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Yoga Vacation Program
June 2 — 11, 2022

Swami Swaroopananda's Birthday Celebration

Science, Art, and Consciousness

Swami Swaroopananda, Shri Mukundan Santhanam, Jeffrey Lloyd, Tanya Hanna, Menas Kafatos, Silvia Nakkach, Suba Ramesh Parmar, Prantik Kundu, and Senior Staff of the Yoga Retreat

If you can’t join us on-site for this auspicious event, please do join us virtually and celebrate with us from the comfort of your home here!

We invite all new, returning, and longtime members of the Sivananda community to come together for a joyful celebration in honor of the Sivananda lineage and the celebration of the birthday of the ashram’s director and acharya, Swami Swaroopananda.

We will enjoy Classical Indian Dance, a special Q & A on Yoga and Spiritual Life with Swami Swaroopananda, talks on science and consciousness, musical offerings, and Sivananda teachings from senior ashram staff.

With a special birthday puja on the morning of June 7, a birthday feast, gift-opening ceremonies, addresses by Swamiji’s devotees from the ashram and around the world, and a most amazing birthday cake… we encourage you to be with us during this joyful time.


MISSION STATEMENT

The vision behind this symposium is to celebrate Unity in Diversity by gathering spiritual leaders from all traditions, musicians, artists, dancers, scientists, philosophers and scholars. We gather these variety of minds to expand our knowledge and horizons. Doing so is in accordance with the mission of Swami Sivananda and Swami Vishudevananda. This mission of Unity in Diversity is now the foundation of the Sivananda organization, of which Swami Swaroopananda-ji is one of the most senior spiritual leaders.


SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE

Discover the 10 days and nights of wonder and see what the ashram has in store for both in-person and virtual attendees of the symposium held in celebration of Swami Swaroopananda’s birthday and the Sivananda lineage. Click on the Daily Schedule tab below (next to the Presenters tab) to view the details!

Swami Swaroopananda is a senior disciple of Swami Vishnudevananda. A practicing yogi from a very young age, Swami Swaroopananda has dedicated his life to the practice and teaching of yoga. He taught in Yoga Teacher Training Courses around the world and is currently teaching advanced yoga philosophy courses and lectures internationally. He is Director of the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat and acharya (spiritual director) for the Sivananda centers and ashrams in the Bahamas and the Middle East. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres.

Shri Mukundan Santhanam was born in a Hereditary Vaishnavaa priest family (Bhattars) in Thiru Naavalur, Villupuram District, TN, India. He was initiated in religious and Vedic practices from childhood. He belongs to the Vaikaanasa Sect of the Vaishnavaas and conducts all types of Purva and Apara ceremonies. With over 29 years of experience in various religious and spiritual rituals he has travelled widely for various religious ceremonies and festivals on special invitation throughout in India, as well internationally, and has settled in the USA since 2008. His specializations include Alankaaram to various Deities, Homams, Temple Rituals, and Pooja Vidhis. He has been awarded the Title of “Alankara Rathnakaram” by Shri Maha Vishnu Venkateshwara Devasthanam, Columbo, Sri Lanka in 2002 and the Title of “Alankara Bhooshanam” by Tamilnadu Archakarkal Sangham.in 2004. Mukundan Santhanam speaks Tamil, Telugu, English and Hindi.

Jeffrey Lloyd was born in New Providence, The Bahamas. He is the former Minister of Education in The Bahamas Parliament. He is a leader in Christianity and an active member in his Roman Catholic church. He is also a practitioner of Siddha yoga. Mr. Lloyd is married to the former Michelle Donna Marie Mitchell. He is the proud father of 5 daughters and also has 5 grand children.

Tanya Hanna is a Bahamian music icon as well as a producer, songwriter, musician, and vocalist. She has toured in the Caribbean, the United States, Canada, and Hong Kong. Tanya has performed with top R&B artist Jeffrey Osbourne, as well as Grammy winners Jeff Haynes, Gary Haase, Roger Ryan, Stan Getz, and Chick and Gail Corea. A recipient of many awards, She also a wellness advocate and is actively involved in her local community.

Menas Kafatos, PhD, is a quantum physicist, cosmologist, climate-change researcher and philosopher who works extensively on consciousness. He studied with renown physicist Philip Morrison at M.I.T., who was a student of J. Robert Oppenheimer. He has 47 years of experience in undergraduate and graduate teaching and research, and he holds seminars and workshops for individuals and organizations on the natural laws that apply everywhere and are the foundations of the universe.

