with Indian culture and experience the “real India”, instead of the India that is put together for tourists. Typically, once we leave Mumbai, we don’t even see any other Westerners until we return to Mumbai.
It's a trip, but it's also a retreat.
Every day, we follow a retreat schedule, rising early in the morning for tea and meditation, then engaging in the daily activities of visiting temples, practicing in traditional “power spots”, and immersing ourselves in the sacred culture of India. We don’t do shopping, or site seeing, or go on any “tours”. We’re there on pilgrimage, on retreat, with silent mornings and evenings and a LOT of practice. We meditate every day, we do a lot of namasankirtana (chanting) practice, and are with the retreat teachers the whole time learning, asking questions, and going deep into our process of awakening. This year, Adriana and Harshada will be joined by Dr. Varsha Choudhari.
“Thank you so much for this amazing weekend, and your encouragement to come!! It was one of those things that I knew my soul needed but I didn’t know how much until I came. I felt so safe in your container, all the somatic work we did truly released everything I needed to. I danced, cried, yelled, laughed, it was magical I keep singing the mantra everyday, it was like hearing it my heart recognized it and a deeper connection to the Mother emerged. You brought together an amazing group of people and lead in such a unique and powerful way. Thank you for letting me part of it. I can’t wait for the next one!!!
- Moni Aryuvedic practitioner and yoga teacher.
Our journey to India, in Sanskrit is called a yatra, meaning the spiritual practice of sacred pilgrimage.
Unlike tourism, where the purpose of a trip is pleasure or entertainment, people go on yatra for the sake of spiritual goals. The yatrika, or pilgrim, journeys to a sacred place to practice in a particular energy field, or to have the darshana, or sacred viewing, of a holy place or deity or holy person. Yatra is an important practice for the faithful of nearly every religion.
In the Indian mystical tradition of yatra, comfort is not the main concern.
Sometimes, there are deliberate austerities included. A yatrika might observe vows during the yatra such as fasting, celibacy, or silence. They might choose particularly austere forms of travel such as walking without shoes or even crawling on hands and knees to the sacred destination. These added austerities often times help to prepare the yatrika's mind and body to receive the blessing or insight or transformation they are seeking through the yatra.
We don’t observe any of these kinds of intense austerities on our yatra. We do observe a pure vegetarian diet, abstain from drugs and alcohol, stay off our phones, and practice periods of silence, but otherwise we travel in relative comfort.
But there is an element of austerity. We have a great deal of comfort by Indian standards, but comfort is not our main concern. We are challenged. We’re challenged physically, mentally, culturally and spiritually. And we embrace the challenge as tapasya, sacred austerity.
As a group of westerners, we also avoid a great deal of unwanted attention by traveling as yatrikas. We wear Indian clothing and generally conduct ourselves as pilgrims as we move around. The contrast with typical western travelers is stark, and this way we avoid locals trying to constantly sell us knick-knacks, or camel rides, or take selfies with us. Locals know Harshada in the places where we go and know what he and his groups are about.
Many of the local people we interact with are old beloved friends of Harshada. But even with strangers, when we approach the various places respectfully in the yatrika attitude, we are treated with great respect and love.
GETTING THERE
You’ll book your flight into Mumbai arriving on the evening of January 10th. We’ll pick you up from the airport and bring you to our hotel in Mumbai.
We begin the retreat on the morning of the 11th. Don’t worry, Adriana and the team know how to get you ready and take care of your body and mind.
They will provide guidance on avoiding jet lag and we'll have a light schedule for the 11th. On the 12th, we load up in the van and head into the adventure.
Our van is a simple but comfortable air-conditioned van with a first-class, highly experienced professional driver.
We stay at a variety of Indian style hotels, retreat sites, and dharmashallas (pilgrim guest accommodations) with a range of western-standard comfort levels.
We begin and end the trip in Mumbai at a comfortable 4 star hotel, but also stay in very simple accommodations in some places. Everywhere we go has electricity, running water, and hot water on demand. Everywhere we stay has western, commode-style toilets.
But, understand, this is not a "tour" or a "tourist" experience.
We will provide unlimited bottled drinking water and food of the highest quality and hygienic standards. We eat pure vegetarian (delicious) Indian food the whole time, breakfast, lunch and dinner. There is no meat, alcohol, or smoking for the entire retreat. You’ll have to sacrifice iced drinks and fancy coffees too, but in return you’ll get unlimited delicious fresh chai and the best Indian food you’ve every tasted. Every time we go people love the food as much as they do the spiritual dimension of the trip.
Along with the cultural orientation, Harshada will also provide an in-depth health orientation created by a tropical disease specialist that will teach you how to avoid falling ill from food-borne illness or other unique tropical ailments like typhoid or malaria. We also recommend inoculations against typhoid and hepatitis and also that participants take anti-malarial medication.
Being there….
* We have a no-cancelation policy.
** We recommend getting travel insurance.
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How to Join
The first step is to fill out and submit our application. *Note: You may have to access the application on a computer, the phone version of this site doesn't work on all operating systems. The team will look at your application and arrange a time to speak on Zoom to finalize application approval.
After your application is accepted, you'll be required to make a non-refundable deposit to hold your space.
Early rate (book before Sept 7th) $7500 (USD, Paid in Full)
Payment Plans available - $870 over 9 months.
This includes pre-retreat training, all retreat activities, all local transportation, food and shared accommodation.
Semi-private rooms in some locations are available for additional fees.
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your guides
Adriana Rizzolo
As the founder of Body Temple, spiritual mentor, sex educator for women, trans* and non binary folks, speaker, grief and aliveness doula, Tantric meditation, energy healing and embodied movement facilitator.
Adriana helps people heal trauma and patterns of helplessness, awaken their power and feel at home in their bodies to start living life in alignment with their soul’s offerings and cultivating sexy, secure relationships.
Harshada Wagner
Harshada David Wagner is a master meditation instructor, author, artist, dad, and wisdom teacher with more than 25 years of teaching experience.
Classically trained in the wisdom traditions of Yoga, Bhakti, Vedanta, and Tantra, his teachings come from his decades of working with people helping them learn to live more fulfilling, soul-centered, purpose driven lives. The Sanskrit name Harshada was given to him by Gurumayi Chidvilasananda in 1996, meaning "the bringer of joy, laughter, and delight".
DR Varsha Choudary
Varsha is a homoeopathic doctor, psychologist, meditation teacher, poet, mother of two beautiful daughters, owner of a counseling center, Awakened Living, and lives in Pune, India.
She is classically trained in Eastern Nondual philosophy. She uses practical aspects and wisdom of both eastern philosophy as well as modern western psychology to help her clients to come out of depression, anxiety, trauma, addiction and have wonderful relationship in worldly life.