Bhakti Center

SO EXCITED to announce our 300 hour advanced Yoga Teacher Training! 🧘🏻‍♀️🥳🧘🏻‍♂️🤩🧘😍🙏🏼

Over the course of 8 modules, trainees will be immersed in yoga philosophy, lifestyle, culture, meditation practices, holistic health and wellness, and personal spiritual connection to self and others.

Our 300 hour YTT training is split up into 8 modules that you can take individually for your own personal growth as a yogi or you can take them all and build up to your 300 hour certification!

Hone Your Teaching Skills
September 27th - October 6th

Pranayama
October 25th - 27th

Bhakti Philosophy
November 22nd - December 8th

Meditation
January 17th - 19th

Advanced Asana
February 14th - 23rd

Yin Yoga
March 21st - 23rd

Adjustments, Alignment, & Anatomy
April 25th - May 4th

Restorative Yoga
May 23rd - 25th

These trainings will be led by our senior teachers .chandra.das and Jamuna Jaya, as well as an exciting group of guest teachers! 👩‍🏫

There’s also a huge discount if you take the big leap and sign up for the WHOLE training. Scholarships are available as well. 👩🏻‍🎓

Check out all the details in the link in bio and hope to see you in one of our trainings soon! 🔗💖🧘🏻‍♀️

We’re so excited for this unique offering coming next week!

Join .gauranga and for a candid conversation about mental wellness, healthy relationships and a thriving spiritual life. 🙏🏼😌

Drawing from extensive clinical expertise, personal development work and timeless spiritual wisdom, this workshop will be an opportunity to discuss topics sure to open minds and hearts. The evening will include interactive discussion, space for Q&A, and a meditative kirtan. 🩵

Wednesday, September 4th, 6:30 - 8:00pm in-person!

All info and sign up details in the link in bio 🔗

So excited to announce our monthly 6-hour kirtan!!! 💙🌊🎶

Join us THIS Saturday, August 17th, 4 - 10pm 🎤🤩

We’ve intentionally crafted this space to be a dedicated haven for the NYC and broader community to come together and deepen their relationship to the Holy Name through meditative, ecstatic kirtans, and singing songs from the Bhakti tradition.

This program aims to strengthen our internal community and cultivate a prayerful and intentional approach to kirtan. 🙏🏼

NEW YEARS RETREAT IN COSTA RICA w/ & Jamuna Jaya is happening again this year!!! 🇨🇷🏝️🥳

December 28th - January 4th! Comment below 👇🏼 if you’d like to join us and make sure to tag a friend who you want to bring with you! ✈️ 🌎

Expect daily yoga asana classes (both energizing and restorative options), morning meditation and sangas, pranayama, yoga nidra, vision board making, a sankalpa workshop, storytelling, crafts, nature hikes, fresh plant-based meals prepared each day, and plenty of time to connect with each other as well as personal time to reflect and simply be.

Come and join us for a week of deep exploration, rejuvenation, discovery, laughter and fun!!! Get ready to start your 2025 with an open heart and an inspired mind in the most magical place!

We’ve barely shared this retreat and spaces are already going fast! 💨

If you’re interested check out all the info in the LINK IN BIO 🙏🏼🇨🇷

Our Bhakti Center Community Picnic is BACK!!! 🥳 And this year we’re also inviting our sister bhakti community from Podcast led by our brothers and . They will be there and are looking forward to hanging out! 💖🙌🏼

This Sunday July 28th 4-7pm in Central Park.

The Bhakti Center Community Picnic is a chance to appreciate the park, the river, the grass, the sky, the trees, and the company of like-minded souls. It’s an opportunity to spend time with friends and make new friends, as we take in the sun together and then watch it set. 🌞

This is a potluck picnic so please bring a vegan dish to share, lawn games, and friends. 🌿

Just a reminder that we are doing FREE yoga in the park all summer long! 🌳🌞🧘🏻‍♂️🧘🏻‍♀️🌸🌞🌿

Every Wednesday at 6:30pm at Corlears Hook Park. Your favorite bhakti flow classes in a beautiful outdoor setting 💖

Bring your own mat and come do yoga with us! All sign up info is in the link in bio 🔗💛

BLACK FRIDAY SALE!!

