Join our journey to the source of Yoga!

Knut has been trav­el­ling to India for more than 20 years and it s final­ly time to bring along a select group of peo­ple to ven­ture to the birth­place of yoga togeth­er. Knut is delight­ed to be joined by Ben­ji on this trip. There­fore this is also an oppor­tu­ni­ty for all of you to recon­nect with Ben­ji who by then will have been trav­el­ling through Asia for the some time and hence been off teach­ing in Vien­na for some time!

Please note: this is a low key and per­son­al expe­ri­ence, this is not an all inclu­sive lux­u­ry ven­ture, this is India! 

PS: our retreat might also be the per­fect start­ing point for spend­ing more time in India. If you want to spend time in India after our retreat you have the chance to expe­ri­ence every­thing from beach­es in Goa to tem­ples and var­i­ous archi­tec­tur­al won­ders (say Taj Mahal etc.), indulge in the most amaz­ing culi­nary and cul­tur­al expe­ri­ences and explore a sub­con­ti­nent with so many dif­fer­ence facets. Knut will hap­pi­ly help you with any onward trav­el if needed.

Rishikesh will open your heart and talk to your soul

Our retreat will take place in Rishikesh, dubbed the birth­place of yoga. We reserved a prac­tice room in Par­math Nike­tan (here you ll find a few pics) and you will also have the pos­si­bil­i­ty to stay at the ashram pro­vid­ing for an ashram expe­ri­ence while still be guid­ed by Knut and Ben­ji. Rishikesh is locat­ed at the holy riv­er Gan­ga and has been a holy site and des­ti­na­tion of pil­grim­ages for cen­turies. You will hence spend time in the lap of the majes­tic Himalayas and amongst the divine ener­gies of the saints, sages and rishis who have per­formed sacred med­i­ta­tion and sad­hana in this holy land.

Rishikesh is com­mon­ly referred to as the ‘yoga cap­i­tal of the world’ and right­ly so. The des­ti­na­tion is a hub of vis­i­tors who come here to learn yoga and med­i­ta­tion. Rishikesh has numer­ous ashrams, some of which are inter­na­tion­al­ly recog­nised as cen­tres of philo­soph­i­cal stud­ies, yoga and oth­er ancient Indi­an tra­di­tions of well­ness. There are ample oppor­tu­ni­ties for you to find treat­ments, mas­sages, class­es etc.

our program

The pro­gram will allow for enough time to explore the sur­round­ings of this mag­i­cal place and enjoy the amaz­ing atmos­phere of Rishikesh and the Gan­ga river.

Our day starts with an extend­ed morn­ing prac­tice includ­ing asana, med­i­ta­tion and inputs from the yog­ic phi­los­o­phy and his­tor­i­cal the­o­ry led by Knut. In the ses­sion Knut will pro­vide ways to include/utilize yog­ic phi­los­o­phy in every­day urban life. Our morn­ing ses­sion will take between 2 and 3 hours with a break if needed.

The after­noon ses­sion with Ben­ji will dive deep­er into var­i­ous aspects of asana prac­tice, anato­my and so on. The after­noon ses­sion will take up to 2 hours.

The whole yoga pro­gram will hence be more than 30 hours, enough to work on your tapas:)

On sev­er­al days (most like­ly day 1, 3 and 5) you will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to join excur­sions explor­ing tem­ples, local sights and the sheer vast­ness of Indi­an every­day life. You will also have the chance to join sat­sangs (talks/discussions) with local schol­ars and swamis as well as evening prayers and spir­i­tu­al gatherings.

Each evening you will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty (free of charge) to join the Gan­ga Aar­ti cer­e­mo­ny at the banks of the Gan­ga at Par­marth Niketan.

As per ashram poli­cies we will prac­tice wear­ing white which — accord­ing to pri­or par­tic­i­pants — is not only easy to orga­nize but ensures a spe­cial atmos­phere and presents to prob­lem at all. White clothes can be bought in many shops near­by if needed.

The first day of our retreat will be March 29th 2025, the last day will be April 5th 2025. The first ses­sion on March 29th 2025 will start at 16.00, the last (morn­ing) ses­sion on April 5th will end in time for catch­ing the after­noon flight to Del­hi and hence an evening flight back home if needed.

accommodation

Rooms at the ashram retain the divine sim­plic­i­ty of ashram life, while being equipped with the nec­es­sary mod­ern ameni­ties. Rooms have at least 2 beds (most have 3 or 4), fans with cool­ers, attached pri­vate bath­rooms with West­ern and / or Indi­an style toi­lets.  Bed linen and tow­els are pro­vid­ed. You will of course need to bring your per­son­al toi­letries. We will also pro­vide a list of items to con­sid­er bring­ing to spice up your ashram life.:)

Please make a gen­er­al inquiry to the ashram via https://www.parmarth.org/reservations/ for your accom­mo­da­tion ref­er­enc­ing “Knut Rakus Retreat”.

