Asana classes are from 5am to 6:30am only, and if there is a power cut like this morning, Coni could not shoot due to the lack of light. Bad luck! But later in the day, the weather got nice and sunny, and we were happily surprised by an invitation to attend a satsang with the…
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Meeting Swami Suryaprakash
Our schedule follows the ashram life – early to bed, early to rise and always inside the ashram. Our visit to the Bihar School of Yoga was announced quite late (too late), and this Monday we were busy trying to catch Swami Suryaprakash, the director of the Bihar School of Yoga, for an interview. In…
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Sunday at the Bihar School of Yoga
We got lucky! Our train got enough delay and we arrived at the Bihar School of Yoga (BSY) shortly before 6am – we didn’t have to hang around the city before the ashram opened. Sunday is also day off in the ashram, which doesn’t mean everyone can go out. The normal programme is reduced to…
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On the Farakka Express to Bihar
We are heading to the Bihar School of Yoga, a famous and well known source of excellent yoga teachers. Train tickets to Bihar are very difficult to get – we could only get 3 separate non AC sleeper seats in 2nd class. This time we cross fingers that our Farakka Express train no. 13484 will…
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2nd day at BHU, Vanarasi
Freshly arrived to Varanasi on the early morning train, Coni joined us for a second day at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU). We were allowed to take photographs of the morning yoga class (asanas) for international students. Another 4-month yoga course, called diploma course, is offered at BHU – this one is more theoretical. Although…
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Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi
With a couple of hours delay we (Heide and Otto) reached Varanasi. After a fast check-in, we headed to the famous Banaras Hindu University (BHU), one of India’s largest campuses. Professor K.K. Sharma (Sankhyayoga Darshan and Vyakarana, Indian Philosophy) welcomed us and invited us to watch an asana class for Indian students of the 4-week…
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Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga, Delhi
Today we visited the Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga (MDNIY), the only national institute of yoga, and a place in the heart of India’s capital where you can get a very complete postgraduate degree in yoga studies. Before the asana class started, we could see and learn how proper nose and stomach cleaning are performed. A…
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Sivananda Yoga Vendanta Nataraja Center, South Delhi
From today Heide, a very experienced journalist from Germany, will join us on our journey for about 2 weeks. We will for sure benefit a lot from her professional experience. Our first center visit together is the local Sivananda Yoga Vendanta Nataraja Center in South Delhi. At the beginning of our trip, we had visited another Sivananda ashram at Neyyar Dam…
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On the train back to Delhi
The train ride back to Delhi, which we booked the evening before departure, was a whopping 127 rupees (about 2 EUR) per person for a distance of 250 km!  🙂 We got some of the last seats – those in the very first wagon. These tickets sell last as they are next to the locomotive, which means having to…
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Yog-Ganga Center for Yoga Studies, Dehradun
Today we left Rishikesh after a week along the banks of the Ganges river. Our next destination: The Yog-Ganga Center for Yoga Studies in Dehradun. Swati and Rajiv Chanchani teach Iyengar yoga, with an approach different from everything we had seen before. According to their strict philosophy, they don’t want to promote themselves, thus they only allowed…
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Luxury yoga at the Ananda
The Ananda was on today’s agenda. It was quite an ascent into the hills, 18 km away from Rishikesh. The Ananda is an old palace turned into one of the world’s best wellness resorts, spread over 100 acres. Sushant, the head of the yoga department, welcomed us with a freshly brewed coffee and introduced us to the philosophy…
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