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Embodying BHAKTI - The Yoga of Love: a Series for Women & Non-Binary Activists


We are living in times of increasing and extreme polarization, crisis and genocide against humanity and the planet. It’s easy to react to the suffering from hate, division, fear, avoidance, isolation, numbness or other fight, flight, freeze, appease responses.

We can fortify our resilience through deepening our connection to sacredness.

Through contemplation, practice and embodiment of mystical traditions of South Asia, we can counter painful ideologies of separation.

In this space, we will call in Yoga, poetry, expressive healing arts and contemplative practice to engage with the south asian mystical traditions of Bhakti Yoga, Sufism and Sikhism that hold steadfast an underlying universal principle of LOVE.


EMBODYING BHAKTI:
The Yoga of Love

space to contemplate and practice South Asian mysticism in community with women and non-binary activists

Mondays from June 3rd - August 19th
5pm PT - 6:30pm PT / 6pm - 7:30pm MT via Zoom


THIS is FOR YOU IF you…

  • Identify as a women and non-binary activist who is willing to center BIPOC lineage practice and experience

  • Feel burned out and disconnected, are wanting to cultivate or deepen your relationship to Spirit, the divine or what is sacred

  • Need spiritual connection, grounding and play

SOME OF WHAT YOU’LL RECEIVE…

  • A container to practice and embody another way beyond our automatic threat responses, and to regulate our individual and collective nervous systems

  • Education in indigenous practices and models for generating the energy of love in our collective web

  • A community of like-hearted people who want to be Lovers of the World



The Bhakti tradition was…

a revolutionary movement of reclaiming Spirit from Brahminical gatekeepers.  It was a movement by women,  Dalits, Shudras, and indigenous peoples, the disabled, trans peoples and all those who were and continue to be excluded and oppressed by dominant forces in society that hoard power and privilege.

The Bhakti movement was beautifully and raucously audacious
in its declaration that God belongs to everyone and everyone
belongs to God.   

We all deserve to dance, play, tumble, melt in and with the Divine Essence.  Barriers are social constructs. The Divine pays no heed to the walls we build to keep people apart. 

We use the word “God” in some of these titles and through this series which is meant to be shorthand for the universal essence that we each can have an intimate, personal relationship TO. This space is inclusive to any other words that resonate best with you.

attend one, four, eight or all 12 sessions

SESSION 1:

What is Bhakti?

Monday, June 3rd

We will set our space and share:

What is Bhakti? 

What is Ishtadeva?

SESSION 2:

The Divine Love Relationship

Monday, June 10th

We will reflect on the Divine through relationships of our choice like Divine Mother, Father, Child, Lover, etc.

Muse: Hafiz

Session 3:

How Does the Divine Speak to You?

Monday, June 17th

We will acknowledge and share stories about divine signs and synchronicities

SESSION 4: Raising Our Voices to Sing to the Sacred

Monday, June 24th

We will engage in Kirtan practice

Muse: Parvathy Baul

SESSION 5: Dancing Our Love to Life

Monday, July 1st

We will explore devotion through the movement of our bodies

Muses: Mirabai and Sufism

SESSION 6: Breaking the Rules and Casting Off Shame

Monday, July 8th

We will reflect on how Bhakti subverts casteism  

Muse: Kannappa Nayanar

SESSION 7: God in the Grind

Monday, July 15th

We will recognize how the divine accompanies us in our daily grinds

Muse: Janabai

SESSION 8: Nekkid for God- Vulnerability as Sacred Practice

Monday, July 22nd

We will dance and move,
and remove layers by choice

Muse: Akka Mahadevi

SESSION 9: Rejecting Labels and Breaking Barriers

Monday, July 29th

We will name religion hypocrisy, contemplate limiting labels and barriers between us

Muse: Kabir

SESSION 10: Polyamory with the Gods and Spiritual Inclusion

Monday, August 5th

We will explore how we integrate different spiritual and religious traditions that allows us to embody love

Muse: Guru Nanak

SESSION 11: Imagining a World of Divine Love

Monday, August 12th

We will imagine, dream and share our visions for a world of Divine Love

Muse: Ravidas

SESSION 12: Integration

Monday, August 19th

We will commit to carrying these experiences forward, and practicing love in action

 

your facilitators

Lakshmi Nair (she/her)

Hello, my name is Lakshmi Nair (she/her) . I have been teaching yoga for 20 years in the lands of the Nuché, Tsisistas, and Hinono’ei peoples known colonially as Denver, CO. I have been offering a yoga immersion/teacher training program for BIPOC since 2014 and in 2018, i co-founded Satya Yoga Cooperative, a yoga co-op by and for BIPOC healing.

I like to say that yoga saved my life. When I say that, honestly I mean it was Bhakti Yoga…an intimate personal experience with the Divine that lifted me out of an abusive marriage over 20 years ago. Nurturing that relationship has been at the center of my life ever since. I believe we are in a time when we need to collectively immerse in and call forth Radical Love. I look forward to supporting you in your own unique and intimate relationship with the Divine. .

Chetna Mehta (she/they)

Peace! It’s Chetna. I’m so grateful to be able to co-host this space with my Yoga teacher and dear friend, Lakshmi, whom I trained with via Satya Yoga in 2020.

I’ve been practicing yoga for the last 15 years, teaching yoga for the last 4 years, and facilitating group process for 7 years. I am a student alongside you and eager to amplify Bhakti with the wisdom, graceful accountability and embodied exploration that this series offers.

If you’re here as someone who is willing to do the work to nurture and open your heart (and our hearts together), I am so grateful for you and hope to share space with you soon!

 

INVESTMENT options

drop-in (1 SESSION): $45

(available for sessions 1-11 only)

4 SESSION-Package: $170

($10 savings)

8 SESSION-package: $325

($35 savings)

Full series (12 SESSION): $450

($90 savings)

This fee structure is set up to create a sustainable work model based in principles of resource redistribution and financial accessibility; covering the curriculum development,
class preparation, communication/administration, and facilitation of sessions.