The stan­dard dona­tion for accom­mo­da­tion (as of 2022, prices might have gone up slighte­ly) are:

Block	Room Type	Dona­tion Amt (INRs) per Bed
Gan­ga Line Ground Floor	Cool­er	400
Gan­ga Line 1st & 2nd Floor	AC	500
Gan­ga Line 1st & 2nd Floor	Cool­er	450
Yamu­na Ground Floor	Cool­er	450
Yamu­na 1st & 2nd Floor	AC	500
Yamu­na 1st & 2nd Floor	Cool­er	450
Alakanan­da		300
Alakanan­da	Cool­er	400
Alakanan­da	AC	500
Gomti	Cool­er	400
Saraswati	AC	500
Yoga Vil­lage	AC	500
****All rooms have at least 2 Beds (some have 3 and 4 beds****

Please note that the rooms have 2, 3 or 4 beds per room; and, a few suites with 5 — 7 beds.

there are oth­er options for accom­mo­da­tion in the area but this being India their facil­i­ties vary and change fre­quent­ly and hence we can­not make a robust recommendation.

PS: the exchange rate cur­rent­ly stands at around 1 € = 90 INR

food and amenities

The ashram has a can­teen which serves local veg­e­tar­i­an cui­sine. With­in walk­ing dis­tance you will find a myr­i­ad of small restau­rants and shops cater­ing to your needs and there is also a decent cof­fee place.:) Please note: since Rishikesh is a holy site alco­hol and meat will not be served.

feedback from participants

“wow, my heart is open. Our week in India was an unbe­liev­able and total­ly unex­pect­ed and effort­less deep­dive into this amaz­ing cul­ture. Being able to expe­ri­ence these strong tra­di­tions was an amaz­ing experience.”

“I am not a full out yoga nerd but always want­ed to learn more about the back­ground and the ori­gins of the prac­tice — I got that and much more in this week, thank you so much!”

“I arrived in India total­ly stressed out, I came back with renewed ener­gy and end­less new inputs, thank you so much”

“intense, enrich­ing, amaz­ing — what a week!”

“my first glance at India could not have been bet­ter, thank you so much!”

“unbe­liev­ably rich, intense, soul-lift­ing week — heart­felt, deep gratitude”

“Thanks for your open hearts 🤍 for your ener­gy 🌀 for the inspir­ing chats 🫧 for all the laugh­ter 🤡 and the mag­ic in between 🪄”

“We loved to be with you & are look­ing for­ward to see you again in May! 💝”

“It has been a plea­sure to share a week with all of you. Thank you all for cre­at­ing a very spe­cial week! 🙏”

contribution

495 € incl. all yoga class­es (2 per day, 7 days) + three excursions/walking tours incl. entry to Bea­t­les Ashram. If you are a res­i­dent of South(East)Asia please con­tact us for spe­cial pricing.

We will of course help you with an trav­el details for the jour­ney to the retreat as well as for onward jour­ney through India.

Accom­mo­da­tion and trav­el expens­es not included.

gettin there…

Your air­port of choice will be Dehradun (air­port code: DED) from where we’ll only be a taxi ride away. We will help you arrange air­port pick­up and will have one pre-arranged trans­port as well.

You inter­na­tion­al flight will prob­a­bly land at Del­hi (air­port code: DEL) and there you ll need to change planes (and pos­si­ble air­port ter­mi­nals) for the short flight to Dehradun. Please allow at least 4 hours between land­ing at DEL and depar­ture on a nation­al flight. Oth­er options to reach Rishikesh include trains and buses.

We sug­gest you arrive the day before our retreat begins, i.e. March 30th. In order to catch the last flight from Del­hi to Dehradun your flight should not touch down lat­er than 14:30 in Delhi.

Feel free to ask Knut for advice on your trav­el plans.

further travels in India

Trav­el­ling in India is an amaz­ing expe­ri­ence and can be both hilar­i­ous and chal­leng­ing.  If this is your first trip to India, our retreat offers you the per­fect oppor­tu­ni­ty to get to know your ways in India and get a safe start into this intense coun­try. After a week with us you might be inter­est­ed in see­ing more of this amaz­ing coun­try. Pop­u­lar des­ti­na­tions at this time of the year include Rajasthan, Goa and of course the Taj Mahal. Trav­el­ling fur­ther up north is not advis­able in March. Feel free to ask Knut for advice on where to go and how to get there.

want to join?

First come first served, lim­it­ed spots avail­able. please con­tact Knut via knut.rakus@gmail.com