Posts Tagged ‘Yoga’
Yoga on the banks of the Ganges River
Breathe in India TOUR
Do you long to experience spiritual India, and do yoga on the banks of the sacred Ganges River?
Breathe in India is for people who long to experience the magic of spiritual India. Participants will watch the Taj Mahal float in a iridescent sunrise, explore the ghats of Varanasi, the world’s oldest city, bask in the sublime beauty of Khajuraho’s temples and do yoga on the banks of the sacred Ganges River in Rishikesh. The tour dates are February 5 to 18, 2011 (with a six-day extension in Rishikesh, Haridwar and Aurovalley Ashram).
For more information on the tours visit New! Tours to India or scroll down for dates, cost and detailed itinerary. Read the rest of this entry »
Announcing BreatheDreamGo Tours
The best way to see India
I am very excited to share my passion for India by taking people to see the places I love. Together with award-winning tour operator Indus Travels, I am presenting two tours this winter in India.
Dream in India (starts Jan. 8, 2011) is for people who want to experience inspirational India and learn travel writing and blogging. Click here to learn more about Dream in India.
Breathe in India (starts Feb 5, 2011) is for people who want to experience the magic of spiritual India and do yoga. Click here to learn more about Breathe in India. And read Golden mornings on the Ganges, my Toronto Star article about what life is like in an ashram in India. We will be visiting both of these ashrams on the Breathe in India tour! Read the rest of this entry »
Film review of Eat, Pray, Love
Eat, Pray, Love is a Julia Roberts movie. Her elegantly chiseled features, distinctive curled upper lip and large, limpid brown eyes dominate the movie. It’s a travelogue all right – a travelogue of Julia’s face and her familiar, and limited, emotional range. Read the rest of this entry »
Eat, Pray, Love contest winners
This summer let yourself go
Thanks to everyone who entered BreatheDreamGo’s Eat, Pray, Love contest. These lucky people, listed below, won a double pass to the preview screenings of the Julia Roberts film Eat, Pray, Love based on the popular best-selling memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert. Read the rest of this entry »
Win free passes to Eat, Pray, Love preview screenings in Canada
Win free passes to see Eat, Pray, Love
NOTE: CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED AS OF AUGUST 9, 2010
This Video Friday, BreatheDreamGo is featuring the trailer to the movie Eat, Pray, Love starring Julia Roberts and 70 free passes to give away to the August 11 preview screenings in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa and Winnipeg. And 10 lucky winners in Toronto will also receive a prize pack along with their passes comprised of a “pray” t-shirt, mala bead bracelet and bookmark.
To enter the contest, click Read the rest of this entry and follow the instructions. Read the rest of this entry »
Video of dance to Krishna chant
Video Friday
Graceful dance, with hoop, to kirtan music
Every summer, ISKCON (International Society of Krishna Consciousness — otherwise known as the “Hare Krishnas”) holds a picnic on Toronto Island called the Festival of India – Feed Your Soul. It’s a wonderful event and I never miss it. Everything is free — even the food! — and people of all ages attend. You can join a free outdoor yoga class, have your astrology chart done, enjoy the vegetarian feast, buy Indian clothes and trinkets and best of all, sing and dance along to incredibly happy, joyful kirtan (sacred) music. The event wraps up on Sunday late afternoon with a rousing kirtan session that everyone joins in. It’s basically a celebration of god, a spiritual rave — and no drugs or alcohol are needed to send everyone in a frenzy of joy. I took this video while everyone else was in the kirtan tent chanting along to the music. More pictures from the event follow.
Photo of the Week: Naga Sadhu
Photo of the Week
Naga Sadhu at the Kumbh Mela, Haridwar, India
I took this photo in the Naga Sadhu’s camp during the Kumbh Mela in April 2010. I went into Haridwar for the day with two men who were also staying at Aurovalley Ashram — Lalit and Jean-Pierre. We spent an amazing day together, hanging out with the sadhus, swimming in the Ganges and having a lot of fun. I could never have had these experiences without the help of Lalit, who is a large, gregarious Punjabi man who speaks Hindi (and English and French). We spent a long time in this camp, where I bonded with this incredibly sweet young man (but I don’t remember his name!). I wrote about another Kumbh Mela day — the main bathing day — in Alone, and at home, at the Maha Kumbh Mela, the largest gathering on earth.
Eat, Pray, Love and India and the quest
The biggest question of our time is not do you believe in god; or is global warming real; it’s where do stand on Eat, Pray, Love? The book about Elizabeth Gilbert’s quest to find “everything” in Italy, India and Bali is a publishing phenomenon: it was an international bestseller with more than seven million copies sold worldwide; and in 2008, Time Magazine named Gilbert one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Today, July 18, is Elizabeth Gilbert’s birthday. She is 41. And I want to salute her.
Video of India festival in India
Video of Kumbh Mela ceremony
This is a video of the aarti (ceremony to honour the Ganges River) that happens each day at dusk in Haridwar, India. I took this during the Kumbh Mela, the largest religious gathering on earth. I was standing on a media platform in Har-ki-Pauri, the sacred centre of Haridwar. Notice how the Indian authorities set up the media platform with a electrical wires marring the view of the aarti! But still, I think I got a lovely shot of women int he crowd when I panned down across the river to the side I was on. Of course, a modest video like this in no way captures the heat, the smells, the enormous size of the crowd and the intense devotional energy that was palpable in the air. It was an amazing experience to be there. A privilege, really.
Authentic travel in India
Authentic travel in India
I have been thinking about the concept of authentic travel for the past few days, ever since seeing the 76-second Travel Show with Robert Reid on this subject. He actually filmed one shot for the show at TBEX, the travel bloggers conference, and I was one of the audience members loudly saying “no, it’s not” in response to his statement: all travel is the quest for difference and the more exotic the better. But even though I went along with the gag, for the video, I do think a lot of people go to India because they perceive it to be so different and exotic. Read the rest of this entry »










