ken atchity door to door: Pilgrimage to the Heart of Yoga

Pilgrimage to the Heart of Yoga

A Yoga Gives Back Retreat
February 22nd - March 1st, 2015

It's no secret that Yoga puts you in touch with your core essence. Have you ever felt a deep longing channel that essence into a life-transforming experience?
Here is an amazing opportunity to dive deeper into your practice through an unforgettable adventure of a lifetime!
Harnessing the incredible energy that Yoga generates, we can literally be the agents of transformation for the children and mothers in India, who are struggling to survive every day.
The Pilgrimage to the Heart of Yoga Retreat was designed to awaken every aspect of your being through exposure to the core spiritual disciplines of India - authentic Ayurveda, Yoga, Meditation, and Classical Indian Music.
Most transformational of all, you will get to spend time with the delightful children at Deenabandhu Trust Home, a spiritual haven for 100 orphaned children.
Many of them have been funded by Yoga Gives Back, which this Retreat supports.

Yoga Gives Back is a non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness and funds in order to alleviate poverty in India to help women and children in need in the country that gave birth to yoga.
Inspired by the revolutionary micro financing breakthrough originated by Nobel Peace Prize Recipient Dr. Muhammad Yunus, Yoga Gives Back offers micro credit programs to women in India who are otherwise excluded from the conventional banking and financial systems. Funding more than 500 mothers and children this year, YGB also provides funds for orphans and education funds for disadvantaged girls and high school students for them to reach to their dreams.

In this one-of-a-kind retreat, you will truly be guided into the root culture of Yoga in India with the best of the best!

The venue of the retreat is Shreyas Retreat, rated one of the top Yoga retreat centers in the world by Gayot and the Huffington Post.
It is a magical sanctuary nestled within 25 lush green acres of whispering palms.
With only 12 luxurious and individual cottages attended by servers who are themselves immersed in yogic practices, a stay at Shreyas is an unparalleled blend of understated luxury steeped in spiritual culture.

The retreat will be guided by Mariko Hirakawa, an experienced Yoga Instructor who is also an Ayurvedic physician.
A former professional ballet dancer with extensive training with Yoga Masters and Vaidyas (Ayurvedic doctors) of India, she is one of the very few in the West to have completed the rigorous 5 ½ year B.A.M.S degree from one of the top Ayurvedic universities in India.
Proficient in Sanskrit and Hindi, she brings a contemporary global perspective to the traditional wisdom contained in the classical texts of Yoga and Ayurveda.

Her primary teaching style is Vinyasa, which balances the lyrical and vigorous flow of the Ashtanga style with the precise anatomical awareness influenced by Iyengar and Anusara styles. Drawing on her background as a dancer as well as her medical and spiritual studies, she places Yoga in its original context, linking the intricacies of physical alignment with Yoga's spiritual purpose: the attainment of inner freedom.
The retreat will also feature a sitar concert by one of India's leading Sitar Maestros, Krishna Mohan Bhatt.
A life-long disciple of the late Pandit Ravi Shankar and Pandit Nikhil Bannerjee, his music has been hailed by the New York Times as one of "great melodic beauty", and the San Francisco Chronicle as one of "exceptional craftsmanship and artistry".
This is an event not to be missed!
Because Indian classical music has its roots in the wisdom of the same ancient Sages who gave us Yoga, it brings great emotional healing, and catalyzes our spiritual growth. In addition to the daily Yoga sessions and the sitar concert, your retreat package includes:

Accommodations for 6 nights at the luxurious Shreyas Retreat.
THREE 60 minute Rejuvenating Ayurvedic Massages delived with love by Shreyas' highly rated therapists. (Yes, you read right - you get THREE massages in a week!)
THREE Gourmet vegetarian meals a day, plus fresh coconut water throughout the day.
An overnight trip to Deenabandhu Trust, where you meet the beautiful children supported by Yoga Gives Back.
THREE Group Cooking Sessions on Healthy Vegetarian Cuisine. You will learn the secret of Shreyas' world-famous gourmet vegetarian recipes!
TWO fun sessions in which you will learn cultural activities such as making and applying henna, how to drape a sari, etc.
Trips to nearby temples and local villages
Roundtrip airport transfers between Bangalore airport and Shreyas Retreat Center, so all you have to do is arrive at the airport.
Wellness consultation upon arrival.
Once Daily Group chanting/Sound meditation session
Use of all recreational facilities including:

Outdoor swimming pool

Sauna and steam rooms

Outdoor Jacuzzi

Movie theater with hundreds of DVDs to watch
Daily nature based activities in Shreyas' extensive organic vegetable garden.