35% off all class packs & monthly memberships

5 Class Pack now $74.75
10 Class Pack now $136.50
Monthly Auto-Renew now $104
1 Month Unlimited now $126.75

https://bhakticenter.org/yoga-schedule-pricing/

Please join us to expand our vision and share the yoga of love, through service, in ways we never dreamed of before. We invite you to attend our live, in-person fundraiser on Oct 22nd here in New York City, or join us from anywhere online through live-streaming. The evening will include a special live musical performance, an address by HH Radhanath Swami, a delicious vegetarian meal, and exciting updates of future plans that we need your help and support to bring to life. Please donate now or join us for our live event to be part of the exciting things to come.

Love Means Service Attend our live event on October 22nd: https://bhakticenter.org/love-means-service-2/We are excited to share our future with you.

With Prime Day returning July 12-13 this year, now is a good time to make sure you’ve activated AmazonSmile.



When you shop using Amazon Smile, you can support your spiritual home by having a portion of your purchase donated to The Bhakti Center at no additional cost.



Below are the steps to get started on your desktop and mobile devices. Please tag a friend and share with others to help your purchases support a cause you love.



How to use AmazonSmile using the Amazon app on your mobile phone:

- Open the Amazon Shopping app

- Navigate to the main menu

- Tap on Settings and then select “AmazonSmile”

- Select your charity (The Bhakti Center) and then follow the on-screen instructions to turn ON AmazonSmile in the mobile app

- Once AmazonSmile has been activated in your app, future eligible app purchases will generate a donation for the charity you have selected.



How to use AmazonSmile on a web browser:

- Visit smile.amazon.com

- Sign in with the same account you use for Amazon.com

- Select your charity (The Bhakti Center) and make your purchases

Our motto at the Bhakti Center is that we are ‘Your Spiritual Home’ because we want everyone to feel welcome no matter who they are or where they’re coming from.

This beautiful reflection was brought up this morning by .gauranga in our daily Spirit Matters podcast - that home is a place where you’re simply allowed to be…

To just be yourself, in all the good times and bad times. Home is a place where we’re not being asked to perform for anyone or fit into a mold of how others want us to be. It’s a place where we can just be who we are in all of our complexities.

Please share your ideas about home below 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼 and tag a friend that makes you feel at home 💖🏡

Have you signed up for our upcoming Digital Detox upstate weekend retreat yet? 📱📵🍃🌸🌻🌞

When the weather gets warm we ditch our phones and other devices for three whole days and head upstate to rediscover personal connection to the self, others, and nature. 💖

Send us a DM with the words “digital detox” if you’d like to reserve your spot, and tag a friend or share with anyone who you want to detox with below! 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

Dates: May 19-22 (just a few weeks away!)

At the start of our weekend, we will all set our devices aside and leave them aside throughout the entire three nights and days together. No emails, no midnight YouTube searching, no social media, no selfies (But, if it’s not on social media, did it really happen?…..we will find out!)

We will have daily yoga asana classes, morning meditation and sangas, regular kirtans and storytelling, nature hikes, fresh plant based meals prepared each day, and plenty of time to connect with each other as well as personal time for ourselves. We hope you will take the opportunity to unplug in order to recharge and experience life in a completely new yet inherently human way. 🙏🏼

Leave a big ‘YES’ if you agree that spiritual communities should welcome everybody! Regardless of external differences! 💪🏻💪🏼💪🏽💪🏾💪🏿

The ancient Bhakti yoga text, the Bhagavad Gita, speaks about the principle of Sama Darshina, which means seeing on the platform of the soul which allows us to have equal vision.👁✨

A community who’s foundation is the truth of the soul, therefore, makes no differentiation between species, body, class, race, gender, sexuality, political opinions, and so on because they see that all of those identities are temporary and external. They are able to see that underlying all of that is the true nature and equality of the soul.
🙏🏼

Leave a YES below if you agree! 👇🏼✨and maybe share an experience where this has proven true for you! 💖

In Bhakti there are the principles of preyas and śreyas. Preyas means what is good for us in the moment but not necessarily in the long run. Śreyas, on the other hand, is what is ultimately good for us.

Sometimes we tend to forget the bigger picture and only focus on what is pleasing to us right now. Spirituality asks us to consider what is best for us in the long run, even if it might not bring us an immediate sense of gratification.

