Visiting
You are welcome to come and stay at Shankar Prasad as a guest to develop your sadhana (spiritual practice).
All visitors are welcome to participate fully in the ashram activities, including meal time (three vegetarian meals a day, tea, coffee and herbal drinks).
Please contact us regarding the rates for each type of stay (volunteer, part-time volunteer, or guest), and find descriptions below.
Minimum 1 month
The ashram welcomes sincere, hard-working and committed volunteers who love ashram life or would like to try it out. As a volunteer you are asked to stay a minimum of 1 month, preferably 3 months if possible. There are opportunities for all kinds of work, the farm, animals, ashram maintenance, online and office work, marketing and fundraising. A full volunteer commits to 6 hours of karma yoga a day. If you cannot commit to a month but are still interested, please write to us anyway.
4 hrs karma yoga
We also have an option for part-time volunteers, who are required to do only 4 hours of karma yoga a day.
1 hr karma yoga
You will stay at the ashram, have more time for sadhana, and be required to do only 1 hour of karma yoga (service to the ashram as mindful action) per day.
Work & stay
You continue working online and pursuing your own career while contributing to the ashram as a guest or as a part-time volunteer.
Guesthouse
We also have a separate guesthouse residence, so you can come to the retreat centre as a guest. Guests are welcome to stay and participate in the ashram activities. All guests help with the daily cleaning (half an hour per day) and especially cleaning up after meals. Room and board are all-inclusive.
Groups
We have hosted several retreats here at Shankar Prasad, and we welcome short and long-term retreat packages for groups interested in yoga and meditation. We can tailor-make course offerings based on your personal or group needs and interests.
First time in India
We offer first-timers to India a “Soft Landing in India” program: an introduction to getting around safely, to local culture and norms, and suggestions on the best places to visit and stay. You receive a bit of extra looking after to ensure you adjust well to the buzzing Indian culture.
Minimum 3 months
We are a small community living and progressing together in our spiritual pursuits. We are open to people interested in staying long-term (all ages), serving wherever needed, as general office / homestay manager, organic farm manager, or heading community projects (dog sterilization, waste management, women empowerment, etc). Minimum stay 3 months.
Since ancient times the aim of an ashram was not just to provide a place of retreat and relaxation, but also to create a place where people live and work together. Sometimes it is believed that spiritual growth takes place only through meditation, but this is not correct. When you practise meditation together with karma yoga, growth is very fast. In the ashram, you do not meditate all day, but you work all day. You learn to see divine grace while caring for the cows, working as a carpenter, in the kitchen cooking or cutting the vegetables, while checking the bank statement or caring for the sick. By the time the sun rises the ashram is bustling with activity and when the sun sets, still it is active. The residents of the ashram live a very simple life and visitors and guests have to learn to adapt to this simplicity.
Swami Satyananda
Please email us for further details: swamiyogaratna@gmail.com.