Rest assured that you will truly be taken care of in every respect. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to take make an exponential leap in your spiritual path!
Kayoko Mitsumatsu, Founder/President will be present at this retreat to share YGB's programs with a special trip to Deenabandhu Trust Home outside of Mysore as well as sharing short YGB Films she has been creating using her expertise as a documentary filmmaker.
This retreat is for you if you have been searching for a Yoga experience in India with depth, authenticity and first-rate program and facilities.
This retreat is also for you if you've dreamed of exploring India, but didn't want to do it on your own. We've taken care of all the groundwork for you, and have hand-picked the best!
If you are on a journey of self-healing, physically, mentally, or spiritually this retreat provides the perfect setting for you to tap into a deeper dimension, and make a quantum leap!

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Yoga Gives Back

Written by Kayoko Mitsumatsu

From Posture To Power: Microcredit Changes Lives On Both Sides of the Ocean

We can talk about making change. But affecting real change in the world comes from impacting the lives of individuals. It comes from empowering people to be independent and able to make a living on their own while at the same time being fully integrated in our interdependent global community. Sometimes it takes something that seems to be radical to make this change, but these shifts can be deceptively small. They can be even as small (or as large) as the cost of a Los Angeles Yoga class.

How could this be? In the practice of microcredit, lending seemingly small amounts of money to small-scale entrepreneurs allows them to succeed and change their circumstances. This is the fundamental basis of microcredit’s transformative power; it’s a revolutionary concept in finance. This practice shifts the emphasis from financial transactions being focused only about large loans and large scale businesses, which are out of reach of many one-person operations, institutions and organizations – to lending practices that actually make a positive difference in a person’s life. Microcredit practices based on social justice and empowerment operate through a combination of small-scale loans based on trust and community support, with structured repayment plans and programs that encourage savings. In these situations, people actually have the opportunity to solidify long-term change in their lives.

Dr. Muhammad Yunus and the Yoga Gives Back Team: Joel Bender, Leslie Hendry, Dr. Muhammad Yunus and Kayoko Mitsumatsu (left-right)

In 2006, economist Dr. Muhammad Yunus and the institution he founded, the Grameen Bank, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. This award was in recognition of their revolutionary efforts to create this micro-credit model, support sustainable economic practices, and provide an alternative to what were exploitive norms. When a person is caught in a cycle of poverty, they may become trapped in the system, particularly since large banking institutions have historically ignored people without assets or credit histories, who are just starting out and who may not have already proven themselves. Most banks prefer to lend large sums of money that represent a greater profit margin and are set up only for large loans in order to make a profit themselves. And even making it more challenging, people at the bottom of the economic scale worldwide have had to rely on moneylenders charging usurious terms and interest rates to obtain funds to plant the next crop, buy inventory of new equipment, or upgrade a business in any way. Institutions such as the Grameen Bank and their affiliates are offering another approach. It’s one that has significantly impacted millions of people.

As Dr. Yunus described in an exclusive interview with Yoga Gives Back in May, 2009, “We started in 1976, and today within Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, eight million people borrow micro loans, ninety-seven percent of them women.” This represents an enormous potential for change and empowerment that just did not exist on a large scale in this form prior to 1976.

There is a social cycle in economics, and Dr. Yunus explained this: “Poverty is not inside the person. Poverty is forced from outside. Poor people are as capable [a] human being as anybody else. They have the same power and energy, same potential. But they are denied such facilities. They cannot express themselves. Money is one of the most important items missing in their lives. You need a dollar to catch a dollar. You cannot catch a dollar with an empty hand. So, that first dollar, nobody has given to her. So she remains dependent on someone else. She has to be hired, to slave; she has to work to make food available on the table. What we have done, we have put that first dollar into her hands as a banking proposition. Conventional banks never come to the poor people. They go to rich people to make more money. The person who does not have a dollar – she cannot get it. So we did it. We did it in a way that is affordable to her. Because we do not insist on collateral. There is no collateral.”

While that may seem like a radical concept, the Grameen Bank has proven that their success is much more than ideological. Dr Yunus cited statistics for us, “The repayment rate is almost 100%, without collateral or anything. This is the strength of microcredit which is now spread all over the world. There are by now at least 150 million borrowers in the world today. Bu it is still very small comparing to the need. We need more microcredit organizations in the world so that more people can be reached.”

