An amazing opportunity to explore this fantastic country while immersing yourself in personal growth possibilities.
Join Leela Mata, Kay LatchmanSingh and Franco Marini on a splendid journey through intriguing areas of Northern India.
Your Sacred Pilgrimage
This is a precious opportunity for you to experience a land layered with an incredible history and a fascinating spiritual heritage. India is unique, exciting and vibrant. We invite you to experience it with a spiritual master who is enthralling, caring, wise and one who loves and cherishes this mystical country. Available to you are the stunning contrasts throughout this splendid country , the sacred temples and sites, dynamic people, the diversity of the land and motivating presentations, stories, insights, and learnings.
This is a pilgrimage, a journey to a holy place, with the opportunity for personal growth and transformation.
You begin your journey to this inspirational country as soon as you register. The moment you declare your intentions to be part of this pilgrimage, you begin to open possibilities for your personal growth and expansion. Between the time you register and your departure to Delhi you will receive information, insights and materials to support your immersion into this remarkable event.
The following cities and towns are included in the itinerary for this journey and please allow for openness to explore other places:
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Treat yourself and spend several days in the presence of a loving and powerful master!
“I see the science of Enlightenment as a beautiful blend of Ayurveda, Yoga and Meditation.
I love to teach those subjects, and it has become my life’s passion.”
Leela Matais an internationally known master with great wisdom. She comes from the Sivananda lineage, and studied directly under Swami Vishnu Devananda for seven years. Leela Mata also studied Ayurveda with Dr. Vasant Lad in both, the United States and India.
Leela Mata is a highly intuitive spiritual master. She makes difficult things easily understandable. She conveys not just intellectual or technical knowledge but deep experience. In her presence you can shed old attachments easily. Emotional cleansing and spiritual awakening can happen nearly effortlessly. At the end of a seminar with Leela Mata you will be filled with deep inner peace and a new kind of energy, ready to start your daily life with new inspiration and joy.
In the United States Leela Mata directed the YogaVedantaCenter in Ft.Lauderdale. While directing the center, she and Yogi Hari developed Sampoorna Yoga and trained hundreds of teachers who practice throughout the world. She has also taught worldwide, including Africa, Europe, India, Canada and South America.
Each year Leela Mata makes a return pilgrimage to India for ongoing education and enlightenment. Her time spent in the company of great teachers helps her delve deeper into Sadhana. She actively continues her mission through Leela Mata Foundation for Enlightenment in the tradition of Swami Sivananda and his direct disciple Swami Vishnu-Devananda. Leela Mata permanently provides a new thought-force that helps to promote the peace and harmony of mankind and the prosperity of society.
To read what people from around the world say about this distinguished master, click on "Voices about Leela Mata"
Your Hosts and Guides
Accompanying Leela Mata will be Kay LatchmanSingh and Franco Marini. They will also be facilitating some of the ceremonies, meditations, yoga, and other offerings. They are committed to providing impeccable service and are dedicated to creating powerful, satisfying and joyful opportunities for each participant on this trip. Franco, Kay, and local guides will accompany you on every step of your journey to assure your satisfaction.
Kawallee Chitra LatchmanSingh, who also goes by Kay, was born in Guyana and comes from a heritage of people who inhabited the state of Uttar Pradesh (Hindi:, Urdu:
اترپردیش,) in the northern province of India. She is a Yoga Shiromani (teacher of yoga) in the Sampoorna tradition, and is a student of Sanskrit. Kay is the co-owner of Global Journeys and having traveled and worked with people in many European countries, Russia, Egypt, South Africa, British West Indies, and Central America, she provides a wealth of experience in travel and cultural connections. Kay's Hindu practice, knowledge of the Vedic Traditions, experience leading Kirtan, amazing ability to prepare Indian cuisine and Yoga knowledge will be invaluable assets on this journey.
Franco Marini is the co-owner and director of Global Journeys. He was born in Italy and since his arrival in the U.S., when he was 11, he has continued traveling as part of his life’s mission. He is a Yoga Shiromani (teacher of yoga), a ceremonialist, a wellness coach/healer, a massage therapist, a drum-maker, and director of Peak Empowerment – an organization dedicated to personal, team and organizational development. One of his commitments in life is to create programs, such as this India journey, that have a vision focused on personal growth, and global acceptance and understanding.
