Festivals | Mitra Yoga Fest

The goal of Mitra Yoga Fest 2020 was to connect people in a time of physical disconnection.

We are pleased to have curated an incredible line up of teachers, visionaries, healers and musicians from around the world to re-balance, re-evaluate and re-ignite a sense of purpose.

Whether you were in Europe, South East Asia, America or Australia - we had you covered.

264 of you joined us for this inspiring two and a bit day festival to connect, balance and evolve. Check out the instgram for a few festival screenshots!

All proceeds from MYF 2020 will benefit the Covid-19 relief efforts of select charities.

See how Srujna NGO used some of your donations here.

Our Presenters

Yoga is for everyone.

MYF embraces the diversity of yoga and provides a platform for its many unique paths.

Come join these wonderful beings on this ancient, yet wildly cool spiritual journey.

Sianna & Masood

For nearly three decades, Sianna Sherman has been an international yoga teacher, training tens of thousands of students and yoga teachers from around the globe. As the founder of Rasa Yoga, Mythic Yoga Flow®, and RITUAL, Sianna regularly shares her expertise at conferences and festivals throughout the world. Sianna touches the human heart through story and the empowerments of yoga in daily life. Her own training includes decades of study with master yoga teachers and scholars in India, Thailand, Europe and the United States. In addition, she has extensive training in bodywork, functional anatomy, herbalism, feminine studies, leadership skills and climate reality. Presently, she is in a two-year mentorship for shadow work and emotional intelligence. She is dedicated to social justice education and to unpacking her own white privilege.

Masood Ali Khan is unique as musicians and teacher, as one of the mesmerizing pioneers of singing sacred mantras with the hand pan. Exploring ‘Music as Medicine and prayer, a believer in love for the earth and humanity through ‘Connection to Creation’.
He has released 3 acclaimed music albums and recorded and perfoming with countless with world class musicians.

Rita Hraiz

Rita Hraiz, A grandmother from Glastonbury UK, has been a respected student of Ageless Wisdom, Solar Philosophy, Shamanism and Esoteric Psychology for the last 25 years. She has internationally held Dharmakaya Retreats for the last 14 years carrying these ancient teachings to sacred lands. Her circles provide a clear sanctuary space, giving many an opportunity to really anchor into their own divinity.

Through her innate understanding of White Tantra and the Science of Kundalini, Mahamudra and The Dharmakaya she inspires individuals to access their own intuitive body wisdom.

Rita Hraiz's ultimate core passion is to uplift and to serve humanity by holding a strong clear sacred space to support a conscious shamanic journey home into the HEART to be softened by the immensity of our Great Mother’s Mystery .

Swami Mitrananda

Swami Mitrananda is a dynamic disciple of Gurudev, H H Swami Chinmayananda.

He serves as:

* Spiritual Teacher of Chinmaya Chennai.
* Director National Projects, All India Chinmaya Yuva Kendra (AICHYK).
* Publisher of Chinmaya Udghosh – an international youth magazine.
Swami Mitrananda is an inspiring tutor, daring adventurer, vibrant speaker, creative writer, vigilant administrator & a mentor for many youngsters across the world.

As the Director of AICHYK, he has spear-headed many innovative, nation-wide projects such as the Youth Empowerment Programme(YEP), Awakening Indians to India, Family Quiz among others.

Swami Mitrananda uses powerful tools such as outdoor experiential learning, adventure, travel, biking, car rallies, theatre, writing and creativity to convey the profound message of Vedanta propelling individual’s to tap into their hidden potential.

Through the Youth Empowerment Program he has trained more than 300 youth to serve India.

He also initiated CIM (Chinmaya Institute of Management), Chennai Chapter which is reaching out to colleges and corporate organisations with a blend of Management and Spirituality.

A highly sought-after speaker in the corporate circle, Swami Mitrananda regularly lectures on Upanishads, Geeta and many other traditional texts. He travels across the world attracting the attention of even the most uninterested person.

