Spiritual Retreats

Divine Love is REAL!

February 18 – 24, 2012

Supreme Nature in Costa Rica, Sat Yoga Ashram

It has become a spiritual cliché to say that God is Love. Yet it remains eternally true that the essence of the Supreme Real is pure blissful, creative, intelligent love. But we are veiled from the overwhelming power and joy of this ultimate fact by the illusory suffering of the ego. Since all of us are manifestations of the Supreme Being, divine love is our own inmost nature and essential Self.

In this retreat, we will focus on becoming impeccable receptacles of the pure energy of divine love. The obstacles to love in the form of egoic defense mechanisms and narcissistic psychic fragments will be surrendered to God and dissolved. Once established in the blissful state of perfect grace, we will practice functioning as transmitters of love, as healing catalysts, and channels of the infinite creative benevolent intelligence.

Each of us is a microcosm, a drop of pure nectar from the Ocean of Love! Now is the time for all the drops to be absorbed back into the Ocean. Our true Self is calling us Home! After this retreat, you will never be the same. You will realize your Self as the Ocean present within the drop, you will realize non-duality even within the apparent duality of the world. You will see through all the illusions-with the power of divine love!

Don’t miss this opportunity to break through the veil and regain your forgotten but true Being. Now is the moment to re-discover that divine love is Real!

This unique retreat will offer the following:

joyful-ashram-communion • 6 nights shared accommodations in our tranquil and attractive bhavans (abodes/cabins)

• 3 healthful vegetarian meals a day, morning chai (tea) and snacks

• Profound teachings to understand and dissolve the ego structure that prevents you from realizing your loving nature

• Daily deep meditative practices for transcending the ego and touching into states of divine love

• Asana (physical yoga) practice and Nada yoga (mantra chanting and sacred singing)

• Rejuvenating hikes in nature & excursions to our sacred river

• Guided tour of permaculture and sustainable projects

• Creative writing classes

• Meditative walks in the surrounding beauty of our ashram land

• Joyful participation in the ashram community

A Sample Day at a Sat Yoga Retreat

sattvic-life 3:45 am Wake up bell

4:00 am Early morning silent meditation and spiritual teaching

5:30 am Enjoy morning chai and a quiet space for continued meditation and reflection in the meditation hall or outside in our gardens

6:30 am Sunrise asana class overlooking the beautiful valley of Arunachala (our sacred mountain)

7:30 am Breakfast of fresh fruits, cereals, toast and delicious hot dishes

8:30 am Personal time

9:00 am Morning activity: outdoor excursions, meditations, and classes

12:00 pm Personal time or karma yoga (volunteer service) in the kitchen

2:30 pm Gourmet vegetarian lunch followed by a dessert and coffee or tea

3:30 pm Personal reflection time or karma yoga (volunteer service) clean up

5:00 pm Evening class and meditation

7:00 pm Light nutritious soup dinner

Contribution

Sat Yoga is a wisdom school and spiritual community that operates on an economy of love and generosity. Your donations and the voluntary service of students enable us to continue our work. All contributions are used for offering free classes, inspirational and educational activities, our wisdom-filled website, and building our ashram and retreat center. We also use donation funds to further research projects in permaculture and spiritual transformation that are shared with the wider community of people interested in solving the problems of the world. Sat Yoga sponsors a growing group of volunteers who selflessly serve the community and work diligently on purification of their souls. We sincerely hope that our efforts will benefit your spiritual development, bring you joy and insight, and inspire you to achieve your own highest potential. Your support of Sat Yoga is greatly appreciated.

Love and Generosity in Costa Rica, Arunachala Keeping with the tradition and giving spirit of an authentic ashram, our visitors are all expected to share in the daily karma yoga (volunteer service). Those paying at the Sat Yoga Community tier may be assigned to extra duties and occasionally will be asked to sacrifice participation in a planned activity if needed.

Cost: $950*
* Note, this price is for international visitors. Local residents and Sat Yoga community members please inquire about modified prices.

Contributions include: all retreat meals and snacks, accommodations in shared rooms/bathrooms, meditation gatherings, teachings, asana classes, various transformational activities, karma yoga and nature walks. Transportation is not included in this price.

Accommodations

Nestled among flourishing gardens and panoramic mountain views, our six comfortable bhavans (spiritual abodes) offer the ideal space to embark on a transformative inner journey. Each simple yet tastefully designed room provides comfortable sleeping space for two*, a private balcony and large windows that overlook the natural beauty of the surrounding environment. The soothing sounds of nearby streams and sweet songs of native birds create the perfect conditions for deep meditation and relaxation.

*All prices are based on same-gender shared accommodations.

transformative-environment

Meals

Radiante Vegetarian Food Costa Rica

Our vegetarian meals are prepared daily by the mindful and loving hands of Radha’s Kitchen. Tender, radiant greens are picked every morning to preserve freshness and the nourishment from the sun and earth. Weekly visits to the food forest provide us with staples such as malanga (taro root) and banana bunches. As much as possible, we try to acquire fresh food items that we don’t yet cultivate from neighboring farmers and on our Thursday trips to the local feria (farmer’s market).

Karma Yoga

Sat Yoga retreat has the power to make us whole. This power comes from the combination of meditation, spiritual teachings, and service to the spiritual community done in a state of karma yoga, egoless and joyful spontaneity and love. Karma yoga is action done while your attention is immersed in meditative silence that is detached from any particular outcome or result. In this way, all work becomes effortless and enjoyable. Only when a community is filled with karma yogis, and the love of karma yoga is spread by example, can an ashram be sustainable.

We invite all visitors on Sat Yoga retreats to feel the blissful experience of being part of a true ashram community through daily participation in karma yoga. Throughout your stay, you will have many opportunities to gather with fellow yogis to contribute time and energy to the success of our retreat, learn new skills, get to know others on the path and enjoy the satisfaction of selfless service. If you have any special talents that you can share with our community, please specify that on your booking form.

ashram-community

For more information or to register please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

View the eflyer of our upcoming February Retreat: Divine Love Is Real! - and forward it to your friends and relatives who would benefit from this sacred gathering.

Divine Love Teachings by Shunyamurti

If you would like to learn more about Sat Yoga’s philosophy and teachings about Divine Love, please visit the following links.

Wise-love (Mp3, Audio Podcast)

Student Comment: You wrote an essay this week on love and wisdom and the need for the two to be combined. And I wanted to know if you could expand a little on this “wise-love.”

“Love is your true nature,” reveals Shunyamurti, the spiritual director of the Sat Yoga Institute in Costa Rica. “But the ego defends against love . . . [and] it doesn’t feel safe loving in a loveless world. And so it puts its own love in the dungeon and tries to forget it’s there. And lives with as thick a skin as it can produce. But the thicker the skin, the more that affects the intelligence, and our ability to think also becomes thickened and more dense and more incapable of maintaining a very active state of intellectual creativity; all those defenses wear down that capacity.” But once the repressed, unbearable elements of one’s ego have been purified, “then the kundalini, which is simply a channel of love, rises, opens the heart, opens the mind, and flows out into the universe and you become one with the universe; you realize there are no boundaries. And all of this is love, but right now in a hidden form.” Recorded on the evening of Thursday, November 11, 2010.

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The Purification of Love (SPIRITUAL Essay written by shunyamurti)

The goal of spiritual development is the purification of love. Love is our innermost essence, our nature, and our fulfillment. But the love that is the very life energy of our Being is occluded by the false consciousness that developed in childhood and which has been petrified by unconscious conflicts, adaptation to social norms, and entrancement by ideologically determined limitations of our horizons. To free our minds from such constraints and open our intellects and hearts to our vast untapped potential, as individuals and as a united community of God-realized beings, is the focus of aspiration of the great work of self-transformation.

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