Letting go of control can be the most freeing thing we can do sometimes.

Sometimes we just need to focus on what we’d like to see, rather than dwelling on what we don’t want to see.

Love is more than a feeling. It’s a spiritual practice we work at, everyday. It challenges our preconceptions about others, it forces us to expand our worldview and mindsets, and it invites us to invite others in when our normal inclination may be to push away.

Love requires a space for everyone.
And, most importantly, when we realize our limited capacities for love in this world, we have the opportunity to connect to the Source of love, both within and beyond ourselves, making us simply conduits for an eternal love to flow towards others.

Tag someone to remind them of their essence ❤️👇

Have you signed up for our upcoming kirtan training yet?

We are keeping this group small and have a few open spots and want to make sure you don’t miss out on this first-of-its-kind opportunity with the Bhakti Center (and one that may not come around again for a while).

Send us a DM with the words “kirtan training” if you’d like to reserve your spot, and tag a friend or share with anyone that this may be perfect for.

Dates: April 2-9, 2022 (just a few weeks away!)

The goal of this training is to empower and equip each participant with the confidence and ability to lead their own kirtan. The immersive journey is designed to give you fundamental skills, tools and knowledge that will take you deeper into your kirtan experience. Over the course of a full week, you will learn how to play instruments, lead kirtan on your own, and develop a much more personal relationship to the art of kirtan itself by diving into the deeper layers of kirtan as a spiritual practice. Elements of the training will include exploring the history and meaning of kirtan, how to develop the devotional qualities that can enhance your kirtan offerings, learning rhythm, and how to play harmonium and kartals (hand cymbals). No previous kirtan experience or musical ability is necessary

Leave a YES if you agree with any of these 🙌🌟👇

The questions we ask determine the consciousness we develop, which is why a huge part of spiritual life is learning to evolve the way we ask questions, along with how we seek the answers…..

Children and how we educate them are our hope for a better and more peaceful future.
Leave a 💖 if you agree!
(A few shots of our pilgrims in India last month visiting the English medium school ).
📸 .visuals

Healthy spiritual development always involves personal character development. The way we treat others stems from how we view others, which stems from our understanding of the self, God and the world around us.

The more power and influence we have, the more critical our character development becomes, and the greater our responsibility to lead with compassion.

Drop a ❤️ for this young kirtan warrior.

She’s one of the leading students at the school program in Maharashtra, India and not only plays the Mrdanga drum so expertly but sings beautifully with such devotion.

If you’d like to learn the sacred art of Kirtan, please send us a DM or click the link in our bio for an 8-day immersive kirtan training in Mexico, led by .gauranga and .chandra.yoga

Dates: April 2-9, 2022

Hope to have you with us 🙏🏼🙏🏼❤️❤️🎶🎶

Leave a YES if you think that spiritual and material well being can serve each other, rather than be at odds with each other 🙏👇❤️

Sometimes we think we have to suffer materially in order to make spiritual progress, or that to look after our physical health goes against spiritual principles somehow.

But the reality is that when we treat our bodies as a sacred temple for the soul that resides within, and we take proper care to be physically, mentally and emotionally aligned and energized, then we can dedicate ourselves to spiritual work with complete absorption and vigor. And when we are spiritually nourished and inspired, we can bring an elevated consciousness to our material engagements.

In this way, rather than trying to find a material and spiritual balance, we can find a complete spiritual integration in every act and expression. When we are aligned to a higher purpose, everything can harmonize and work together.

Just saying, there’s gotta be a place for everybody. If you can’t find one, think harder (or maybe, step aside and make some space), because spirituality is an all-swim activity. Everyone gets a lane.

Tag someone you hate 👇 (just kidding…..please, don’t)

Words can be powerful, and sometimes we get into arguments about certain things because we are using the same words but in a completely different way as somebody else (ever have that experience?)

God, love, religion, spirituality, family, etc…. all of these words can mean very different things for different people: some very positive and uplifting, and some very degrading and oppressive.

Before we get into arguments, or before we label people as friends or enemies, good or bad, with us or against us, let’s make sure we’re talking about the same things, and let’s make sure we aren’t using things like spirituality to divide us, separate us, or put us against each other. Because if I’m practicing spirituality in a way that is making me more hateful towards others, I may need to reconsider my approach, along with my understanding of spirituality all together.