Stewart Gilchrist

Stewart Gilchrist is a senior registered yoga teacher known throughout London for his popular, innovative, authentic dynamic classes. He infuses his high energy and challenging teachings with yogic knowledge, as well as his unique charisma, politics and humour. His classes include an emphasis on breath, vinyasa and philosophy with strong physical adjustments. Stewart applies the original teachings of yoga to the modern world to create thought-provoking classes.

Having studied both Ashtanga and Jivamukti, Stewart’s spiritual journey led him to train all over the world with teachers who have had a profound effect on his unique style of teaching.

He offers his eternal gratitude to all his teachers: Sabel Thiam, Jennifer Dale, Hamish Hendry, David Life, Sharon Gannon, Swami Nirmalananda and K. Pattabhi Jois.

Sandra Schultze

Love was Sandra’s path into Yoga. And it was a sweet invitation.

Realizing the subtle yet strong transformational powers of yoga, Sandra dived into the practice and the learnings.

Trained at the Sivananda school in Madurai, South India, today Sandra practices ashtanga in Paris with her teacher Kia Naddermier and became her apprentice. To balance this engaging practice, she naturally turned to Restorative yoga, a deeply relaxing practice. She started to practice Restorative and felt the urge to share this deeply caring and soothing practice by infusing her classes with the super powers of Restorative as taught by Lizzie Lasater.

Co-founder of DoGood with Yotam Agam, they travel the world, creating retreats and participating in yoga festivals in India, Israel and China. Sandra is also curating the Yoga arm of the annual Covelong Point Surf, Yoga and Music Festival in Kovalam, Tamil Nadu.
On the path of luminous and purposeful teachings, her classes offer moments of silence and relaxation, dynamic variations plunging their roots in a soft ashtanga, breath attention and restorative release. Yotam Agam’s music acting like a support, as the breath is, for the practice. Once the sweat has dried, a deep sense of peaceful relief remains.

Swamini Akhilananda

A master storyteller, Swamini Akhilananda first met Pujya Gurudev, His Holiness Swami Chinmayananda, at a Chinmaya Mission spiritual camp in Canada. Inspired by his life and teachings, she continued to seek his presence whenever chance permitted. With his blessings, she joined Chinmaya Mission's intensive two-year Vedanta Course at the Sandeepany Sadhanalaya ashram in Mumbai, India in 1993. She was initiated as Brahmacharini Aparna Chaitanya in August 1995. On Mahashivaratri Day in 2013, she received sannyasa diksha from Pujya Guruji, His Holiness Swami Tejomayananda, and was initiated into the monastic order as Swamini Akhilananda.

She has lived and studied in the U.S. most of her life, and has been conducting Vedanta classes, camps, and workshops for all age groups for nearly 25 years. She formerly served as the Executive Secretary of Chinmaya Mission West (CMW, the guiding body for CM centers in North America) and as the Editor-in-Chief of CMW News, CMW's former bimonthly newsletter, for more than 10 years.

Saraswathi Vasudevan

Saraswathi is an internationally renowned yoga teacher, trainer and therapist. She has two Masters Degrees in Nutrition and Psychology from the University of Madras, Chennai, and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Yoga Studies from Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram (KYM), Chennai. She has close to three decades of study, practice and teaching experience in this tradition, having studied directly with Sri TKV Desikachar for over 17 years. In 2010, she founded YogaVahini, a Specialised Yoga Training, Therapy and Research Centre along with her husband Sundar, with the aim of making the transformative and healing wisdom of yoga and personalised yoga therapy more accessible to everyone. YogaVahini has centres in Chennai & Hyderabad and presence in other cities in India and around the world.

Punnu Wasu

Punnu Wasu’s Kirtan is a mix of East meets West Indian Fusion. The Kirtan concerts he leads often build from a slow, meditative tempo to a high paced catharsis. He has a remarkably soulful voice that touches the deepest chord in even the most casual listener and it is common for his audiences to clap their hands or stand up and dance during his concerts.

Edo Khan

Acclaimed musician, sound healer, yogi and social entrepreneur.
Edo is passionate about transforming lives, empowering individuals and uniting communities.

