Kirtan with Astrud

$10, $20
IN-PERSON – Space is limited | Please review our In-person Safety Guidelines (Please note: pre registration & proof of vaccination required).

Please join us for call and response chanting and meditation. No music experience is necessary.

As a group we are inspired by the sacred sounds and love to sing in the key of “WE”.

We share what is known as KIRTAN, a call and response of sacred sounds and mantras. It is the relationship to these mantras that illuminates our heart and awakens our consciousness. It is not important that you can sing or that you understand the words. KIRTAN is an experience. It is a practice to release you out of the thinking mind and drop you gently into the heart. MAN means mind and TRA is instrument. So it is through these sacred sounds we are able to conduct the instrument of the mind.

Together we create this sacred union with healing intentions for the whole of the world.


Astrud has been teaching yoga since 2001 and sharing Kirtan internationally for the last 10 years.She trained in NYC at Laughing Lotus, currently known as Body and soul Yoga collective and is a senior teacher and teacher trainer. She has studied the basics of yoga therapeutics and Vedic chanting with T.K.V. Desikachar in India. Her teaching has been inspired by her mentor and friend Mark Whitwell over the last 20 years. Astrud’s classes are warm, welcoming and all inclusive.
Her love and relationship to Bhakti Yoga, the yoga of devotion, is always illuminated in her teaching. There is always chanting in Astrud’s classes, awareness around the breath and mindful movement.
Astrud leads annual pilgrimages to India, teaches Bhakti yoga with teachers in training and currently lives at the IYI in SF.
Her slow flow class weaves together poses in a creative and mindful way using the breath as the bridge to deepen and explore the balance between effort and surrender and focus the mind.

Moon Salutation Workshop

$20 | ONLINE & IN-PERSON

Please register in advance, a Zoom link and passcode will be provided via confirmation email.

Please review our In-person Safety Guidelines.

At this New Moon, we will open to our Being with the sideways flow of the Moon Salutation, a yoga asana series. This feminine flow opens the doors to allowing the voice of intuition and creativity to come forth and manifest. This creative process comes from stillness, darkness of the night, and the empty canvas.
We will dive into exploration of our bodies, let our patterns surface and allow space for expression.
Prior experience with yoga and meditation is helpful, but not required. Have a pen and paper available for a few minutes of guided writing at the end of the workshop.

Diana Meltsner, C-IAYT and e-RYT 500, has been teaching yoga in the Bay Area since 2001. Diana has been a lead teacher trainer for 200-hour Integral Yoga Teacher Trainings since 2012. The classes she teaches include chair/gentle, various levels of Hatha yoga, prenatal, guided mindfulness meditations, and various yoga, pranayama and meditation workshops. She’s been working as a health educator and yoga instructor for Kaiser Permanente since 2014.
She is C-IAYT certified yoga therapist and San Francisco center manager for the Integral Yoga Therapy 800-hour certification program. Diana offers individual therapeutic sessions with focus on physical and mental wellness. Her offerings help people to find a deeper sense of well-being and ability to move through life with increased ease, intuition, and stress resilience.
dianameltsner.com

A Wakeful Response to a Troubled World

By donation $5, $25, $54, $108
ONLINE & IN-PERSON

Please register in advance, a Zoom link and passcode will be provided via confirmation email.

Please review our In-person Safety Guidelines.

Many of us are deeply concerned about events in our countries and on our planet, and are searching for ways to maintain peace in our hearts and stand up for our values. As we hear about the dangers of climate change, senseless violence and endless cases of injustice, we may react with anger, anxiety or feel hopeless. How can we respond meaningfully, instead of tuning it all out or being passively complicit? What does ‘living a spiritual life’ mean in times like ours?

Together, we will reflect on how our spiritual practices cultivate resilience and equanimity, and how the challenges we are faced with serve as dynamic learning opportunities, awakening in us the inner strength and compassion to be a presence of Peace.

The collected donations will be sent to a humanitarian relief fund for Ukraine.

Swami Ramananda is the Executive Director of the Integral Yoga Institute in San Francisco and a greatly respected senior teacher in the Integral Yoga tradition, who has been practicing Yoga for over 45 years. Ramananda offers practical methods of integrating the timeless teachings and practices of Yoga into daily life, and transforming the painful aspects of human experience into steps toward realizing one’s full potential.
He leads beginner, intermediate and advanced level Yoga teacher training programs in San Francisco, and offers a variety of programs in many locations in the U.S., Europe and South America. Ramananda co-developed the Stress Management Teacher Training program with Swami Vidyananda, has trained many teachers to bring Yoga into corporate, hospital and medical settings, and has taught mind/body wellness programs in many locations. He is a certified Yoga therapist and founding board member of the Yoga Alliance, a national registry that supports and promotes yoga teachers as professionals. He is a co-founder of The Spiritual Action Initiative (SAI) which brings together individuals committed to working for social justice for all beings and for the care and healing of our natural world. His warmth, wisdom and sense of humor have endeared him to many.

Arjavan James Kovalenko is a certified Integral Yoga Hatha and Raja Yoga teacher. He lived and served in Yogaville for four years in Shakticom and tech/av departments. He was a key player during the pandemic when the ashram made the transition from in-person programs to online offerings as well as the production of iytv.online. He loves to cook and teach Yoga and meditation.

2022-06-22T12:56:52-07:00June 6th, 2022|Tags: , |

Full Moon Chanting

Free | ONLINE | Please register in advance, a Zoom link and passcode will be provided via confirmation email.

We gather once a month to chant the Gayatri Mantra, the great mantra of Light and Liberation, to maximize the spiritual benefits of the full moon.

“oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ
tat savitur vareṇyaṃ
bhargo devasya dhīmahi
dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāt”
– Rigveda 3.62.10[11]

Snehan Born, e-RYT500, has four decades of experience with yoga and has been teaching Integral Yoga since 2000. Snehan resides at the Integral Yoga Institute of San Francisco, where he serves as assistant to Swami Ramananda, teaches yoga classes and is a lead teacher trainer. He has also led trainings at Satchidananda Ashram, Yogaville, Virginia, The Integral Yoga Institute in New York City and privately in Hawaii where Snehan co-created the Metamorphous Yoga Studio. Snehan is certified in all levels of Integral Yoga Hatha and has received additional certifications in Pranayama, Meditation, Raja Yoga and Stress Management from Integral Yoga and “Life of a Yogi” certification from Sri Dharma Mittra. In 1997 Snehan studied with Deepak Chopra in Goa, India and again in 2001 in Agra, India where he was asked to teach an Integral Yoga class to about 250 participants. Also, in 2001 he received “Conscious Eating”, a live foods certification from Dr. Gabriel Cousens at the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Arizona.
Snehan has lived and traveled extensively within India (over 9 trips) and practiced with many teachers there. He has taught yoga all over the US as well as in India, Nepal, South America, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Japan and Europe.

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