Menas is the Fletcher Jones Endowed Professor of Computational Physics and Director, Institute for Earth, Computing, Human and Observing (Institute for ECHO) at Chapman University in California. He is member of the Romanian Academy of Science and the Korean Academy of Science and Technology (KAST); an international scholar with the Division of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering also serving as an advisor on the BK21 Plus Eco-Leader Education Center at Korea University in Seoul, Korea, an affiliated researcher at the National Observatory of Athens, Greece as well as international scholar at several countries.

Menas has authored 345-plus articles and published or co-authored 22 books, including The Conscious Universe and Looking In, Seeing Out, and has many social media and blogs. He is also co-author with Deepak Chopra of the New York Times bestseller You Are the Universe, which has now been translated into 20 different languages, the latest being Greek and Korean. Menas is often interviewed for international television networks, newspapers, and radio.

Silvia Nakkach, MA, MMT, a pioneer in the field of sound and transformation of consciousness, is a Grammy-nominated musician, an award-winning composer, and a former music psychotherapist. She is the founder and artistic director of Vox Mundi School of Sound and the Voice, an international project devoted to teaching and preserving sacred musical traditions. Silvia has pioneered the integration of yogic chanting with somatic and music psychotherapy, and teaches at the California Institute of Integral Studies, where she created and coordinates the Sound and Music Healing Certificate program. She studied Indian classical ragas with the late maestro Ali Akbar Khan for more than 30 years and has released 12 CDs. Her latest book is Free Your Voice.

Suba Ramesh Parmar, Founder, Shubanjali School of Performing Arts, NJ is a highly sought after dancer, teacher, and choreographer, and a proponent of the vintage Pandanallur style of Bharatanatyam. She is the recipient of many prestigious awards including the Presidential Scholar’s “Most Influential Teacher Award” (2015) by the Obama Administration and the most recent “Lifetime Achievement Award” by Spandana, NJ. She has received rave reviews for her exemplary original dance productions, including ‘Santa N’ Shiva,’ Rendezvous with Shubanjali’, ‘Splash the Wonder,’ ‘Tales of Krishna,’ ‘Chauladevi,’ ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ ‘Lured by the Myths’, ‘Oneness’, ‘Tribute to the Legends’, ‘Tattva Tapas Tejas”, TATHASTU, among many others. She has been regularly performing for the Sivananda Organizations worldwide for over 29 Years in US, Canada, Bahamas, South America and Europe.  She is an excellent storyteller and through the medium of Indian classical dance, brings to life the philosophy and stories from Mythology making them understandable to global audiences.

https://www.facebook.com/Shubanjali/

shubanjali.org

Prantik Kundu is a neuroscientist and biophysicist with specialities in magnetic resonance imaging and psychiatric disease. A senior scientist in a startup to make MRI technology more accessible, he draws from years of expertise from many years in academia and research.
He was an assistant professor in psychiatry and radiology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine for several years, where he still serves as adjunct professor.

Prantik received his training at the Brain Mapping Unit at the University of Cambridge, UK, and the Section on Functional Imaging Methods at the National Institute of Mental Health in Washington, DC. His papers have been published in Cerebral Cortex, NeuroImage, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Kundu also has strong interests in Indic philosophy, having completed an undergraduate independent study on the theoretical implications of Kali and having been a Research Fellow at the Mind and Life Summer Institute, where the interface between the Buddhist philosophy and the neurosciences is investigated and practiced.

Swami Hridyananda is a direct disciple of Swami Vishnudevananda and senior staff at the  Yoga Retreat. She has spent over 35 years teaching different aspects of yoga, as well as teaching in Sivananda Yoga Teacher Training Courses. She also teaches meditation, thought power, chanting, and supports individuals on their inner transformative journey.

Swami Brahmananda is Manager of the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat and senior staff of the Sivananda organization. A long-time practitioner of yoga, he regularly teaches yoga philosophy and meditation for the Sivananda Yoga Teacher Training Courses as well as meditation immersion courses. He is a much-loved, inspiring, and knowledgeable teacher.

Swami Paramananda is the manager of the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Ranch and longtime teacher of Sivananda Yoga Teacher Trainings in the Bahamas, New York, and India. A much-loved teacher admired for his humor, warmth, and devotion to the practice, he seamlessly weaves classical yoga teachings into modern daily life.

