Marieke's Art of Living

TOUR LEADER

To be led by Marieke Brugman, this program combines her two greatest passions: a love of India that has evolved over the many years of leading cultural tours to the subcontinent with her growing interest in yoga. Most days there will be 2 yoga sessions with a variety of teachers and across a range of yoga disciplines.

YOGA TEACHERS

Saraswathi Vasudevan began her journey in the path of yoga and healing 20 years ago. She studied and trained in the Classical tradition of Yoga that is strongly founded in the teachings of Patanjali and specializes in adapting yoga to the unique needs and abilities of each individual. Through YogaVahini, she aims at preserving and sharing the ancient wisdom of Yoga to address the needs and challenges of modern life. She holds two Masters Degrees (in Nutrition and Psychology) and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Yoga. She has served as a yoga teacher, trainer and therapist for almost two decades at an internationally renowned institute of yoga in Chennai and has also been actively involved in yoga research bringing the much-needed scientific perspective to yoga therapy.
She has touched the lives of hundreds of students both within India and abroad.
She is gifted with an innate capacity to establish deeply nurturing connections with her students that enables and empowers them to heal from within.

Subjects Saraswathi will work with during the first week include:
• the traditional wisdom of yoga combined with an eclectic array of mind-body techniques to aid in the understanding of the human system that facilitate positive change.
• how to develop an in-depth understanding of who you are – as each student has a unique physiology, skeletal-muscular structure, mental & emotional patterns and energy levels.
• Yoga as a personal journey towards wellness, healing and self-mastery by evolving personalized yoga programs that enable you to heal from within and realize your highest potential.
• a Study of the Sutras from a fresh perspective that throws light on the practical, simple, relevant effective ways we can change our actions in daily life.
Additional to instructing all the yoga sessions whether they be meditation, pranayama, asanas, theoretical discussions, philosophical investigation.
Saras will also make herself available to students for private consultations.
One initial private session is provided to each student for whom Saras will design a personalized practice based on each person’s unique needs and capabilities.

Marieke’s colleague Baxter has trained with Sivananda in Trivandrum and has evolved a strong interest in anatomy, yoga therapy and yogic nutrition as part of her teaching practice.
Baxter will also accompany the tour and teach during the second half of the journey.

Baxter has developed a loyal following of students on the Mornington Peninsula, a host of private clients, works with individuals, groups, corporates, organisations and schools in class settings, one-on-ones, seminars, workshops and home-study courses.
This summer following the succes of the last 2 years, she will once again offer Yoga in the Park in several inspiring seaside and park locations.
Two years ago Yoga in the Park was launched and ran in 5 locations across the Mornington Peninsula over summer, involving 15 teachers and demonstration students to deliver Yoga to over 1000 participants.

T Krishnamacharya is credited as “the father of modern yoga”- Yogi, healer, linguist, Vedic scholar, expert in the Indian Schools of thought, researcher, author... in other words, a legend. Born in 1888 in a remote Indian village, T Krishnamacharya who lived to be over hundred years old was one of the greatest yogis of the modern era and learned yoga for nearly eight years from his Guru, Rama Mohan Brahmachari in a cave in Tibet.
If today, yoga is an inherent part of the everyday lives of millions of people across the world, it is due in large measure to the pioneering efforts of T Krishnamacharya who revived yoga in the early 20th century. While preserving ancient wisdom and reviving lost teachings, Krishnamacharya was also a revolutionary innovator who developed and adapted yoga practices that would offer health, mental clarity and spiritual growth to any individual in the modern-day world. By integrating the ancient teachings of Yoga and Indian philosophy with modern-day requirements, Krishnamacharya created yoga practices that are as accurate and powerful as they are practical and relevant.

"You may have never have heard of him, but Tirumalai Krishnamacharya influenced or perhaps even invented your yoga. Whether you practice the dynamic series of Pattabhi Jois, the refined alignments of BKS Iyengar, the classical postures of Indra Devi, or the customized vinyasa of Desikachar, your practice stems from one source: a five-foot, two-inch Brahmin born more than one hundred years ago in a small south Indian Village".

TKV Desikachar, son and student of T Krishnamacharya had the privilege of living and studying with T Krishnamacharya from 1960 until Krishnamacharya's death in 1989. For over 45 years, TKV Desikachar has devoted himself to teaching yoga at KYM in Chennai, and making it relevant to people from all walks of life and with all kinds of abilities. His teaching method is based on Krishnamacharya's fundamental principle that yoga must always be adapted to an individual's changing needs in order to derive the maximum therapeutic benefit. TKV Desikachar continues to oversee KYM's work in therapy as well as training and guiding the faculty of KYM.

Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois father of Ashtanga yoga was born on the full moon day of July, 1915, Guru Purnima day. His father was an astrologer and a priest, who acted as the pujari for many of the families in the village. From an early age, as most brahmin boys, Pattabhi Jois was taught the Vedas and Hindu rituals.
When Guruji was 12 years old, he attended a yoga demonstration given by Sri T. Krishnamacharya at his middle school in Hassan. The next day he went to meet the great yogi who had given the demonstration, and for the next two years, Guruji learned from his Guru every day. When Guruji turned 14, he had his brahmin thread ceremony. Krishnamacharya left Hassan to travel and teach, and Guruji left his village to go to Mysore. In time, The Maharaja of Mysore, Krishna Rajendra Wodeyar, became the great patron of Krishnamacharya after he cured the Maharaja of his illness and built him a yogashala (school of yoga) on the grounds of the Palace Art Gallery.
From 1937 until 1973, Guruji earned his professorship at the University, granting him the title of Vidvan. He married, in a love marriage, Savitramma, who came from a long line of Sanskrit scholars. Her grandfather was the Sanskrit and philosophy teacher to the last Shankaracharya of Kanchi, Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati. They had three children, Manju, Ramesh, and Saraswati. Saraswati is the mother of Sharath, born in 1971, who is now Guruji's co-director of their school in Mysore.)

Other disciples of Krishnamacharya included his son-in-law, BKS Iyengar who became known in the West through his classic text Light on Yoga, first published in 1966 and never out of print since then. His Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute (RIMYI) established on January 19, 1975 is based at Pune south of Mumbai and is the source of Iyengar Yoga. At a fundamental level, Iyengar pays particular attention to the correct alignment of the body and incorporates the use of props.

History of Sivananda
One of the great yogis, Adi Shankaracharya, rediscovered the ancient vedantic teachings, reestablishing the sacred path of yoga throughout India.
The Saraswati lineage, from which Swami Sivananda hails, is one branch of a whole tree of yoga teachings which have descended from the teachings of Adi Shankaracharya.
Swami Sivananda, born in 1887 is regarded as one of the great saints of the 21st century. He trained as a medical doctor, and this set his course in helping others and fueled his burning desire to serve the greater good. He tirelessly worked and wrote medical journals, journeying all over India and Malaysia. In 1922, he became Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh and founded the Divine Life Society. He had many disciples and wrote over 300 books on the teachings and practices of yoga. Swami Sivananda left his body in 1963 leaving many disciples who have continued to spread his teachings.
We will visit the Sivananda Ashram near Madurai.