He is the Co-founder and Director of A Sound Life - an
Australian based non-profit organization which shares
the healing power of music, yoga and meditation with
people in need.
www.asoundlife.org

Rohini Manohar

Rohini’s favorite things to do in the whole world are smile, hug, and do yoga. Awesome was probably her first word, and she uses it to describe anyone and everyone who takes the effort to sculpt their bodies and minds. She’s on a mission to help people discover their potential physically, emotionally and spiritually through the ancient yet wildly cool practice of yoga.

She is an internationally certified (ERYT500) yoga teacher who has practiced and taught yoga for 12 years in Australia, Malaysia, Thailand and India.

She started her practice in Australia and from there went on to learn from the yoga greats like Briohny Smith, Matthieu Boldron, and Caludine Lafond. Her time at teaching and learning has helped her develop her own unique style that combines Yoga, music and Spoken word. She weaves movement and living in the moment effortlessly to create the perfect space for students to discover themselves.

Mathieu Boldron

Mathieu is an international yoga teacher born and Co-owner of the Paris Yoga School Lomey Yoga. He is traveling worldwide to teach practitioners and teachers Raja, hatha and vinyasa yoga.
His practice of yoga is a way to root down, express himself, and find balance in his life. Today, he is best known for his lighthearted and holistic approach to Yoga.

Natasha Chawla

Natasha has been a student of Eastern philosophy for over a decade and practicing yoga since 2008. A qualified yoga teacher (RYT200 Sivananda and RYT200 Power Yoga Company and RYT 500 East London School of Yoga) and practitioner her studies of philosophy and asana have taken her all over India - she brings these learnings and traditions into class.

Claudine Lafond

Claudine believes that anything is possible. Her personal mission in life is to live a life of purpose, fuelled by love, truth and courage. Her intention is to create an inclusive environment to move freely, feel good, have fun and experience the infinitude of possibilities within. As she likes to say, in every single breath, there is opportunity for transformation. She believes we all have a thirst for limitlessness and aims to help guide others in reawakening their potential.

Flavia Eberhard

Flavia Eberhard is a Kundalini and Vinyasa Yoga teacher passionate about the science behind the breath and its sacred power. Her fascination with mindful breathing led her to exploring its unfolding potential and becoming a professional athlete and Frediver Champion together with presenting a TV series called APNEIA . She believes that the breath is one of the most powerful tools to connect to our limitless consciousness.

Radhika Vekaria

Radhika’s personal and artistic endeavours are a tribute to her namesake—also known as Radha—the Vedic goddess of unconditional love and devotion, and Lord Krishna’s greatest devotee. Her Indian, East African, and British roots have found full expression in her music as has the influence of the free-spirited women in her life, her mother and her two grandmothers, and her father, whose passion for classical Indian music stirred Radhika from infancy.

Trained in classical piano and violin, Radhika has also studied at the renowned Ali Akbar College of Music to refine her musical style. Today, Radhika’s own spiritual leanings have nourished her ability to seamlessly blend classical renditions of Indian chants with emotive accents of East African and Middle Eastern sounds, providing her voice with a highly distinctive style. Radhika has traveled the world exposing herself to traditional music wherever her journey has taken her, and has strived to blend her spiritual beliefs with her lifelong passion for music. “I believe music is a universal language and sacred music in particular has the ability to transform the world – to bring peace and love to all.”

Radhika's new album SAPTA, The Seven Ways is an offering of seven ancient Sanskrit mantras and bhajans (devotional chants) — a meditation on love and the divinity that resides within each one of us. The album is an ode to the past masters and teachers inspiring Radhika’s own spiritual journey and a recognition of the transformative power of chant. It is a powerful honouring of her Indian roots and features ancient Sanskrit mantras that are enhanced by striking sound textures from lands touched by her ancestry. SAPTA, The Seven Ways releases in the Autumn 2020.

Website: www.iamradhika.com

Baba Kutani & Marco

Baba Kutani is an internationally known handpan player and teacher. He founded the Kutani Handpan Academy in Rishikhesh because of the great demand in people wanting to learn this cosmic and soulful sounding instrument. He describes the handpan sound as "the most exciting rhythms seem unexpected and complex, the most beautiful melodies simple and inevitable." He and Marco have been playing together for many years creating transcendental sound that effortlessy takes you higher.