Jnaneshwari Chaitanya is a senior staff member and teacher of the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat. An experienced and devoted practitioner, she is an inspiring and insightful teacher of Yoga and Vedanta in Yoga teachers training courses and many of the ashram programs. Jnaneshwari Chaitanya is known for her clear and pure way of communicating the knowledge and its application in daily life, and is especially known for her skill in teaching the Bhagavad Gita.

Rukmini Chaitanya is a senior staff member of the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat Bahamas, and the personal assistant to Swami Swaroopananda, the Acharya, or spiritual director of the Ashram. She regularly teaches the Bhagavad Gita during the Sivananda Yoga Teacher training as well as other courses on the Bhagavad Gita, Vedanta, positive thinking, meditation, and yoga philosophy.

Rukmini Chaitanya is known for her enthusiastic and inspiring teaching style as well as for her devotion to the lineage and the scriptures. She is dedicated to each of her students and has an innate desire to share knowledge with them. She brings a great deal of clarity to every topic and is highly appreciated for her capacity to unfold complicated topics and present them in a coherent and pure way.

Krishna Chaitanya is a physical therapist, senior staff member of the Yoga Retreat, and senior instructor of Hatha Yoga in the Teacher Training Course and other courses. He has taught for more than 20 years and specializes in working with the elderly population. He teaches Adaptive Yoga, Chair Yoga, and has many years experience helping individuals with all kinds of physical limitations.

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Parvati Chaitanya is a senior staff member of the ashram with many years of experience teaching, studying, and practicing yoga. She currently serves the ashram as caretaker of the gardens.

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Narayani is an advanced Sivananda Yoga teacher (RYT 500), staff member at the ashram, and a hatha yoga instructor in yoga teacher trainings. She is a much loved teacher, teaching with love, devotion and great clarity.

June 2

evening satsang
Science, Reality and Everyday Life | Menas Kafatos

June 3

morning satsang
Cultivating Willpower Through Yoga | Jnaneshwari Chaitanya

noon workshop
Creating a Yogic Practice and Lifestyle at Home | Pranava Chaitanya

evening satsang
The Big Questions of Physics | Prantik Kundu

June 4

noon workshop
Creating a Yogic Practice and Lifestyle at Home | Pranava Chaitanya

2pm workshop
Free Your Voice Workshop | Silvia Nakkach and Joss Jaffe

evening satsang
Neuroscience, the Brain, and Consciousness | Prantik Kundu

June 5

morning satsang
The Teacher, the Student: The Merging of Science and Spirituality | Menas Kafatos

noon workshop
Creating a Yogic Practice and Lifestyle at Home | Pranava Chaitanya

evening satsang
Musical Offering |Silvia Nakkach and Joss Jaffe

June 6

morning satsang
Who Am I: The Practice of Vedantic Inquiry | Rukmini Chaitanya

noon workshop
Pranayama Workshop | Swami Shambhudevananda

evening satsang
Musical Offering |Silvia Nakkach and Joss Jaffe

June 7

morning satsan
Swami Swaroopananda’s Birthday Puja | Shri Mukundabhattar Santhanam

noon workshop
Pranayama Workshop | Swami Shambhudevananda

evening satsang
Bharatanatyam Dance Performance (Classical Indian Dance) | Suba Ramesh Parmar with Sapna Rajesh and Sanjana Rajesh

June 8

noon workshop
Bharatanatyam Dance Workshop (Classical Indian Dance | Suba Ramesh Parmar with Sapna Rajesh and Sanjana Rajesh

evening satsang
Yoga and Christianity | Jeffrey Lloyd

June 9

morning satsang
How to Deepen Your Practice with Daily Sadhana | Jnaneshwari Chaitanya

noon workshop
How to Cultivate Virtues and Eradicate Vices | Swami Paramananda

evening satsang
Questions and Answers on Yoga and Spiritual Life | Swami Swaroopananda

June 10

morning satsang
How to Purify the Mind with the Practice of Yamas and Nyamas | Swami Brahmananda

noon workshop
How to Cultivate Virtues and Eradicate Vices | Swami Paramananda

evening satsang
The Power of Prayer | Swami Hridyananda

June 11

noon workshop
Positive Thinking in Daily Life | Swami Shambhudevananda

evening satsang
When You Fall Into the Sea | Music Concert with Paul and Tanya Hanna

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