Yog Utsav

21st to 25th October, 2015 | Goa

The Event

The Anahata Yog Utsav is an event that brings together wellness experts in the field of yoga, ayurveda, soulful music, healing and nature therapies from all around the world. It has been designed for the enthusiasts, beginners & advanced level practitioners alike. Those in search of alternate healing therapies may also find cures for long standing issues at this event. During the course of these magical 5-days, you will experience pure and authentic forms of yoga like hatha, ashthanga vinyasa & kundalini yoga. Apart from these, you will be able to attend workshops and lectures with revered ayurveda doctors, chakra healers, pranic healers, etc.
Your enriching experience comes in the form of a perfect daily schedule that offers back to back yoga sessions all day long interspersed with sprinkles of wisdom with our speakers during the entire length of your stay with us.

The venue

Nestled in the lap of luxury, The Devaaya Ayurveda & Naturopathy Resort is an oasis of wellness and rejuvenating energy that at once heals and relaxes. On the serene and peaceful island of Divar, Devaaya is the only resort and sits pretty amongst the peace loving, happy and ever-smiling population of a few hundred Divar’s residents. A short boat ride from mainland Goa, Divar is adjacent to the acclaimed Salim Ali’s Bird Sanctuary. Backwaters of the beautiful Mandovi river surround the island, enriching our experience with a spectacular view at all times.

The cuisine

The menu for our esteemed guests is personally prepared by Bijay J. Anand in consultation with ayurveda and naturopathic doctors of Devaaya. Delicious vegetarian Indian cuisine, balanced to nourish the three doshas of kapha, vata and pita, the cuisine is designed to be healing and detoxifying.

Ayurveda at Devayaa

For those who wish to enhance their festival experience with some authentic ayurvedic treatments such as abhyanga masssages, facials and shirodhara, Devaaya offers the best therapists who will pamper you and use their considerable knowledge, experience and expertise for treatments.

As a special offer to all our participants, Anahata will be offering the following complimentary treatments:
• One complimentary head or foot massage
• One free consultation with the ayurveda or naturopathy doctor at Devaaya

The Presenters

The teachers for the 2015 event have been carefully curated by Anahata to offer a rounded, wholesome and enriching experience to our participants. Respected and renowned in their respective fields our presenters are looking forward to helping you to charter new courses of health regimen, map new paradigms of knowledge and discover a wide array of healing sciences to help you discover your path to Health * Happiness * Divinity

Jehangir Palkhivala – Iyengar Yoga & Naturopathy

Jehangir’s passion for yoga started with Sunday morning classes with Guruji BKS Iyengar, when he was seven years old. His home atmosphere was suffused with a spiritual, as well as yogic base, as both his parents were inclined to the same. In India, where little children are placed on par with Krishna, the mischievous God, his relationship with his Guru was playful and full of fun, but grew intense and meaningful as he became older.

Exposed to Guruji’s dynamic and precise teaching, to his mother’s spiritual and aspirational style of teaching asanas and pranayama, and his father’s sense of perfection, Jehangir found all these diverse aspects expressing themselves in his own teaching. Driven by the urge to find the essential truth, and to experience it in the physical asanas, he has developed a series of sequences that thousands of people all over the world are practicing and benefiting from.

His classes will help you to strengthen your connection with your higher self and to cultivate a profound joy and peace that permeates your asana practice and eventually spills over into your daily life.

Deepika Mehta – Ashthanga Vinyasa

In 1997, a near death rock climbing accident had the doctors tell Deepika Mehta that she would never walk again. Not one to allow obstacles to deter her spirit and enthusiasm for life, she sought out alternative healing practices and found the age old Indian discipline of Yoga. Deepika then immersed herself into years of intense practice of yoga, meditation and pranayama. She initially went to the Sivananda Yoga Kendra in Kerala, where she did her teachers training. From there she was led to the practice of Ashtanga Yoga and to meeting her Guru,Shri K Pattabhi Jois in 2002.
She has also travelled to various parts of the world studying with various masters like Richard Freeman, Dena Kingsberg, Prem Carlisi, Lino Miele, and Rolf Naujokat. She is currently a student of Sharath Jois and is learning Advanced A Series with him.
Deepika has her own TV show called Yoga City. She has been the master trainer on the show “The Biggest Loser” in India. She has been featured as one of the three women redefining beauty ideals in India in Vogue magazine 2014, has been the face of the fitness campaign 2015 in Elle India, and has been featured in various other publications. Deepika has also given a Dance/Yoga presentation and talk at the TedX event at the UN Headquarters in NYC.

Bijay J. Anand – Kundalini Yoga

A Kundalini Yoga teacher certified by the Kundalini Research Institute, Los Angeles, Bijay combines the wisdom gleaned from his years of practicing Hatha, Ashthanga and Iyengar Yoga and exposure to ayurveda and naturopathy to offer a holistic programme geared towards enhancing the health and happiness of his students. The underlying philosophy behind all his teachings is love and the key role that our Anahata Chakra has to play in the happiness quotient of our lives. He was introduced to Kundalini Yoga for the first time by Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa in 2012, and this was the turning point in his life. Apart from teaching regularly in India, Bijay has also been teaching in countries like Mexico, Canada and the UK.
Bijay recently completed a book titled ‘Mindlessness to Mindfulness’, scheduled for release in July this year.

Marieke de Lange – Kundalini Yoga

She is a certified Level 1 & 2 Kundalini Yoga Teacher. After practicing Hatha Yoga for 10 years she switched to Kundalini in 2011 and is teaching on a daily basis ever since via her own Yoga Shala; Kundalini Yoga Amsterdam, which in a short time became one of the most popular yoga schools in the Dutch capital. In 2013 she also completed her Kundalini Yoga Therapy training and was chosen to be Yogi of the Year in The Netherlands by Yoga Magazine. In the Netherlands she appeared on several TV shows, in magazines and in 2011 she shared her passion in a TedXWomen talk. Marieke has taught in several yoga festivals, organises workshops on the yogic lifestyle and teaches Rebirthing Intensives. She also leads yoga journeys and retreats to France, Italy, India and Nepal.
She loves to share her broad knowledge about yoga wisdom & lifestyle in her classes to empower everybody to live healthy and happy lives using yoga as a key to overall well being of body, mind and spirit.

Anugraha Unnikrishnan – Vinyasa Flow

Anugraha studied at The Yoga Institute, Mumbai. Under the guidance of Dr. Jaydev and Mrs. Hansa Jaydev who taught her that ‘Yoga’ was not all about asanas, but a way of life!
Along the way she has been extremely fortunate to have been taught and influenced by some of the best teachers in the world – Javed Khansalar, Deepika Mehta, Mark Robberds, Mohan Bhandari, Kishan Shah and Maya Rao to name a few She believes all of her teachers played very important roles in shaping who she is today and in helping her discover the many positive and healing aspects of this profound practice. This has helped her move ahead on this journey of personal freedom, peace and bliss.
Anugraha teaches the traditional Ashtanga Vinyasa Primary series. She also teaches a Vinyasa style which is inspired by Ashtanga and Iyengar styles, where postures flow with the breath to build heat in the body, focusing on alignment and multiple dimensions of the body.

Dr Arun Gupta – Ayurveda

Dr Arun Gupta is a professor of Ayurveda and head of the Panchakarma department at Choudhary Brahm Prakash Ayurved Charak Sansthan, a renowned Ayurvedic medical college in Delhi. He specialises in Panchakarma, the classical system of detoxification.
Dr Gupta is an advisor to the Hungarian Ayurvedic Medical Foundation and has spent many years working in Hungary. He believes that through a deep understanding of our body systems and following Ayurvedic principles, we can open the channels to radiant, glowing, abundant health.
With decades of experience, Dr Gupta makes the ancient science of Ayurveda simple, accessible and enjoyable. His lucid introduction to the subject is a boon for all students in general and Yoga teachers in particular. Dr Gupta shows people how to adjust their diets to best suit their bodies and simple home remedies that can be used to fight off disease, decay and even battle chronic illness.

Prasheen Lodhia

Prasheen Lodhia studied the tabla since childhood, while growing up in Canada. In 2009 he set off to India to explore India. India started off as a short holiday and ended up becoming his home. Over the years, he travelled remote corners of the country in search of culture and relics of forgotten kingdoms. On his journey through south India, he encountered the PANArt Hang. This steel hand instrument, which resembles a flying saucer, was invented 15 years ago in Switzerland and are no longer produced.
Without an ancient culture behind the Hang, the sound is free for organic exploration. With its melodious sound sculpture, made up of 9 ascending notes, the Hang is the perfect tool for creating meditative compositions. Through a little manifestation, Prasheen acquired a Hang and has been unveiling its mystique ever since. Prasheen has been partnering with yoga teachers from around the world to offer a unique form of sound meditation he calls Hang Therapy. This form of meditation, involves focusing on the soundscape to induce healing and relaxation.

The schedule

The daily schedule for this event has been designed to allow you to absorb the maximum amount of knowledge and wisdom on offer by way of yoga sessions, workshops and lectures, while also offering you the opportunity to sink into the natural bliss and beauty of the amazing venue, Devaaya.
Your day starts with a morning Sadhana at 5.30am and ends blissfully with a musical event or a meditation session at around 10pm, with back-to-back sessions in between.
You can either follow the schedule to the T or choose to skip a session and just relax by the luxurious poolside or avail of a myriad of authentic Ayurveda and Naturopathy treatments at Devaaya’s Wellness Centre. Click here to download the daily schedule.