Divya Srinivasan

Divya is a yoga teacher, tarot reader and energy healer with over 15 years of experience. Her passion to empower people to heal themselves and transform their lives has taken her all over the world and has connected with over 3000 students and clients. Divya has narrowed her focus to the esoteric aspects of yoga including woking the chakras, koshas and vayus, and harnessing these energies for optimum healing and wellness.

Sacred Dharmamkaya Ceremony

Join Rita Hraiz and a team of outstanding musicians - Lucidia, Raphial, Schmoo, Hannah, Madeeha and MJ, for a profound journey into YOU be prepared for an exquisite expansion of consciousness as you are guided to open and let go to feel your divinity and union with the ONE melt you.

Featuring:
Rafael and Lucidia: https://soundcloud.com/sweet_medicine
MJ: https://soundcloud.com/omjai33
Hannah: https://www.instagram.com/hannahrebeccamusic/
Madeeha
Schmoo

Aks & Lakshmi

Aks & Lakshmi, are a composer-vocalist duo who specialize in Electronic Bhakti Music. They are pioneers in blending Hindu devotional bhajans and stotras with electronic and pop genres to create powerful spiritual experiences.

The husband-wife team left their corporate careers in software engineering and finance, and have been full-time devotional musicians for over 7 years. They are based in Los Angeles, CA and tour in North America and beyond. Audiences describe their music as “healing,” “meditative” and “transforming.”

Aks is a composer, producer and vocalist who composes music for albums, film & TV, and video games. Trained by Oscar winner AR Rahman, Aks has a forte for combining multi-layered electronic orchestrations with classical Indian melodies.
Lakshmi is a vocalist-scholar who brings singing, scholarship, and storytelling onto one platform. With an M.A. in Religious Studies from Stanford University, she performs and writes on the great bhakti poet-saints for international publications such as Hinduism Today. The duo's love for Sanskrit, Hinduism, technology and Indian cultural values inspires them every day to create this innovative path of electronic bhakti music.

Jess Amba Jaya

Jess Amba Jaya is a meditation teacher as well as a mantra and nāda yoga teacher, meditative healer and Kīrtaniya. She has been intensively searching for her true inner self in recent years. In connection with the sound, she discovered a strong
woman whose heart‘s voice remained unheard for far too long. She followed the quiet call of longing to pass on her enthusiasm for mantras and to
inspire people to search for their true strength and creativity.
Since the beginning of 2018, she has been passing on her healing voice and knowledge in a symbiosis of Kīrtan, Meditation, Mindfulness and Nāda Yoga in her events called "SING.HEAL.GROW".

FESTIVAL RECORDINGS

Covid-19 Relief Organisations

All proceeds raised from Mitra Yoga Fest 2020 go to charities involved in Covid-19 relief work. More information about the charities your festival donation supports can be found by clicking on the images below:

WHY

Our Vision is to steer the world back into connection and balance through Yoga.

In a time where Yoga has moved far from its roots and has been grossly misunderstood as JUST exercise and breathing, we strive to bring you the authenticity and realness behind it. A Yoga that embraces all and sees no gender, race, background, or colour. A yoga that strives to bring in inquiry, understanding, activism, service, and charity.

WHAT

In Sanskrit, the word mitra means "friend". It is a combination of two root words mi, which means "destruction," and tra, meaning "protective force."

Mitra is thus the friend who always guides you to the light, while also protecting you from harm.

Mitra Yoga Fest aims to be that friend. The festival enables you to CHOOSE and experience many paths of yoga. Whether your calling is to enquire, or to move, or sing or sit quietly and go within... we hope to remind you that though yoga has many paths, the goal is one.

HOW

We believe in leaving this world a better place than when we first got here...and this is our commitment to YOU.

We searched far and wide to bring you passionate teachers, soulful singers, visionary transformers and community builders.

TOGETHER, lets REALLY make this world a better place.

About Mitra Yoga Fest

Mitra Yoga Fest

let your spirit fly

Our vision is to bring the world back into connection and balance through yoga.

FESTIVAL RECORDINGS

Contact Us

For further info email info@mitrayogafest.com or fill in the form: