Kaivalyadhama Ashram, Lonavla

We took a taxi to Lonavla (also spelled Lonavale), a small city and hill station in the district of Pune (state of Maharashtra). Besides being a popular weekend hangout for Mumbai residents, Lonavla is also home to Kaivalyadhama Ashram, a well-known yoga educational institute.

We said goodbye to Heide, our German journalist was joining us for a bit more than 2 weeks now. Thank you Heide for these two weeks of voluntary work for our book project ‘Yoga in India’. While Heide continued to Mumbay to take her flight back to Germany, Coni and I went on to explore the yoga institute.

Dr. Tiwari, the director, welcomed us to Kaivalyadhama, and gave us an overview on the many programmes offered by the various departments: health care courses, naturopathy, P.G. Diploma in Yoga Education (P.G.D.Y.Ed.), P.G. Diploma in Yoga Therapy (P.G.D.Y.T.), Certificate Course in Yoga (C.C.Y.), Advanced Teacher Training Course in Yoga (A.T.T.C.), ayurvedic treatments, research activities, and much more…

We spent the rest of the day walking around Kaivalyadhama’s 180 acres of parkland.