Yoga Gives Back is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization begun in LA, with the goal to provide a way for Western Yoga practitioners to give back to India, the birthplace of Yoga, which has given us so much. We’re heeding Dr. Yunus’ call to reach more people through expanded opportunities for and awareness of microcredit and have targeted India and Indian families, women, and would-be entrepreneurs, who would be otherwise stuck in the cycle of poverty that Dr. Yunus described. Yoga Gives Back supports microfinancing operations in India, through the Grameen Foundation, headquartered in Washington, DC. Donations go directly to Grameen Koota, Bangalore, South India and our YGB awareness campaign focuses on the real stories of how poor women are changing their lives with small loans from Grameen Koota.

Ms. Vinatha M Reddy

Grameen Koota was started by visionary teacher and philanthropist, Ms. Vinatha M Reddy (pictured, above) in 1999, who learned about Nobel Peace Recipient Dr Muhammad Yunus’ microfinancing and immediately began exploring ways of replicating his work in her hometown. In 2000, she started providing small microcredit loans, averaging $25.00 a month, to fifty local women. Today, Grameen Koota’s work is reaching out to over 280,000 women in Bangalore, Mysore and many areas of Karnataka state, in South India, making real impact on these women’s lives as well as on the local economy.

Yoga Gives Back

The Los Angeles-based Yoga Gives Back has a worldwide reach and began out of the inspiration and dedication of my Yoga mentor Joel Bender and me. Our group has suddenly started growing almost daily and our mission is shared by a quickly expanding and loving Yoga community.

When I was growing up in Japan, which is a very middle-class society, I had never experienced or seen any real poverty, especially growing up in Tokyo in 1960s and 1970s, when Japan's post-war economic miracle was taking place. Then, I had a chance to live in Brazil in the late 1970s for two years, where as a teenager, I saw the divide between poverty and wealth, the reality of the real slums, kids on the streets begging every time you stopped the car at the traffic light, all very much like India. Social injustice hit me hard.

Once I started Yoga practice and feeling my life being so enriched by it , I felt a need to use my resources to help others. I was producing a documentary on Social Entrepreneurship and learned about microfinancing. I shared this information with Joel [featured in the teacher profile in this month’s issue of LA YOGA] who had been looking for the way he could give back to India since his first visit there – so we teamed up.

When I think about the growth of Yoga Gives Back thus far, I give a lot of credit to the entrepreneurship and volunteer spirit of Americans, willing to embrace and support a new grass roots campaign like ours.

Kayoko Mitsumatsu, co-founder of Yoga Gives Back, is a documentary filmmaker whose films deal with social justice issues, including First They Killed My Father a memoir of a Cambodia’s Killing Fields’ survivor.

A Life Changing Story of Microcredit: Jayashree

Jayashree

Jayashree lives in the suburbs of Bangalore and is married and the mother of two children. We visited her at her humble dirt floor one room home for the first time in 2007. We were touched by her warm smile and most generous hospitality, serving us hot tea and cookies.

Jayashree was born into a very poor family in Bangalore. When she was a child, her family’s financial situation became so severe that she had to drop out of school and work at a garment factory. She toiled throughout her childhood and after she got married at fifteen, her meager earnings had to support her ailing in-laws. She had two children. Her husband’s rickshaw business was not enough to pay her sons’ education or secure food for the family.

In 2007, Jayashree learned from her neighbors about Grameen Koota’s microcredit program and applied for her first loan. She was granted a first loan of 7,000 rupees ($175), and immediately bought her husband’s auto rickshaw. Owning their own rickshaw business increased their income significantly.

Jayashree was able to pay back her entire loan in one year and became eligible for her second loan in 2008. Having proven her diligence, her second loan amount doubled to 15,000 rupees ($375). This time, she bought a sewing machine and started stitching bags. The family’s earnings have now tripled and she is earning 150 rupees ($3.75) a day. In addition, she opened a small shop next to her house to sell her products which is earning her an additional 100 rupees ($2.50) a day.

She is sending her elder son to a medical school. Her son dreams of becoming a doctor and thanks his mother’s business for providing his education, their own home and daily food.

To participate in a Yoga practice where the proceeds support Yoga Gives Back and directly impact the transformation of not only your own life, but that of someone in India, start your Thanksgiving week at Yogaglo, Sunday, November 22, 10:00 A.M. - 12 noon. Some of the teachers include John Sahakian, Felicia Tomasko, Alexandra Aiken and Ally Hamilton; more to be announced. Yogaglo.com; yogagivesback.com.

For more information on Yoga Gives Back or to host a Yoga Gives Back class at your own studio or location, visit: yogagivesback.org or contact yogagivesback@earthlink.net.

Pilgrimage to the Heart of Yoga

Pilgrimage to the Heart of Yoga

A Yoga Gives Back Retreat February 22nd - March 1st, 2015

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A Yoga Gives Back Retreat
February 22nd - March 1st, 2015