Also included on the trip will be opportunities for:
Hatha Yoga sessions in the morning
Meditations at various times and places
Kirtan
Experiencing and learning about regional cuisines
Working with chakras
Personal Empowerment
Discussions on:
Ayurvedic practices Hinduism Sanskrit the Vedic age Indian culture other topics of your interest
Delhi has been the capital of several ancient Indian empires and a major city along the old trade routes between northwest India and the Indo-Gangetic Plains. It is the site of many ancient and medieval monuments, archaeological sites and remains. The Mughal emperor Shahjahan built the city, now known as "Old Delhi", to serve as the capital of the Mughal Empire from 1649 to 1857.
After the British Raj took control of India during the 19th century, Calcutta became the capital until George V announced in 1911 that it was to move back to Delhi. A new capital city, New Delhi, was built during the 1920s. When India gained independence from British rule in 1947, New Delhi was declared its capital and seat of government. As such, New Delhi houses important offices of the federal government, including the Parliament of India.
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Vrindavan is a town on the site of an ancient forest which is the region where Lord Krishna, the supreme personality of godhead spent his childhood days. It lies in the Braj region. It is about 15km away from Mathura city (Lord Krishna's birthplace), near the Agra-Delhi highway. The town includes many hundreds of temples dedicated to the worship of Radha and Krishna and is the most sacred place on earth.
Vrindavan is often considered to be a holy place by all traditions of Hinduism. The major tradition followed in this place is Vaisnavisisim; and is a center of learning with many Ashrams functioning from Vrindavan. It’s a center of Krishna worship and the area is including places like Govardhana and Gokul that are associated with Krishna from the time immemorial. Many millions of bhaktas or devotees of Radha Krishna visit these paces of pilgrimage every year and participate in a number of festivals that relate to the scenes from Krishna's life on Earth.
According to tradition and recorded evidence, Krishna was raised in the cowherding village of Gokul by his foster parents Nanda Maharaj and Yasoda. The Bhagavata Purana describes Krishna's early childhood pastimes in Vrindavan forest wherein he, his brother Balarama, and his cowherd friends stole butter, engaged in childhood pranks and fought with demons. Along with these activities, Krishna is also described as meeting and dancing with the local girls of Vrindavan village (and especially Radharani) who were known as gopis. These pastimes were the source of inspiration for the famous Sanskrit poem, Gita Govinda, by the Orissan poet, Jayadeva (c. 1200 AD)
Mathura is also famous as one of the first two centres of production for images of the Buddha (the other being Gandhara in present-day Pakistan/Afghanistan). Human images of the Buddha began to appear approximately at the same time (1st Century AD) in both centers but can be distinguished from one another as the Gandharan images are very clearly Greco-Roman in inspiration with the Buddha wearing wavy locks tucked up into a chignon and heavier toga-like robes whereas the Buddha figurines produced in Mathura more closely resemble some of the older male fertility gods and have shorter, curlier hair and lighter, more translucent robes.
A G R A
Agra (pronounced[ɑːɣrə](help·info)) (Hindi: आगरा, Urdu: آگرا) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna River in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India. It finds mention in the epic Mahabharata when it was called Agrabana, or Paradise. Ptolemy, the famous 2nd century geographer, marked it on his map of the world as Agra. Tradition and legend ascribe the present city of Raja Badal Singh (around 1475) whose Fort, Badalgarh, Stood on or near the site of the present Fort. However, the 12th century Persian poet Salman writes of a desperate assault on the fortress of Agra, then held by one King Jaipal, by Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni.[1] It was ruled by Sultan Sikandar Lodi in the year 1506. It achieved fame as the capital of the Mughal emperors from 1526 to 1658 and remains a major tourist destination because of its many splendid Mughal-era buildings, most notably the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri, all three of which are UNESCOWorld Heritage Sites.
J A I P U R
Jaipurpronunciation(help·info) (Hindi: जयपुर), also popularly known as the Pink City, is the capital of Rajasthanstate, India. Historically rendered as Jeypore, Jaipur is the former capital of the princely state of Jaipur. Founded in 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh, the ruler of Amber, the city today has a population of more than 5 million residents.Built of pink stucco in imitation of sandstone, the city is remarkable among pre-modern Indian cities for the width and regularity of its streets which are laid out into six sectors separated by broad streets 111 ft (34 m) wide. The urban quarters are further divided by networks of gridded streets. Five quarters wrap around the east, south, and west sides of a central palace quarter, with a sixth quarter immediately to the east. The Palace quarter encloses a sprawling palace complex (the Hawa Mahal, or palace of winds), formal gardens, and a small lake. Nahargarh Fort crowns the hill in the northwest corner of the old city.
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Kurukshetrapronunciation(Hindi: कुरुक्षेत्र) is the name of a city in Kurukshetra District of the Indian state of Haryana . The name literally means "Land of the Kaurava" after the Kuru clan. It is supposed to be the site of the Kurukshetra war, described in the Mahabharata. Kurukshetra is of great importance in Hinduism as this is where the Bhagavad Gita was taught to Arjuna on the battle field, just before the great battle . Rashtrakavi Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar' had written a poem by the name of Kurukshetra.
A few kilometeres from Kurukshetra is the village known as "Amin", where there are remnants of a fort and it is said to be Abhimanyu's fort.
Some places of interest include:
Brahma Sarovar: Every year lakhs of people come to take holy bath at Brahma Sarovar on the occasion of "Somavati Amavasya" (Sacred No-Moon Day that happens on a Monday).
Known internationally for its architecture and urban planning, Chandigarh is home to numerous architectural projects of Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, Matthew Nowicki, and Albert Mayer. The city boasts a high standard of living with the highest per capita income in the country and tops the list of Indian States and Union Territories with a Human Development Index of 0.987.
After the partition of British India into the two nations of India and Pakistan in 1947, the region of Punjab was also split between India and Pakistan. The Indian state of Punjab required a new capital city to replace Lahore, which became part of Pakistan during the partition. After several plans to make additions to existing cities were found to be infeasible for various reasons, the decision to construct a new and planned city was undertaken. The city derives its name from Chandi Mandir, a temple of goddess Chandi, located in nearby Panchkula District of Haryana. The word Chandigarh literally means "the fort of Chandi".
H A R I D W A R
Haridwar (also spelled Hardwar, in Hindi: pronunciation is a holy city and municipal board in the Haridwar District of Uttarakhand, India. In Hindi, Haridwar stands for Dwar of Hari or Gateway to God, 'Hari' meaning god and 'dwar' meaning gate.[5][6] Haridwar is regarded as one of the seven holiest places to Hindus.
After travelling 253 km (157 mi) from its source at Gaumukh, 3,139 m (10,300 ft) above sea level, at the edge of the Gangotri Glacier, Ganga enters the Indo-Gangetic Plain of North India for the first time at Haridwar, and this is what gave the city its ancient name, Gangadwára , the place where the Ganges descends to the plains.
According to Hindu mythology, Haridwar is one among the four sites where drops of the elixir of immortality, Amrita, accidentally spilled over from the pitcher, in which it was being carried away by the celestial bird Garuda, after the Samudra manthan.[These four spots – Ujjain, Haridwar, Nasik, and Allahabad – have today become places, where the Kumbha Mela is celebrated once every 3 years in any of these 4 places and after a period of 12 years, the Maha Kumbha Mela is celebrated on the 12th year at Prayag in Allahabad. Millions of pilgrims, devotees, and tourists congregate here from all over the world to celebrate the event. They perform ritualistic bathing on the banks of the river Ganga.
The spot where the nectar fell is considered to be the Brahma Kund at Har-ki-Pauri (literally, "footsteps of the Lord," and symbolically the footprints of the Amrita), the most sacred ghat of Haridwar; thousands of devotees and pilgrims flock here during festivals or snan from all over India to take a holy dip. This act is considered to be the equivalent of washing away one's sins to attain Moksha.
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Rishikesh is a holy city for Hindus located in the foothills of the Himalaya in northern India. The place gets its name after Lord Vishnu who appeared to 'Raibhya Rishi' [3], as a result of his tapasya (austerities), as Lord Rishikesh [4]. In Skanda Purana, this area is known as 'Kubjamrak' as Lord Vishnu appeared, under a mango tree [2]. Historically, Rishikesh, has been a part of the legendary 'Kedarkhand' (the present day Garhwal), the abode of Shiva[5]. Legends state that Lord Rama did penance here for killing Ravana, the demon king of Lanka; and Lakshmana, his younger brother, crossed the river Ganga, at a point, where the present 'Lakshman Jhula' (लक्ष्मणझूला) bridge stands today, using a jute rope bridge. The 'Kedar Khand' of Skanda Purana, also mentions the existence of Indrakund at this very point. The jute-rope bridge was replaced by iron-rope suspension bridge in 1889, and after it was washed away in the 1924 floods, it was replaced by a stronger present bridge. Even today, the western bank of the bridge has a Lakshmana temple, and across it lies a temple dedicated to Lord Rama; also present near by is a temple of his other brother, Bharata, which also finds mention in the 'Kedar Khand' [6].
The sacredriverGanga flows through Rishikesh. In fact, it is here that the river leaves the Shivalik mountains Himalayas, and flows out into the plains of northern India. Several temples, ancient as well as new, can be found along the banks of the Ganges in Rishikesh. The city attracts thousands of pilgrims and tourists each year, from within India, as well as from other countries. Rishikesh, sometimes nicknamed "the world-capital of Yoga", has numerous yoga centres that also attract tourists. It is believed that meditation in Rishikesh brings one closer to attainment of moksha, as does a dip in the holy river that flows through it. It is also becoming a popular spot for white water rafting enthusiasts, both from India and abroad, as it offers medium to rough rapids in the course of river Ganges.
Cost, Deposits and other information "Embracing the Sacred" A Pilgrimage to Northern India with Leela Mata
February 15 - 27, 2010
Depart on February 15, 2010 to arrive in Delhi
Return from Delhi on February 27, 2010
Cost of the trip is $2,650 (US dollars) if you register on or before December 20, 2009. If you register after that, the price is $2,850.
This includes:
Pick up and return to airports
All internal transportation, small bus, train, and internal flights
All accommodations at comfortable, clean upscale hotels (double occupancy)
All breakfasts and lunches (vegetarian)
All entrance fees
All sessions with Leela Mata
All activities such as…yoga, meditation, Kirtan, etc.
All guide and escort fees…you will be personally escorted by Kay and Franco plus at times, local guides
Not Included: Air fare to and from India, dinners (if you wish to have non-vegetarian meals this will be your opportunity to do so)
Payments and Deposits: A $500 deposit will hold your place. Half of the remaining balance is due 60 days prior to departure, and the final balance is due 45 days prior to departure. Please note: If paying by credit card, a one time processing fee of $ 50.00 will be charged to your card.
Airfare Support: If you would like assistance with booking an air fare, call
Global Journeys @ 516 343 3210 and we will be happy to assist in any way we can.
Cancellations and Refunds:
A $300 per person cancellation fee will be assessed for cancellations received 60 days or more prior to departure.
A 50% cancellation fee will be assessed for cancellations received between 45 - 59 days prior to departure.
A 100% cancellation fee will be assessed for cancellations received 44 or fewer days prior to departure.
Travel Package: Upon registration you will be mailed a travel package including information on: a suggested packing list, baggage allowance, credit cards, customs, passport information and other details. Travel Insurance: If you choose to purchase travel insurance, you must do so on your own. We have been recommending Travel Guard International at 800 826-1300, and have received positive feedback.
To register or for other information call us, e-mail us, or fill in the form below and send it to us: Global Journeys 516 343-3210 info@globalj.org
Global Journeys Inc. 516 343-3210 www.globalj.org info@globalj.org
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